(1) One component of the definition of “hedging” is the requirement that hedging transactions result in a “high degree of negative correlation between changes in the value of the investment or position, or group of investments or positions, being hedged and changes in the value of the instrument or instruments with which the investment or position is hedged”. The Canadian securities regulatory authorities are of the view that there need not be complete congruence between the hedging instrument or instruments and the position or positions being hedged if it is reasonable to regard the one as a hedging instrument for the other, taking into account the closeness of the relationship between fluctuations in the price of the two and the availability and pricing of hedging instruments.
(2) The definition of “hedging” includes a reference to the “maintaining” of the position resulting from a hedging transaction or series of hedging transactions. The inclusion of this component in the definition requires an investment fund to ensure that a transaction continues to offset specific risks of the investment fund in order that the transaction be considered a “hedging” transaction under the Instrument; if the “hedging” position ceases to provide an offset to an existing risk of an investment fund, then that position is no longer a hedging position under the Instrument, and can be held by the investment fund only in compliance with the specified derivatives rules of the Instrument that apply to non-hedging positions. The component of the definition that requires the “maintaining” of a hedge position does not mean that an investment fund is locked into a specified derivatives position; it simply means that the specified derivatives position must continue to satisfy the definition of “hedging” in order to receive hedging treatment under the Instrument.
(3) Paragraph (b) of the definition of “hedging” has been included to ensure that currency cross hedging continues to be permitted under the Instrument. Currency cross hedging is the substitution of currency risk associated with one currency for currency risk associated with another currency, if neither currency is a currency in which the investment fund determines its net asset value per security and the aggregate amount of currency risk to which the investment fund is exposed is not increased by the substitution. Currency cross hedging is to be distinguished from currency hedging, as that term is ordinarily used. Ordinary currency hedging, in the context of investment funds, would involve replacing the investment fund’s exposure to a “non-net asset value” currency with exposure to a currency in which the investment fund calculates its net asset value per security. That type of currency hedging is subject to paragraph (a) of the definition of “hedging”.