What magic do the JS3 and Ventus 3 have that the ASG-29 Does not?

If you look, I believe there is fine print about exchange rates.

The next post down from yours, yes, some peeps buy "local currency" when low and hang onto it. Then they are sorta immune to exchange rate fluctuations.

I know of a few eastern US peeps that used to play the exchange rate market. Buy when a local (overseas) currency was low (usually DM's) and then sit and wait.
Many years ago, there was a HUGE slew in rates. If you had local, great. If you converted then, welp, SOL.......

Timing can be everything.......

I was never much good at forecasting financial markets. So several months before delivery of my ASW 24 in late 1991, I began worrying that the exchange rate (D-mark) would move against me. So I bought a DM call option. I forget the amount but the contract almost covered what I owed Schleicher. It was slightly out of the money with a short-term expiration date so it seemed like cheap insurance. If the exchange rate remained the same or the DM weakened, I would lose only the small amount invested. But when the day arrived, the DM had appreciated a bit and my option was now slightly in the money. So I had a modest gain to offset the higher amount of US$ I would have to pay for my DMs. I was about to close out my position when I discovered that the type of option I had bought (European style?) allowed me to exercise through my brokerage account and actually take delivery of the underlying currency in any bank account I wished, in this case Schleicher's bank. Wow! I avoided various wire transfer fees plus currency conversion costs and got the "big bank" exchange rate. OK, the savings weren't huge: IIRC, on the order of $500 in total. But I was pretty pleased with myself. That was my last new glider.

Chip Bearden

wrote on 8/17/2018 2:41 PM:
I was never much good at forecasting financial markets. So several months
before delivery of my ASW 24 in late 1991, I began worrying that the exchange
rate (D-mark) would move against me. So I bought a DM call option. I forget the
amount but the contract almost covered what I owed Schleicher. It was slightly
out of the money with a short-term expiration date so it seemed like cheap
insurance. If the exchange rate remained the same or the DM weakened, I would
lose only the small amount invested. But when the day arrived, the DM had
appreciated a bit and my option was now slightly in the money. So I had a
modest gain to offset the higher amount of US$ I would have to pay for my DMs.
I was about to close out my position when I discovered that the type of option
I had bought (European style?) allowed me to exercise through my brokerage
account and actually take delivery of the underlying currency in any bank
account I wished, in this case Schleicher's bank. Wow! I avoided various wire
transfer fees plus currency conversion costs and got the "big bank" exchange
rate. OK, the savings weren't huge: IIRC, on the order of $500 in total. But I
was pretty pleased with myself. That was my last new glider.

For first new glider I bought (ASW20C), I researched currency markets, trying to
figure out what to do. The dealer, John Murray, told me "If I was any good at
understanding currency markets, I'd be buying gliders instead of selling them". By
the time I figured out the perfect strategy, the Mark had fallen to long-time low,
and I got the glider cheap when I converted my dollars to Marks.

When I bought my second new glider (ASH26E), I used the same approach, but the
Mark kept going up and up and ... So, lost ground on that one, but it's been a
terrific glider for 25 seasons, and my wife loves it ("it always gets home").

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Dec 2014a" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm

http://soaringsafety.org/prevention/...anes-2014A.pdf