I will be travelling to another country in one year. While trip planning, I noticed that the exchange rate is more favorable right now than it has been in the last 10 years. In fact, the dollar will get me 20% more currency than the same time last year.
I'm worried that the dollar will lose value relative to the local currency before I go.
How can I capitalize on the current state of the market? Using banks for currency exchange (I checked BofA and Wells Fargo) will destroy most of the gains I could realize. Online currency exchanges are even worse. From other people's trip reports, I've seen that using an ATM in the country to withdraw currency is usually around 1% of the spot price I see on sites like XE (less a fixed ATM fee) but that's not an option before I travel.
As I post this I suppose I'd see the same benefit if I were to purchase the currency through my broker and just held that position until I traveled and then converted back to USD and withdrew it on the same day.