Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Interest Rate Risk
Our cash and short term investment balances as of December 31, 2020 are related to our investment portfolio which consists largely of debt instruments of high quality corporate issuers. Due to the short-term nature of these investments, we have assessed that there is no material exposure to interest rate risk arising from our investments. Fixed rate investments and borrowings may have their fair market value adversely impacted from changes in interest rates. At December 31, 2020, we do not hold any material asset-backed investment securities and in 2020, we did not realize any losses related to asset-backed investment securities. Based upon our overall interest rate exposure as of December 31, 2020, a change of 10 percent in interest rates, assuming the amount of our investment portfolio and overall economic environment remains constant, would not have a material effect on interest income. The primary objective of our investment activities is to preserve the principal while at the same
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time maximizing yields without significantly increasing the risk. To achieve this objective, we maintain our portfolio of cash equivalents and investments in instruments that meet high credit quality standards, as specified in our investment policy. None of our investments are held for trading purposes. Our policy also limits the amount of credit exposure to any one issue, issuer and type of instrument. As of December 31, 2020, we only held investments in securities of a short-term nature classified as cash equivalents or short-term investments. During the periods presented, we did not hold any investments that were in a significant unrealized loss position and no impairment charges were recorded. Realized gains and losses and interest income related to short term investments were immaterial during all periods presented.
Our cash balance as of December 31, 2019 consisted of cash held in an operating account that earns nominal interest income. We are exposed to market risk related to fluctuations in interest rates and bond market prices. Our primary exposure to market risk is interest income sensitivity, which is affected by changes in the general level of U.S. interest rates. However, because of the nature of our cash holdings, a sudden change in market interest rates would not be expected to have a material impact on our financial condition or results of operation.
Foreign Currency
A substantial portion of our operations are located in the United States, and the majority of our sales since inception have been made in United States dollars. Accordingly, we have assessed that we do not have any material net exposure to foreign currency rate fluctuations. However, as our business in markets outside of the United States continues to increase, we will be exposed to foreign currency exchange risk related to our foreign operations. Fluctuations in the rate of exchange between the United States dollar and foreign currencies, primarily the Pound Sterling, the Euro, Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar and Israeli Shekel, could adversely affect our financial results, including our revenues, revenue growth rates, gross margins, income and losses as well as assets and liabilities. We do not currently hedge our exposure to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, but we may choose to do so in the future. We estimate that an immediate 10% adverse change in foreign exchange rates not currently pegged to the U.S. dollar would have increased our reported net loss by an immaterial amount for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018.
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