Derivative Financial Instruments

Interest Rate Swap Contracts

Our risk management objectives are to ensure that business and financial exposures to risk that have been identified and measured are minimized using the most effective and efficient methods to reduce, transfer and, when possible, eliminate such exposures. Operating decisions contemplate associated risks and management strives to structure proposed transactions to avoid or reduce risk whenever possible.

We have assessed our vulnerability to certain business and financial risks, including interest rate risk associated with our variable-rate long-term debt. To mitigate this risk, effective January 23, 2014, we entered into an interest rate swap contract with BofA for 75% of the Term Loan balance, to hedge the variability of interest payments associated with our variable-rate borrowings under our Term Loan with BofA. The Term Loan contract and the interest rate swap terminate on September 30, 2023. The Term Loan contract had a total notional value of $6.9 million as of December 31, 2017. Through this swap agreement, we pay interest at a fixed rate of 2.86% and receive interest at a floating-rate of the one-month LIBOR, which was 1.49% at December 31, 2017.

Effective January 4, 2016, we entered into a $9.1 million notional amount interest rate swap contract with BofA, which expires January 1, 2019, to hedge the variability of interest payments associated with our variable-rate borrowings on our line of credit. The notional amount fluctuates based on a predefined schedule based on our anticipated borrowings. Through this swap agreement, we pay interest at a fixed rate of 1.28% and receive interest at a floating-rate of the one-month LIBOR, which was 1.49% at December 31, 2017.

Since the interest rate swaps hedge the variability of interest payments on variable rate debt with similar terms, they qualify for cash flow hedge accounting treatment.

As of December 31, 2017, unrealized net losses of $221,000 were recorded in Accumulated other comprehensive loss as a result of these hedges. The effective portion of the gain or loss on the derivatives is reclassified into Interest expense in the same period during which we record Interest expense associated with the related debt. There was no hedge ineffectiveness during 2017, 2016 or 2015.

The fair value of our derivative instruments was as follows (in thousands):



	December 31,
	2017			2016
Fair value of interest rate swaps	$	(221	)	$	(424	)

The effect of our interest rate swap contracts that were accounted for as derivative instruments on our Consolidated Statements of Operations was as follows (in thousands):



Derivatives in Cash Flow Hedging Relationships	Amount of Gain (Loss) Recognized in Accumulated OCI (Effective Portion)			Location of Loss Reclassified from Accumulated OCI into Income (Effective Portion)	Amount of Loss Reclassified from Accumulated OCI into Income (Effective Portion)
Year Ended December 31,
2017	$	203		Interest expense	$	150
2016	$	145		Interest expense	$	292
2015	$	(66	)	Interest expense	$	209