8. DERIVATIVES AND HEDGING ACTIVITIES

Risk Management Objective of Using Derivatives—We are exposed to certain risks arising from both our business operations and economic conditions. We principally manage our exposure to a wide variety of business and operational risks through management of our core business activities. We manage economic risks, including interest rate, liquidity, and credit risk, primarily by managing the amount, sources, and duration of our debt funding and the use of derivative financial instruments. Specifically, we enter into interest rate swaps to manage exposures that arise from business activities that result in the receipt or payment of future known and uncertain cash amounts, the value of which are determined by interest rates. Our derivative financial instruments are used to manage differences in the amount, timing, and duration of our known or expected cash receipts and our known or expected cash payments principally related to our investments and borrowings.

Cash Flow Hedges of Interest Rate Risk—Interest rate swaps designated as cash flow hedges involve the receipt of variable amounts from a counterparty in exchange for our making fixed-rate payments over the life of the agreements without exchange of the underlying notional amount.

The change in the fair value of derivatives designated, and that qualify, as cash flow hedges is recorded in AOCI and is subsequently reclassified into earnings in the period that the hedged forecasted transaction affects earnings. During the nine months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017, such derivatives were used to hedge the variable cash flows associated with certain variable-rate debt. The ineffectiveness previously reported in earnings for the period ended September 30, 2017, was adjusted to reflect application of the provisions of ASU 2017-12, Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815), as of the beginning of 2017. This adjustment was not material.

Amounts reported in AOCI related to these derivatives will be reclassified to Interest Expense, Net as interest payments are made on the variable-rate debt. During the next twelve months, we estimate that an additional $8.8 million will be reclassified from Other Comprehensive Income (“OCI”) as a decrease to Interest Expense, Net. The following is a summary of our interest rate swaps that were designated as cash flow hedges of interest rate risk as of September 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017 (notional amount in thousands):



Count	Fixed LIBOR	Maturity Date	Notional Amount
6	1.2% - 2.2%	2019-2024	$	992,000

The table below details the location of the gain or loss recognized on interest rate derivatives designated as cash flow hedges in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss) for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017 (in thousands):



	Three Months Ended September 30,						Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2018			2017			2018			2017
Amount of gain (loss) recognized in OCI on derivative⁽¹⁾	$	4,061		$	(179	)	$	23,107		$	(1,944	)
Amount of (gain) loss reclassified from AOCI into interest expense⁽¹⁾	(1,192		)	228			(1,895		)	1,203


⁽¹⁾	Increases in gains are solely driven from changes in LIBOR and LIBOR futures.