Exchange traded currency derivatives markets in India: the road ahead

Indian exchanges have recently been permitted to offer currency futures on their platforms to the market participants. The paper outlines the contract, and charts the development and growth of currency futures in India since their inception in 2008. It emphasizes the existing close connectivity between commodity and currency markets. It highlights the increased exchange rate volatility of Indian exchange rate against US dollar (INRUSD) during conventional and non conventional trading hours and argues for the ability of the market to quickly adapt to extended trading hours. The paper recommends some new products and an alternative mechanism to settle the contracts.     

Credit default swaps and the market for sovereign debt

In this paper, we analyze the determinants and effects of credit default swap (CDS) trading initiation in the sovereign bond market. CDS trading initiation is associated with a 30–150 basis point reduction in sovereign bond yields, with greater yield reductions accruing to higher default risk economies. For countries with high default risk, rated B or lower by Standard and Poor’s, CDS initiation is also associated with significant price efficiency benefits in the underlying market. CDS trading initiation is more likely following increases in local equity index volatility, index spreads for regional and global CDS markets, or depreciation of the local currency relative to the US dollar, and decreases in a country’s ability to service foreign debt. Our results are robust to selection bias controls based on these factors.     

Global liquidity risk in the foreign exchange market

Using a broad data set of 20 US dollar exchange rates and order flow of institutional investors over 14 years, we construct a measure of global liquidity risk in the foreign exchange (FX) market. Our FX liquidity measure may be seen as the analog of the well-known Pastor–Stambaugh liquidity measure for the US stock market. We show that this measure has reasonable properties, and that there is a strong common component in liquidity across currencies. Finally, we provide evidence that liquidity risk is priced in the cross-section of currency returns, and estimate the liquidity risk premium in the FX market around 4.7 percent per annum.     

Trading volume and exchange rate volatility: Evidence for the sequential arrival of information hypothesis

The relationship between trading volume and volatility in foreign exchange markets continues to be of much interest, especially given the higher than expected volatility of returns. Allowing for nonlinearities, this paper tests competing hypotheses on the possible relationship between volatility and trading volume using data for three major currency futures contracts denominated in US dollars, namely the British pound, the Canadian dollar and the Japanese yen. We find that trading volumes and return volatility are negatively correlated, implying a lack of support for the mixture of distributions hypothesis (MDH). Using linear and nonlinear Granger causality tests, we document significant lead-lag relations between trading volumes and return volatility consistent with the sequential arrival of information (SAI) hypothesis. These findings are robust and not sample-dependent or due to heterogeneity of beliefs as proxied by open interest. Furthermore, our results are insensitive to the modeling approach used to recover volatility measures. Overall, our findings support the contention that short- to medium-term currency relationships may be dominated by trading dynamics and not by fundamentals.     

Nonparametric testing of the high-frequency efficiency of the 1997 Asian foreign exchange markets

Sherry’s nonparametric pattern tests for neural information processing are used to ascertain if the Asian foreign exchange (FX) rates followed random walks [Sherry, C.J., 1992. The Mathematics of Technical Analysis: Applying Statistics to Trading Stocks, Options and Futuresm Probus, Chicago]. The stationarity and serial independence of the price changes are tested on minute-by-minute data for nine Asian currencies from 1 January 1997 to 30 December 1997. The efficiency of these FX markets before and after the Asian currency ‘regime discontinuity’ are compared. The Thai baht (THB), Malaysian ringgit (MYR), Indonesian rupiah (IDR) and Singapore dollar (SGD) exhibited non-stationary behavior during the entire year, and gave evidence of a trading regime break, while the Phillipines’ peso (PHP), Taiwan dollar (TWD), Japanese yen (JYP) and German deutschmark (DEM) remained stationary, with the US dollar (USD) as numeraire. However, each half-year regime showed stationarity, indicating stable and nonchaotic trading regimes for all currencies, despite their high volatilities, except for the MYR, which exhibited non-stationarity in the second half of 1997. The Thai baht traded nonstationarily in the first half of 1997, but stationarily in the second half. while the TWD reversed that trading pattern. Based on Sherry’s four tests for serial independence, none of the currencies exhibited complete independence. Thus no Asian currency market—including the JYP—exhibited complete efficiency in 1997, in particular when compared with the highly efficient DEM. Remarkably, the PHP remained as efficient as the JYP throughout 1997.     

Impact of portfolio flows and heterogeneous expectations on FX jumps: Evidence from an emerging market

Motivated by the recent currency crisis in Turkey, we investigate the role of portfolio flows and heterogeneous expectations on the high frequency stochastic jump behavior of the US dollar value against the Turkish lira, one of the most traded emerging market currencies in the world. We group the detected jumps into different types with respect to their direction (up and down) and timing (local and off-shore trading hours). For each type of jumps, we examine their relation with portfolio flows (in the form of equity and bond flows, and carry trade activity), and dispersion in beliefs for the future exchange rate level and key macroeconomic variables. We find that inflows to both equity and bond markets, and increasing carry trade activity significantly reduce the size of jumps and (partially) their intensity. On the other hand, heterogeneous expectations for the future exchange rate level, consumer price index and gross domestic product are found to increase the number of jumps and the average jump size.     

On financial risk and the safe haven characteristics of Swiss franc exchange rates

We analyse bilateral Swiss franc exchange rate returns in an asset pricing framework to evaluate the Swiss franc's safe haven characteristics. A “safe haven” currency is a currency that offers hedging value against global risk, both on average and in particular in crisis episodes. To explore these issues we estimate the relationship between exchange rate returns and risk factors in augmented UIP regressions, using recently developed econometric methods to account for the possibility that the regression coefficients may be changing over time. Our results highlight that in response to increases in global risk the Swiss franc appreciates against typical carry trade investment currencies such as the Australian dollar, but depreciates against the US dollar, the Yen and the British pound. Thus, the Swiss franc exhibits safehaven characteristics against many, but not all other currencies. We find statistically significant time variation in the relationship between Swiss franc returns and risk factors, with this link becoming stronger in times of stress.     

Brokered versus dealer markets: Impact of proprietary trading with transaction fees

In this study, we consider a one-period financial market with a dealer/broker and an infinite number of investors. While the dealer who trades on his own account (with proprietary trading) simultaneously sets both the transaction fee and the asset price, the broker who brings investors' orders to the market (with no proprietary trading) sets only the transaction fee, given that the price is determined according to the market-clearing condition among investors. We analyze the impact of proprietary trading on the asset price, transaction fee, trading volume, and the welfare of investors. We find that the bid and ask prices set by the dealer who can engage in proprietary trading are more favorable to average investors. As a result, both the trading volume and the transaction fee increase, and social welfare improves.     

Network effects in currency internationalisation: Insights from BIS triennial surveys and implications for the renminbi

The dominance of the US dollar in foreign exchange (FX) markets appears to reflect very strong network effects in the use of international currencies. What we observe today is the result of a slow-moving process that has witnessed a switch from the dominance of the pound sterling to the US dollar, perhaps during the interwar period in the early part of the 20th century. This paper presents a discrete choice model of FX trading that explicitly allows for this type of critical transitions in order to understand the dynamics of currency turnover in FX markets. We estimate the model using the Bank for International Settlements' data from triennial surveys of FX markets and also examine the factors that could potentially shift the dynamic path and lead to an earlier critical transition. We then discuss the implications for the renminbi, a budding international currency. If the renminbi were to become a dominant international currency, it would require China to attain a much higher level of financial development and openness. It is important to note that our model does not address the possibility of a gradual weakening of the network effects in FX markets due to, for example, the advancement of trading technologies, which would allow the co-existence of a few equally dominant major currencies.     

Is there really a renminbi bloc in Asia?: A modified Frankel–Wei approach

This paper examines whether the renminbi (RMB) has supplanted the US dollar as the major anchor currency in the implicit currency baskets of East Asian economies. First, we demonstrate that existing techniques to address the problem of severe multicollinearity in estimations of the Frankel–Wei regression model, with the movements in both the US dollar and the RMB included on the right-hand side of the equation, remain limited in providing stable and robust results. We then propose a simple modification of the Frankel–Wei regression model to estimate the RMB weight in an economy's implicit currency basket. We show that this new method yields results that are superior to those obtained by existing techniques. Using the new method, we find that the US dollar continues to be the dominant anchor currency and that there is not yet an RMB bloc in East Asia, contrary to claims made by some recent studies. The RMB has taken on some importance in the implicit currency baskets of several East Asian economies in recent years and this appears to have occurred at the expense of the yen. In short, despite the rising importance of the RMB, it has not eclipsed the US dollar as the dominant anchor currency in East Asia. These conclusions are robust to alternative specifications of the modified Frankel–Wei regression model and the use of a structural break estimation technique.     

人民币在东亚区域货币“锚”效应及其影响因素研究

本文运用状态空间模型的时变参数回归,测度2005年7月21日-2018年9月30日不同阶段人民币在东亚区域的货币"锚"效应,并利用变截距固定效应面板模型对人民币在东亚区域内货币"锚"效应的多重影响因素进行分析。研究表明,美元在东亚区域内货币"锚"效应略有下降,但仍然难以取代;欧元和英镑在东亚区域内货币"锚"效应下降很大;而日元近几年在东亚区域内货币"锚"效应显著提升;人民币在东亚区域的货币"锚"效应自2010年以来显著提升,大部分时期已经接近美元的水平,但很容易受国际经济形势和突发事件的影响。东亚其他国家和地区与中国大陆的经济增长率差异、通货膨胀率差异、利率差异,东亚其他国家和地区对中国大陆产品市场依赖程度和人民币国际化程度都对人民币在东亚区域发挥"锚"效应有显著影响。其中,东亚其他国家和地区与中国大陆经济周期同步性、东亚其他国家和地区对中国大陆产品市场依赖程度和人民币国际化程度是推动人民币在东亚区域内货币"锚"效应提升的最主要因素。     

Market structure, informational efficiency and liquidity: An experimental comparison of auction and dealer markets

We report the results of 18 market experiments that were conducted in order to compare the call market, the continuous auction and the dealer market. Transaction prices in the call and continuous auction markets are much more efficient than prices in the dealer markets. The call market shows a tendency towards underreaction to new information. Execution costs are lowest in the call market and highest in the dealer market. The trading volume and Roll's (Journal of Finance (1984) 1127–1139) serial covariance estimator are inappropriate measures of execution costs in the present context. The relation between private signals, trading decisions and trading profits is analyzed.     

Interpreting deviations from covered interest parity during the financial market turmoil of 2007–08

This paper investigates the spillover effects of money market turbulence in 2007–08 on the short-term covered interest parity (CIP) condition between the US dollar and the euro through the foreign exchange (FX) swap market. Sharp and persistent deviations from the CIP condition observed during the turmoil are found to be significantly associated with differences in the counterparty risk between European and US financial institutions. Furthermore, evidence is found that US dollar term funding auctions by the ECB, supported by US dollar swap lines with the Federal Reserve, alleviated the level of dislocations, as well as the instability, of the FX swap market.     

The Effect of Crossing‐Network Trading on Dealer Market's Bid‐Ask Spreads

This article provides new insights into market competition between traditional exchanges and alternative trading systems in Europe. It investigates the relationship between the trading activity of a crossing network (CN) and the liquidity of a traditional dealer market (DM) by comparing data from the SEAQ quote‐driven segment of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and internal data from the POSIT crossing network. A cross‐sectional analysis of bid‐ask spreads shows that DM spreads are negatively related to CN executions. Risk‐sharing benefits from CN trading dominate fragmentation and cream‐skimming costs. Further, risk‐sharing gains are found to be related to dealer trading in the CN.     

Has the euro affected the choice of invoicing currency?

We present a new approach to study empirically the effect of the introduction of the euro on the pattern of currency invoicing. Our approach uses a compositional multinomial logit model, in which currency choice is explained by both currency-specific and country-specific determinants. We use unique quarterly panel data on the invoicing of Norwegian imports from OECD countries for the 1996–2006 period. We find that eurozone countries have substantially increased their share of home currency invoicing after the introduction of the euro, whereas the home currency share of non-eurozone countries fell slightly. In addition, the euro as a vehicle currency has overtaken the role of the US dollar in Norwegian imports. The substantial rise in producer currency invoicing by eurozone countries is primarily caused by a drop in inflation volatility and can only to a small extent be explained by an unobserved euro effect.     

Time series momentum

We document significant “time series momentum” in equity index, currency, commodity, and bond futures for each of the 58 liquid instruments we consider. We find persistence in returns for one to 12 months that partially reverses over longer horizons, consistent with sentiment theories of initial under-reaction and delayed over-reaction. A diversified portfolio of time series momentum strategies across all asset classes delivers substantial abnormal returns with little exposure to standard asset pricing factors and performs best during extreme markets. Examining the trading activities of speculators and hedgers, we find that speculators profit from time series momentum at the expense of hedgers.     

Non-linear Dependence in Stock Returns: Does Trading Frequency Matter?

The UK has a quote-driven pure dealer market structure that is very different from order driven markets such as the NYSE and Japanese markets. This paper investigates non-linear dependence in stock returns for an exhaustive sample of UK stocks for a 21 year period. The results are analysed on the basis of trading frequency. It is found that non-linear dependence is highly significant in all cases for both individual stocks and stock portfolios formed on the basis of trading frequency. The non-linear dependence is primarily over a one day interval, although statistically significant non-linear dependence exists consistently even up to five trading days. Most of the non-linear dependence is in the form of ARCH-type conditional heteroskedasticity. However, statistically significant non-linearity in addition to an EGARCH(1,1) dependence also appears to be present. This additional non-linearity is greater for individual stocks than for portfolios and greater for smaller, less-liquid portfolios. Non-linear dependence does not appear to be caused by non-stationarity in underlying economic fundamentals or by non-linearity in the conditional mean. However, low dimensional chaos is not generally supported. The limited evidence on chaotic behaviour is stronger for portfolios with long price adjustment delays across component stocks. The main results are consistent with US studies on stock indices, suggesting that the process generating non-linear dependence is not dependent on market microstructure characteristics.     

Time‐Varying Volatility in the Foreign Exchange Market: New Evidence on its Persistence and on Currency Spillovers

We examine empirically the volatility of four major US dollar spot exchange rates using intraday data over 40 trading days. Using multivariate stochastic volatility models, we investigate the degree of persistence of exchange rate volatility for data sampled at different frequencies and the role of volatility spillovers across exchange rates. We find that the noise component of volatility 'aggregates out' very quickly, being dominated by the more persistent component of volatility for data sampled at 15–minute or lower frequencies. Our results also suggest that exchange rate volatility is very persistent and that cross–currency spillovers are small.     

多极世界中的美元政策:从“善意忽视”走向“积极管理”

美元作为世界主要储备货币和国际交换媒介,降低了美国消费者和企业的交易成本,减少了美元借款人的融资成本。当前国际货币体系走向多极化,国际经济、政治、社会和科学技术等发生重大变化,美元政策变革势在必行。短期内美元作为世界主要储备货币的地位难以动摇,但关于美元政策应该尽快从"善意忽视"转变为"积极管理"。     

Timing exchange rates using order flow: The case of the Loonie

This paper examines the relation between the Canadian dollar/US dollar (CAD) exchange rate and foreign exchange order flow employing a novel data set on CAD order flow over the period 1994–2005. We investigate empirically the predictive information content and the determinants of order flow. The results suggest that order flow has strong out-of-sample predictive power for CAD returns, yielding significant market timing ability and tangible economic gains in a stylized dynamic asset allocation context. In terms of its determinants, order flow appears to reflect not only the menu of macroeconomic variables typically suggested in the literature but is also closely related to commodity price fluctuations, as expected from a ‘commodity currency’.