Market Reforms and Commodity Price Volatility: The Case of East African Coffee Market

The goal of this paper is to examine the impact of commodity market reforms on producer price volatility using evidence from the East African coffee market. The results, based on time‐varying volatility models and key summary statistics, show that coffee market reforms in the East African Community (EAC) are associated with changes in producer price volatility and volatility persistence at both country and regional levels. However, reforms were not the only cause of changes in price volatility. The study further shows that reforms had different effects on prices volatilities of Arabica and Robusta varieties of coffee grown in individual EAC countries. These findings have wider implication for commodity market reforms and producer price stabilisation policies in the EAC and coffee producing countries in sub‐Sahara Africa.     

FX Market Returns and Their Relationship to Investor Fear

This note examines the relationship between changes in levels of investor fear (measured by the implied volatility index) and foreign exchange market returns. Our empirical results indicate a negative relationship between daily returns on high‐interest rate (investing) currencies and changes in the implied volatility index, while the association is positive for low‐interest rate (funding) currencies. That is, investing (funding) currencies tends to depreciate (appreciate) when investor fear increases. A sequential breakpoint test identifies a significant change in this relationship in the period following the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, and another in 2012 following the resolution of the European sovereign debt crisis, which suggests that the relationship is linked to financial system liquidity. During the crisis period, currency returns are much more sensitive to changes in investor fear, and this is particularly so for funding currencies that are perceived to present a safe‐haven. The results have important implications for international finance, and those looking to speculate via the carry trade.     

The relationship between currency carry trades and U.S. stocks

The article examines the relationship between daily returns of currency carry trades and U.S. stocks from January 1995 through September 2010. Carry trade and stock returns are highly correlated with no Granger‐causality in either direction. An EGARCH model shows that significant volatility spillovers flow from the stock market to the carry‐trade market, but not vice versa. The markets are more correlated in periods of high volatility. Volatilities in both markets also increase more with negative innovations than positive innovations. A sectoral analysis of the index suggests that volatilities of cyclical stocks have more impact than noncyclical stocks on carry trades.     

Managed futures,positive feedback trading,and futures price volatility

A major issue in recent years is the role that large, managed futures funds and pools play in futures markets. Many market participants argue that managed futures trading increases price volatility due to the size of managed futures trading and reliance on positive feedback trading systems. The purpose of this study is to provide new evidence on the impact of managed futures trading on futures price volatility. A unique data set on managed futures trading is analyzed for the period 1 December 1988 through 31 March 1989. The data set includes the daily trading volume of large commodity pools for 36 different futures markets. Regression results are unequivocal with respect to the impact of commodity pool trading on futures price volatility. For the 72 estimated regressions (two for each market), the coefficient on commodity pool trading volume is significantly different from zero in only four cases. These results constitute strong evidence that, at least for this sample period, commodity pool trading is not associated with increases in futures price volatility. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 19: 759–776, 1999     

BESSEL PROCESSES, ASIAN OPTIONS, AND PERPETUITIES

Using Bessel processes, one can solve several open problems involving the integral of an exponential of Brownian motion. This point will be illustrated with three examples. The first one is a formula for the Laplace transform of an Asian option which is "out of the money." The second example concerns volatility misspecification in portfolio insurance strategies, when the stochastic volatility is represented by the Hull and White model. The third one is the valuation of perpetuities or annuities under stochastic interest rates within the Cox-Ingersoll-Ross framework. Moreover, without using time changes or Bessel processes, but only simple probabilistic methods, we obtain further results about Asian options: the computation of the moments of all orders of an arithmetic average of geometric Brownian motion; the property that, in contrast with most of what has been written so far, the Asian option may be more expensive than the standard option (e.g., options on currencies or oil spreads); and a simple, closed-form expression of the Asian option price when the option is "in the money," thereby illuminating the impact on the Asian option price of the revealed underlying asset price as time goes by. This formula has an interesting resemblance with the Black-Scholes formula, even though the comparison cannot be carried too far.     

Does Euro or Dollar Pegging Impact the Real Exchange Rate? The Case of Oil and Commodity Currencies

The aim of this paper is to investigate the equilibrium exchange rates for commodity and oil currencies as well as the discrepancies of their observed exchange rates to these equilibriums. To this end, first, we estimate a long‐term relationship between the real effective exchange rate and economic fundamentals, including the commodity terms of trade. The estimation relies on panel cointegration techniques and covers annual data from 1980 to 2007. Our results show that real exchange rates co‐move with commodity prices in the long run and respond to oil price somewhat less than to commodity prices. Second, we assess the degree of misalignment of these currencies, as the gap between their observed exchange rate and the estimated equilibrium exchange rate. We show that these misalignments are not significantly related to the exchange rate regimes adopted by the countries, either pegged or floating. However, for pegged currencies, the size of misalignments significantly depends on the anchor currency, either the euro or the dollar. A comparison of misalignments of pegged commodity and oil currencies across different periods confirms these results: during periods of dollar (euro) overvaluation, currencies pegged to the dollar (euro) tend to be overvalued; the reverse being true when the dollar (euro) is undervalued. Consequently, pegged currencies are often driven away from their equilibria by wild fluctuations in the key currencies, on which they are anchored.     

Real Exchange Rate Volatility on the Short- and Long-Run Trade Dynamics in Colombia

The short- and long-run implications of real exchange rate volatility on Colombian bilateral trade commodities and non-commodities with its major trade partners are analyzed from the perspectives of the Marshall-Lerner condition, a cointegration relation with other aggregate variables, and the J-curve hypothesis. Long-run equilibrium on the Colombian bilateral balance of trade with a country is more common when the trade volume is denominated in terms of one of the world's main currencies—as is the case of commodity trade and trade with a country whose national currency is one of these currencies. No evidence of the J-curve was found in any of the analyzed Colombian bilateral balances of trade. Opposite to the predictions of the J-curve hypothesis, more common are the scenarios of short-run improvements in the bilateral trade balances following a devaluation than are those with instantaneous declines. Improvements in the terms of trade are found to have a long-run deteriorating impact on the Colombian balance of trade, especially in the case of non-commodity trade. Policy makers should consider that continuous improvements in the Colombian terms of trade, as the ones recently observed, will ultimately be a detriment to the country's current balance of trade surplus.     

AMU Deviation Indicators for Coordinated Exchange Rate Policies in East Asia and their Relationships with Effective Exchange Rates

After the Asian currency crisis in 1997, the monetary authorities of East Asian countries have been strengthening their regional monetary cooperation. In this paper, we propose a deviation measurement for coordinated exchange rate policies in East Asia to enhance the monetary authorities’ surveillance process for their regional monetary cooperation. We calculate an Asian Monetary Unit (AMU) as a weighted average of East Asian currencies following the method used to calculate the European Currency Unit (ECU). Also, we calculate AMU Deviation Indicators which show how much each of the East Asian currencies deviates from a hypothetical benchmark rate in terms of the AMU. Furthermore, we investigate relationships between the AMU Deviation Indicators and the effective exchange rates, which mean international price competitiveness in terms of international trade. We found strong relationships between the AMU Deviation Indicators and the effective exchange rates except for some currencies. The results suggest that monitoring the AMU Deviation Indicator will be useful for the monetary authorities’ surveillance in East Asia in order to stabilise their effective exchange rate or price competitiveness among the East Asian countries.     

Delivery horizon and grain market volatility

We study the difference in the volatility dynamics of CBOT corn, soybeans, and oats futures prices across different delivery horizons via a smoothed Bayesian estimator. We find that futures price volatilities in these markets are affected by inventories, time to delivery, and the crop progress period and that there are important differences in the effects across delivery horizons. We also find that price volatility is higher before the harvest starts in most cases compared to the volatility during the planting period. These results have implications for hedging, options pricing, and the setting of margin requirements. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 30:846–873, 2010     

人民币区域化影响力研究——基于动态分布滞后模型的分析

本文在中国对亚洲主要国家的经贸关系和货币合作不断强化的背景下,通过1999-2012年的周度时间序列数据,并以人民币汇改及区域货币合作安排推进为时点,运用动态滞后分布模型分1999.1-2005.7、2005.7-2009.12和2010.1-2012.3三个区间实证分析人民币及其他世界货币对亚洲主要国家货币波动产生的长期影响效应及其变化。通过比较,发现美元对亚洲主要货币的影响下降,澳元影响则显著增强,日元对亚洲货币的影响逐渐衰退,而人民币对亚洲货币的影响较为有限,而这种影响关系主要来源于双边经贸关系的紧密程度,并在此基础上为人民币进一步区域化提出建议。     

Economic uncertainty,trading activity,and commodity futures volatility

This paper investigates the dynamics of commodity futures volatility. I derive the variance decomposition for the futures basis and show unexpected excess returns result from new information about expected future interest rates, convenience yields, and risk premia. Measures of uncertainty in economic conditions have significant predictive power for realized volatility of commodity futures returns, after controlling for lagged volatility, returns, commodity index trading, hedging pressure, and other trading activity, even during the so-called “index financialization” period. During this period, hedge fund performance predicts volatility in grain commodities, which are affected by the US ethanol mandate.     

Does global fear predict fear in BRICS stock markets? Evidence from a Bayesian Graphical Structural VAR model

We examine the predictive power of implied volatility in the commodity and major developed stock markets for the implied volatility in individual BRICS stock markets. We use daily data from March 2011 to October 2016 and employ the newly developed Bayesian Graphical Structural Vector Autoregressive (BGSVAR) model of Ahelegbey et al. (2016). Evidence suggests that the predictability of individual implied volatilities in BRICS is generally a function of both global and within the group stock market implied volatilities, and that the role of commodity market volatility is marginal, except for South Africa. Important implications for policy-makers and portfolio-managers are discussed.     

Samuelson hypothesis,arbitrage activity,and futures term premiums

The Samuelson hypothesis asserts that futures volatility increases as maturity decreases. On the basis of 10 US commodity futures and by capturing the dynamics of the futures volatility terms structure with three factors, we show that in most markets the slope factor is strongly negative in certain periods and at best only weakly negative in other periods. High inventory levels are found to correspond to flatter volatility term structures in seven futures. This finding is consistent with the linkage between carry arbitrage and the Samuelson hypothesis. We also find that a flatter volatility term structure corresponds to lower absolute futures term premiums.     

Varieties of regional integration,international trade networks and risk

This paper explores the relationship between regional integration models and trade network structures. The paper further investigates the implications of these trade relationship configurations on risk. The exploratory study models the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as networks: countries in each region are nodes connected by lines representing commodity trade flows. The study compares the evolution of the two regional networks over a 25‐year period (1990–2014). The results confirm that different regional integration models lead to differently structured economic relationships. The findings show that loosely coupled networks are vulnerable to the failure of a few connected nodes (concentrated vulnerability), but that tightly coupled regional networks are vulnerable to the failure of any of its nodes (random vulnerability). These unique differences in vulnerability have critical implications for managing economic risk.     

东亚区域经济体货币汇率政策协调的理论探讨

由于东亚区域合作性得益的存在,基于贸易商品渠道和市场的区域共同篮子货币的协调性汇率稳定机制一旦形成,基础性的区域宏观货币政策协调机制能够推动东亚区域成员经济体之间非货币汇率竞争性政策的竞争经济的形成,这将在更大程度上推进东亚区域货币金融合作和货币一体化的实际进程.     

Price transmission and volatility spillovers in Asian rice markets: Evidence from MGARCH and panel GARCH models

ABSTRACT

This article examines world rice price transmission and volatility spillovers across six major Asian rice markets over the period 2005-13. In addition to the conventional GARCH models, we use a panel GARCH framework to estimate the spillover effects along with the consideration of heterogeneity and interdependence among countries. Empirical results suggest that changes in the world rice price affected not only the price levels of domestic rice markets but also their conditional variances. Moreover, interdependence across rice markets contributed to a strong spillover of a price shock in one country to another within the region.     

The Effect of GATT/WTO on Export and Import Price Volatility

Despite much interest and discussion concerning the trade‐promoting effects of membership in multilateral trade agreements, little is known about the effect of membership on world trade prices. This paper fills this gap by studying the effects of membership on export and import price volatility. We document a surprisingly strong and robust empirical regularity: GATT/WTO membership reduces the volatility of prices over time for both import and export countries, with similar results found for free trade agreements. We show that results are not driven by sample selection or endogeneity concerns and that the effect is captured by members subject to rigorous accession procedures.     

人民币在“一带一路”货币圈影响力分析——信息溢出效应及其作用渠道

本文运用溢出指数方法,定量测度了人民币与“一带一路”沿线主要货币汇率之间的溢出效应及其动态演化,并采用系统GMM方法,探究人民币汇率净溢出效应的作用渠道。研究发现:近年来人民币与“一带一路”沿线主要货币汇率之间的溢出效应在波动中有所提高,随着“一带一路”倡议的深入实施,人民币汇率净溢出效应逐步提升,在该区域的影响力逐渐增强。在“一带一路”区域内,人民币在亚洲和非洲地区的影响力较强,且对阿联酋迪拉姆和安哥拉宽扎的净溢出效应已超过欧元、英镑和日元等主要国际货币。在净溢出效应的作用渠道方面,“一带一路”国家对中国贸易附加值依存度对其有利,而人民币汇率市场化改革、第三方市场贸易竞争、全球商品价格指数和全球风险指数却对其不利。因此,应加强中国在“一带一路”区域价值链的主导能力和商品竞争能力,加速推动“一带一路”区域内的离岸人民币金融市场建设,加强人民币汇率的区域性风险管理。     

From carry trades to curvy trades

Traditional carry trade strategies are based on differences in short-term interest rates, neglecting any other information embedded in yield curves. We derive return distributions of currency portfolios, where the signals to buy and sell currencies are based on summary measures of the yield curve. We find that a strategy based on the relative curvature factor, the curvy trade, yields higher Sharpe ratios and a smaller return skewness than traditional carry strategies. Curvy trades build less upon the typical carry currencies and are hence less susceptible to crash risk. In line with that, standard pricing factors of traditional carry returns fail to explain curvy trade returns.     

Macroeconomic announcements,intraday covariance structure and asymmetry in the interest rate futures returns

The effects of scheduled macroeconomic announcements on the real-time intraday return volatilities, covariances, and correlations between the Eurodollar futures and the U.S. Treasury bond futures markets are studied. These announcements are responsible for most of the observed intraday jumps in volatilities, covariances, and correlations. The details of the linkage are intriguing and include announcements timing effect. Further study on intraday asymmetric volatility and correlation-in-volatility indicates that news announcements magnify asymmetric volatility and shed light on why correlations tend to be high when volatilities are high. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 28:815–844, 2008