Tests of the hypothesis of the existence of risk premium in the foreign exchange market

This paper tests for a risk premium in the foreign exchange market. The null hypothesis of the test is the random walk hypothesis in the foreign exchange market. The alternative hypothesis is that biases of current spot rates (or forward rates) from future spot rates are systematically related to a set of economic variables on which a risk premium may depend. This paper provides firm evidence for a risk premium in the foreign exchange market. The risk premium explains 10–20% of the total variance in future spot rates when the US dollar/mark quarterly rates are used. The magnitudes are smaller (less than 10%) for monthly rates.     

Forward exchange market unbiasedness: the case of the Australian dollar since 1984

This paper implements a robust statistical approach to regression with non-stationary time series. The methods were recently developed in other work and are briefly exposited here. They allow us to perform regressions in levels with non-stationary time series data, they accommodate data distributions with heavy tails and they permit serial dependence and temporal heterogeneity of unknown form in the equation errors. With these features the methods are well suited to applications with frequently sampled exchange rate data, which generally display all of these empirical characteristics. Our application here is to daily data on spot and forward exchange rates between the Australian and US dollars over the period 1984–1991, following the deregulation of the Australian foreign exchange market. We find big differences between the robust and the non-robust regression outcomes and in the associated statistical tests of the hypothesis that the forward rate is an unbiased predictor of the future spot rate. The robust tests reject the unbiasedness hypothesis but still give the forward rate an important role as a predictor of the future spot rate.     

An empirical investigation of the EOE gold options market

On April 2, 1981, the European Option Exchange introduced the first organized exchange trading of options on spot gold. We study this new market for three months at its inception and in a parallel period a year later via various tests of rational boundary conditions. Additionally, we use call-put parity to infer implied risk free rates (IRFR's). Deviations of the IRFR's from the prevailing risk free rate permit the possibility of arbitrage through positions known as forward and reverse conversions. Our tests are modified to allow for transaction costs to more fully address the question of market efficiency.     

国际黄金现货市场的避险能力研究——基于DCC-GARCH模型

通过引入DCC-GARCH模型,考量黄金现货市场与白银现货市场、大宗商品市场、汇率市场以及股票市场之间的动态相关性。结果表明：黄金现货市场与白银现货市场、大宗商品市场以及汇率市场动态相关性较强,与股票市场动态相关性较弱;样本期间内黄金现货市场与美元指数和美元股指整体呈负相关,对其避险能力较强,对大宗商品市场整体呈正相关,一般条件下不具备避险功能。因此,对于含有大量美元汇率或者美元股指等金融资产的投资组合而言,黄金是一个理想的风险对冲工具。     

NDF市场对境内人民币汇率的影响

境内即期汇率与NDF汇率之间有较强的引导作用,且境内即期汇率占主导地位;1年期的NDF汇率与境内远期相互引导,而其他期限品种只存在境内远期汇率对NDF汇率的引导作用。国内市场应进一步放开对于衍生品交易的限制。加大非银行金融机构和非金融企业的引入力度,会扩展市场的容量,促进参与主体间的竞争。     

Floating exchange rates,expectations and new information

This paper analyzes the relationship between forward exchange rates, future spot rates and new information. A stochastic model of exchange rate determination is used to formally show how unanticipated changes in the exchange rate determinants (or ‘news’) affect the spot rate. The empirical analysis indicates that ‘new information’ plays an important role in explaining the market forecasting error, or difference between the spot rate and the forward rate, determined in the previous period.     

MULTIVARIATE COINTEGRATION TESTING OF THE EFFICIENCY OF AUSTRALIA'S SPOT FOREX MARKET

Efficiency in Australia's spot FOREX market is tested using daily, weekly and four-weekly data subsequent to the floating of the dollar in 1983. Earlier research using pairwise cointegration tests of currency markets has suggested little evidence of market inefficiencies. However, multivariate cointegration tests carried out in the paper, based on canonical transformation of the exchange rate data, suggest the existence of long run equilibrium relationships among the spot rates, implying the existence of market inefficiency in the FOREX market.     

The Intertemporal Relationship Between the Currency Spot Market and the Currency Option Market

This study examines the lead/lag relationship between currency option and currency spot markets for the Deutsche mark and the Japanese yen. Using intraday currency option transactions data for the year 1989 and applying a European type currency option pricing model, pair data series of the implied and the observed exchange rates are compiled. Causality tests are then employed to test the causal relation between the observed and the implied exchange rate changes. The results indicate that the currency spot market leads the currency option market by about ninety minutes.     

人民币汇率定价权问题研究:基于NDF与即期汇率曲实证检验

通过对1999年5月5日-2008年9月1日人民币即期汇率和一年期人民币NDF汇率的研究发现:(1)汇改前,人民币即期汇率本身与人民币NDF没有直接联系,但其变动趋势受NDF影响;(2)汇改后,人民币NDF与人民币即期汇率联系加强,二者的绝对值水平和变动趋势相互影响,互为因果关系。随着人民币NDF对即期汇率影响的加大,人民币汇率定价权问题需引起重视,应加强对人民币NDF的研究,一味地将境内外外汇市场隔绝的政策并非明智之举。     

The forward exchange rate and the prediction of the future spot rate: Empirical evidence

This paper examines the characteristics and evaluates the record of the forward exchange rate as a predictor of the future spot rate of three European currencies during the recent period of floating rates. The forward rate (for 1, 3 and 6 months) is compared to a simple predictor of ‘no change’ extrapolations (i.e., a Martingale model) by the use of Theil's inequality ratios. Theil's measures are then applied to assess the relative importance of the various sources of the forward's prediction errors, and the efficiency of the forecast is tested. The results show that the forward rate, while generally producing unbiased forecasts, fails to track the fluctuations in future spot rates and poorly reflects their variations. Further, it does not perform better than the current spot rate in predicting the future spot rate for all the examined forecast leads. Thus its usefulness for the purpose of business decisions is questioned.     

Market microstructure effects of government intervention in the foreign exchange market

As asymmetric information model of the bid - ask spread is developedfor a foreign exchange market subject to occasional governmentinterventions. Traditional tests of the unbiasedness of theforward rate as a predictor of the future spot rate are shownto be inconsistent when the rates are measured as the averageof their respective bid and ask quotes. Larger bid - ask spreadson Fridays are documented. Reliable evidence of asymmetric bid- ask spreads for all days of the week, albeit more pronouncedon Fridays, are presented. The null hypothesis that the forwardrate is an unbiased predictor of the future spot rate continuesto be rejected. The regression slope coefficients increase towardunity, however, indicating a less variable risk premium.     

On Unit Roots and the Empirical Modeling of Exchange Rates

Tests are conducted for the presence of unit roots in the autoregressive representations of the logarithms of spot and forward exchange rates. The results from these tests provide one explanation for some of the conflicting conclusions which emerge from recent empirical papers on the foreign exchange market.     

Stocks,flows, and some exchange rate dynamics for the currency substitution model

The paper argues that the treatment of stocks and flows in portfolio balance models of exchange rate determination is inadequate, and that this hampers the analysis of exchange rate dynamics. A proposed resolution is reworked into the currency substitution model. In addition to providing explicit solutions for the spot rate of exchange depreciation under different expectational hypotheses, an attempt is made to clarify the dynamic properties of the model. Inter alia, it is shown how exchange rate overshooting is possible without having to assume market frictions; how a deteriorating current account deficit can coexist with an appreciating exchange rate; and, more generally, how portfolio induced jumps in the exchange rate are linked to balance of payments flow influences on the evolution of the exchange rate.     

投资者关注会影响个体投资者的汇率预期吗?--基于银行代客结售汇数据的实证分析

为考察个体投资者汇率预期的非理性及形成机制,本文基于外汇市场异质主体理论和行为金融学观点,构建了包含投资者关注的个体投资者汇率预期形成模型,并采用远期和即期银行代客结汇售汇比作为个体投资者汇率预期的替代指标,进行了实证分析。结果表明,远期结售比受到前一期汇率变动和境内外利差的影响,而即期结售比受前一期汇率变动影响。进一步引入投资者关注,采用MS-FTP和MS-TVTP模型的实证研究表明,投资者关注对远期和即期结售比的影响是时变的。在人民币贬值阶段,投资者关注对结售比存在显著的负向冲击,会导致更大的结售汇逆差;而在人民币升值阶段,投资者关注对结售比则无显著影响。本文的结论表明,个体投资者汇率预期具有显著的非理性特征,符合动量原则和套息规则,同时还受到投资者关注的影响。央行在人民币处于持续贬值区间时,应通过汇率沟通作用于投资者关注,稳定汇率预期。     

The Relative Effectiveness of Spot and Derivatives‐Based Intervention

This paper studies the relative effectiveness of foreign exchange intervention in spot and derivatives markets. We use Brazilian data where spot and nondeliverable futures intervention have been used in tandem for more than a decade. The analysis finds evidence of a link between both modes of intervention and the exchange rate. In line with theory, the impact of spot intervention is strikingly similar to that of futures intervention when convertibility risk is limited. We show that both types of interventions also affect the level and the price of hedging risk in the foreign exchange market.     

The forward market in emerging currencies: Less biased than in major currencies

Many studies have replicated the finding that the forward rate is a biased predictor of the future change in the spot exchange rate. Usually the forward discount actually points in the wrong direction. But, at least until recently, those studies applied only to advanced economies and major currencies. We apply the same tests to a sample of 14 emerging market currencies. We find a smaller bias than for advanced country currencies. The coefficient is on average positive, i.e., the forward discount at least points in the right direction. It is never significantly less than zero. To us this suggests that a time-varying exchange risk premium may not be the explanation for traditional findings of bias. The reasoning is that emerging markets are probably riskier; yet we find that the bias in their forward rates is smaller. Emerging market currencies probably have more easily-identified trends of depreciation than currencies of advanced countries.     

Temporal Patterns in Foreign Exchange Returns and Options

Although the foreign exchange market is believed to be one of the most efficient financial markets in the world, there is significant evidence that technical analysis is profitable in this market. In this study we investigate the ability of information from the options market to supplement the commonly used information on past prices to predict temporal patterns in foreign exchange returns. We find that strategies using information from at-the-money options were more consistently profitable than the commonly used strategies based on only historical spot exchange rates (past prices). Consequently, options appear to contain information regarding future spot exchange rate movements.     

An explanation of the forward premium 'puzzle'

Existing literature reports a puzzle about the forward rate premium over the spot foreign exchange rate. The premium is often negatively correlated with subsequent changes in the spot rate. This defies economic intuition and possibly violates market efficiency. Rational explanations include non-stationary risk premia and econometric mis-specifications, but some embrace the puzzle as a guide to profitable trading.
We suggest there is really no puzzle. A simple model fits the data: forward exchange rates are unbiased predictors of subsequent spot rates. The puzzle arises because the forward rate, the spot rate, and the forward premium follow nearly non-stationary time series processes. We document these properties with an extended sample and show why they give the delusion of a puzzle.     

The forward rate unbiasedness hypothesis reexamined: evidence from a new test

Under conditions of risk neutrality and rational expectations in the foreign exchange market, there should be a one-to-one relationship between the forward rate and the corresponding future spot rate. However, cointegration-based tests of the unbiasedness hypothesis of the forward rate have produced mixed findings. In order to exploit significant cross-sectional dependencies, we test the unbiasedness hypothesis using a new multivariate (panel) unit-root test, the Johansen likelihood ratio (JLR) test, which offers important methodological advantages over alternative standard panel unit-root tests. When applied to a data set of eight major currencies in the post-Bretton Woods era, the JLR test provides strong and robust evidence in support of a unitary cointegrating vector between forward and corresponding future spot rates. However, the orthogonality condition is satisfied only for three major currencies.     

Onshore and offshore market for Indian rupee: recent evidence on volatility and shock spillover

The article empirically examines the onshor-offshore linkages of the Indian rupee using recently developed multivariate GARCH technique. The empirical results show that the offshore non-deliverable forward market does not have mean spillover impact on onshore spot, forward and futures markets while shocks and volatilities in the non-deliverable forward market influence the onshore markets. A key finding of the study is that the magnitude of volatility spillover from non-deliverable forward to spot market has accentuated after the introduction of currency futures in India. This development could be attributable to large arbitrage between futures and non-deliverable forward market in the more recent period. The finding has critical implications for exchange rate policy and management in the Indian context. There is need for close monitoring of both the onshore and offshore markets.