Central bank intervention and exchange rate volatility — Australian evidence

This paper examines the key characteristics of foreign exchange intervention by the Reserve Bank of Australia in the period 1983–1997, which can be broken into five distinct phases. We investigate the changing effectiveness of daily intervention on the $US/$A exchange rate by decomposing the exchange rate response to the intervention into various separate components. We find contemporaneous positive correlation between the direction of intervention and the conditional mean and variance of exchange rate returns. We show that sustained and large interventions have a stabilising influence in the foreign exchange market in terms of direction and volatility. Without these interventions, the market would have moved further and exhibited more volatility.     

Long-memory and heterogeneous components in high frequency Pacific-Basin exchange rate volatility

Recent research examining high-frequency financial data has suggested that volatility dynamics may be confounded by the existence of an intra-day periodic pattern and multiple sources of volatility. This paper examines whether these dynamics are present in the US Dollar exchange rates of five Pacific Basin economies. Using 30-min sampled returns, evidence of a ‘U’-shape intra-day pattern in volatility for regional markets is reported and controlled for using a Flexible Fourier transform. Supportive evidence for the existence of multiple volatility components is offered by semi-parametric fractional difference estimates of the long-memory properties of absolute exchange rate returns at various intra-day data sampling frequencies. Further parametric evidence of an explicit component structure in such high frequency exchange rate volatility is offered by the estimates of a component-GARCH model which comprises both a long-run volatility component exhibiting slow shock decay and a short-run volatility component exhibiting far more rapid decay, and provides a generally superior fit to the data. Further application of these C-GARCH models in the analysis of high frequency volatility spillovers between the currencies considered also reveals that such spillovers are predominantly transitory rather than highly persistent in nature, but that where volatility spillovers do impact on the long-run component of exchange rate volatility the Australian Dollar plays a pivotal role in the localised causality transmission mechanism.      

Japanese foreign exchange intervention and the yen-to-dollar exchange rate: A simultaneous equations approach using realized volatility

We use realized volatility to study the influence of Japanese central bank interventions on the yen-to-dollar exchange rate. A system of equations for returns, logarithmic realized volatility, and interventions provides a comprehensive view on the problem without endogeneity bias, unlike earlier latent variable specifications. We find that during the period 1991 through 1995, interventions of the Japanese monetary authorities could not move the yen-to-dollar rate into the desired direction. We measure an increase in volatility associated with interventions. During the period 1995 through 1998, the estimations are consistent with interventions that successfully influenced returns. After 1998 up to the last intervention episode in 2004, interventions did not have a significant impact on returns but reduced realized exchange rate volatility.     

Trading volume,time-varying conditional volatility,and asymmetric volatility spillover in the Saudi stock market

Despite the well known importance of volatility–volume relationship, there is a paucity of research on this topic in emerging markets. We attempt to partially fill this gap by investigating volatility–volume relationship in the most important exchange market in the Middle East. We test the effect of trading volume on the persistence of the time-varying conditional volatility of returns in the Saudi stock market. Overall our results support the mixture of distribution hypothesis at the firm level. We also use two different proxies for information arrival, intra-day volatility, and overnight indicators. We find that these are good proxies for information and are important as contemporaneous volume in explaining conditional volatility. We also test for the volatility spillover direction between large- and small-cap portfolios. Our results show that the spillover effect is larger and statistically significant from large to small companies.     

Central bank FOREX interventions assessed using realized moments

This paper assesses the impact of G3 official central bank interventions on daily realized moments of DEM/USD exchange rate returns obtained from intraday data, 1989–2001. Event studies of the realized moments for the intervention day, the days preceding and following the intervention illustrate the shape of this impact. Rolling regressions results for an AR(FI)MA model for realized moments are used to measure the impact and its significance. The analysis confirms previous empirical findings of a temporary increase of volatility after a coordinated central bank intervention. It highlights new findings on the timing and the temporary nature of the impact of coordinated interventions on exchange rate volatility and on cross-moments between foreign exchange markets.     

Determinants of periodic volatility of intraday exchange rates in the Taipei FX Market

Using the periodic GARCH (P-GARCH) model, this paper investigates the cause of the volatility seasonality of intraday Taiwan dollar/U.S. dollar (NTD/USD) exchange rate. We study the intraday volatility of NTD/USD exchange rate by considering impacts from public news arrivals, inventory risk and central bank interventions. The estimation results indicate that news arrivals at the market open may induce traders to adjust their inventory position and result in higher NTD/USD volatility on days with reported central bank interventions.     

Is foreign exchange intervention by central banks bad news for debt markets?: A case of Reserve Bank of Australia's interventions 1986–2003

We investigate the effects of the Reserve Bank of Australia's foreign exchange interventions on the USD/AUD market and 90-day and 10-year interest rate futures markets for the period July 1986–December 2003. Using recently released revised and updated intervention data, we investigate contemporaneous and disaggregated intervention influences and find significant evidence for (i) intervention effectiveness in moderating the contemporaneous exchange rate movements especially if interventions were cumulative and large, (ii) exchange rate volatility reducing effect with a day's lag, (iii) undesirable interest rate movements following interventions in some periods compromising monetary policy effectiveness, and (iv) a volatility reducing effect of cumulative interventions in the 90-day rate, and a volatility increasing effect of large interventions in both the 90-day and 10-year rate futures. These findings are a unique and significant contribution to the prevailing literature as they demonstrate that the RBA's interventions matter not only for the foreign exchange market but also for the debt markets.     

Public information releases, private information arrival and volatility in the foreign exchange market

This paper estimates the impact of market activity and news on the volatility of returns in the exchange market for Japanese Yen and US dollars. We examine the effects of news on volatility before, during and after news arrival, using three categories of news. Market activity is proxied by quote arrival, separated into a predictable seasonal component and an unexpected component. Results indicate that both components of market activity, as well as news releases, affect volatility levels. We conclude that both private information and news effects are important determinants of exchange rate volatility. Our finding that unexpected quote arrival positively impacts foreign exchange rate volatility is consistent with the interpretation that unexpected quote arrival serves as a measure of informed trading. Corroborating this interpretation is regression analysis, which indicates that spreads increase in the surprise component of the quote arrival rate, but not in the expected component. The estimated impact of a unit increase in unexpected quote arrival and the range of values observed for this variable imply an important volatility conditioning role for informed trading.     

Multiple-days-ahead value-at-risk and expected shortfall forecasting for stock indices,commodities and exchange rates: Inter-day versus intra-day data

In order to provide reliable Value-at-Risk (VaR) and Expected Shortfall (ES) forecasts, this paper attempts to investigate whether an inter-day or an intra-day model provides accurate predictions. We investigate the performance of inter-day and intra-day volatility models by estimating the AR(1)-GARCH(1,1)-skT and the AR(1)-HAR-RV-skT frameworks, respectively. This paper is based on the recommendations of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Regarding the forecasting performances, the exploitation of intra-day information does not appear to improve the accuracy of the VaR and ES forecasts for the 10-steps-ahead and 20-steps-ahead for the 95%, 97.5% and 99% significance levels. On the contrary, the GARCH specification, based on the inter-day information set, is the superior model for forecasting the multiple-days-ahead VaR and ES measurements. The intra-day volatility model is not as appropriate as it was expected to be for each of the different asset classes; stock indices, commodities and exchange rates.The multi-period VaR and ES forecasts are estimated for a range of datasets (stock indices, commodities, foreign exchange rates) in order to provide risk managers and financial institutions with information relating the performance of the inter-day and intra-day volatility models across various markets. The inter-day specification predicts VaR and ES measures adequately at a 95% confidence level. Regarding the 97.5% confidence level that has been recently proposed in the revised 2013 version of Basel III, the GARCH-skT specification provides accurate forecasts of the risk measures for stock indices and exchange rates, but not for commodities (that is Silver and Gold). In the case of the 99% confidence level, we do not achieve sufficiently accurate VaR and ES forecasts for all the assets.     

Central bank interventions and jumps in double long memory models of daily exchange rates

In this paper, we estimate ARFIMA–FIGARCH models for the major exchange rates (against the US dollar) which have been subject to direct central bank interventions in the last decades. We show that the normality assumption is not adequate due to the occurrence of volatility outliers and its rejection is related to these interventions. Consequently, we rely on a normal mixture distribution that allows for endogenously determined jumps in the process governing the exchange rate dynamics. This distribution performs rather well and is found to be important for the estimation of the persistence of volatility shocks. Introducing a time-varying jump probability associated to central bank interventions, we find that the central bank interventions, conducted in either a coordinated or unilateral way, induce a jump in the process and tend to increase exchange rate volatility.     

US exports and time-varying volatility of real exchange rate

The effect of exchange rate volatility on trade is a controversial issue in international economics. Despite a widespread view that an increase in exchange rates volatility reduces trade, there is no real consensus on the direction or the size of the exchange rate volatility–trade level linkages. This paper investigates the relationship between US trade volume and exchange rate volatility using cointegration and error-correction models. We use conditional variances of the real effective exchange rate (REER) series modeled as a generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic (GARCH) process to measure the exchange rate volatility. The cointegration results indicate a significant negative relationship between US export volume and exchange rate volatility. The short-run dynamics of the relationship, however, show that the effects of both real exchange rates and exchange rate volatility are insignificant.     

Central bank intervention and exchange rates: the case of Sweden

This paper examines the effect of the Riksbank's currency market interventions on the level and volatility of the SEK/USD and SEK/DEM exchange rates between 1993 and 1996. This is the first study investigating effects on the Swedish krona after the currency peg was abandoned in 1992. To model volatility, both GARCH models and implied volatilities from currency options are used. Some support is found for the idea that interventions affect the exchange-rate level during certain sub periods but, overall, the results are weak. Furthermore, in line with the findings for other countries, little empirical support is found for the hypothesis that central bank intervention systematically decreases exchange rate volatility.     

Heterogeneous Market-Making in Foreign Exchange Markets: Evidence from Individual Bank Responses to Central Bank Interventions

Using high-frequency data this article provides evidence that, on average, central bank interventions lead to increased volatility and a widening of bid–ask spreads in the intra-day market for foreign exchange. The results also show that there is dispersion in the bid–ask spread revisions posted by individual banks in response to the central bank entering the market. The findings are consistent with predictions from standard models of market microstructure with heterogeneous agents and have implications for the market power of central banks as well as the payoff generated by trading large amounts of international reserves.     

Nominal exchange rate volatility,relative price volatility,and the real exchange rate

We model real exchange rate, nominal exchange rate, and relative price volatility using real and nominal factors. We analyze these volatility measures across developing and industrialized countries. We find that the inclusion of nominal factors achieves a sizable reduction in the real exchange rate volatility spread between developing and industrialized countries. In addition, we find that nominal factors matter to real exchange rate volatility in the short run and the long run, and that for developing countries, a higher share of real exchange rate volatility stems from relative price volatility.     

Flexible inflation targets,forex interventions and exchange rate volatility in emerging countries

Emerging economies with inflation targets (IT) face a dilemma between fulfilling the theoretical conditions of “strict IT”, which imply a fully flexible exchange rate, or applying a “flexible IT”, which entails a de facto managed-floating exchange rate with foreign exchange (forex) interventions to moderate exchange rate volatility. Using a panel data model for 37 countries we find that, although IT lead to higher exchange rate instability than alternative regimes, forex interventions in some IT countries have been more effective to lower volatility than in non-IT countries, which may justify the use of “flexible IT” by policymakers.     

Interventions in the Yen–dollar spot market: A story of price,volatility and volume

We test the effectiveness of Bank of Japan (BOJ)’s foreign exchange interventions on conditional first and second moments of exchange rate returns and traded volumes, using a bivariate EGARCH model of the Yen/USD market from 5-13-1991 to 3-16-2004. We also estimate a friction model of BOJ’s intervention reaction function based on reducing short-term market disorderliness and supplementing domestic monetary policy. Important finding of this study are that: (i) we find ineffectiveness of BOJ interventions in influencing exchange rate trends pre-1995, in general, but effectiveness post-1995; (ii) FED intervention amplified the effectiveness of the BOJ transactions; (iii) interventions amplified market volatility and volumes through a ‘learning by trading’ process; (iv) BOJ’s interventions were based on ‘leaning against the wind’ motivations on the exchange rate trend and volumes; and (v) BOJ interventions were vigorously used in support of domestic monetary policy objectives post-1995. Though some of our findings confirm recent studies, our analysis goes deeper to provide new findings with important implications for central banks and foreign exchange market participants.     

The Impact of Central Bank FX Interventions on Currency Components

This article assesses the impact of official FOREX interventionsof the three major central banks in terms of the dynamics ofthe currency components of the major exchange rates over theperiod 1989–2003. We identify the currency componentsof the mean and volatility processes of exchange rates usingthe framework developed recently by Bos and Shephard (2006).Our results show that, in general, concerted interventions tendto affect the dynamics of both currency components of the exchangerate. In contrast, unilateral interventions are found to primarilyaffect the currency of the central bank present in the market.Our findings also emphasize a role for interventions conductedby these central banks on other related FOREX markets.     

Volatility and correlation in international stock markets and the role of exchange rate fluctuations

This paper develops a direct, explicit model for the role of exchange rate fluctuations in international stock markets and examines how and to what extent volatility and correlations in equity markets are influenced by exchange rate fluctuations. Evidence presented in this paper indicates that a higher foreign exchange rate variability mostly increases local stock market volatility but decreases volatility for the US stock market. The extent to which stock market volatility is influenced by foreign exchange variability is greater for local markets than for the US market, due to the fact that exchange rate changes are more strongly correlated with local equity market returns than the US market returns. We find that a higher exchange rate fluctuation marginally decreases the US/local equity market correlation. While exchange rate fluctuations held a relatively large fraction of the variation in local stock market returns, there was no significant influence on the US/local equity market correlation.     

Statistical study of foreign exchange rates, empirical evidence of a price change scaling law, and intraday analysis

In this paper we present a statistical analysis of four foreign exchange spot rates against the U.S. Dollar with several million intra-day prices over 3 years. The analysis also includes gold prices and samples of daily foreign exchange prices over 15 years. The mean absolute changes of logarithmic prices are found to follow a scaling law against the time interval on which they are measured. This empirical law holds although the distributions of the price changes strongly differ for different interval sizes.Systematic variations of the volatility are found even during business hours by an intra-day analysis of price changes. Seasonal heteroskedasticity is observed with a period of one day as well as one week as the result of an analogous intra-week analysis; taking this into account is necessary for any future study of intra-day price change distributions and their generating process. The same type of analysis is also made for the bid-ask spreads.     

Foreign exchange,fractional cointegration and the implied–realized volatility relation

Almost all relevant literature has characterized implied volatility as a biased predictor of realized volatility. In this paper we provide new time series techniques to investigate the validity of this finding in several foreign exchange options markets, including the Euro market. First, we develop a new fractional cointegration test that is shown to be robust to both stationary and non-stationary regions. Second, we employ both intra-day and daily data to measure realized volatility in order to assess the relevance of data frequency in resolving the bias. Third, we use data on implied volatility traded on the market. In contrast to previous studies, we show that the frequency of data used for measuring realized volatility within a fractionally cointegrating framework is important for the results of unbiasedness tests. Significantly, for many popular exchange rates, the use of intra-day rather than daily data affects the emergence of a different bias, as the possibility of a fractionally integrated risk premium admits itself!