Gold and the Dollar (and the Euro, Pound, and Yen)

Usually, gold and the Dollar are negatively related; when the Dollar price of gold increases, the Dollar depreciates against other currencies. This is intuitively puzzling because it seems to suggest that gold prices are associated with appreciation in other currencies. Why should the Dollar be different? We show here that there is actually no puzzle. The price of gold can be associated with currency depreciation in every country. The Dollar price of gold can be related to Dollar depreciation and the Euro (Pound, Yen) price of gold can be related to Euro (Pound, Yen) depreciation. Indeed, this is usually the case empirically.     

Long Memory In Futures Prices

This paper tests for fractional roots in the futures prices for selected commodities, foreign currencies, and stock indexes. The fractional testing method is the spectral regression method suggested by Geweke and Porter-Hudak (1983). The empirical results suggest the presence of a fractional exponent in the differencing process for several commodity and foreign currency futures prices. The returns series for these commodities and currencies exhibit long range positive dependence. However, differencing of exact order one is sufficient for the stock index futures prices. Implications are drawn concerning theoretical and econometric modeling and price forecasting.     

THE HEDGING EFFECTIVENESS OF FOREIGN CURRENCY FUTURES

This study provides an initial analysis of the hedging potential of the foreign currency futures markets. Numerous studies exist on the pricing efficiency and hedging effectiveness of the foreign currency forward markets, but little research exists on the foreign currency futures market. An adequate price history has only recently become available to carry out such an investigation. Minimum risk hedges and hedging effectiveness measures are presented for five currencies: the British pound, German mark, Canadian dollar, Japanese yen and Swiss franc. Analysis indicates the relative desirability of positions in futures contracts to minimize the risk of spot currency exposure. Results also show hedging effectiveness increases with the investment horizon.     

Volume and Volatility in Foreign Currency Futures Markets

In this paper we propose and test several hypotheses concerning time series properties of trading volume, price, short and long-term relationships between price and volume and the determinants of trading volume in forcign currency futures. The nearby contracts for British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Japanese Yen, German Mark and Swiss Franc are analyzed in three frequencies i.e. daily, weekly and monthly.We find supportive evidence for all the five currencies that the price volatility is a determinant of the trading volume changes. Furthermore, the volatility of the price process is a determinant of the unexpected component of the changes in trading volume. Also, there is a significant relationship between the volatility of price and the volatility of trading volume changes for three of the five currencies in the daily frequency and for one currency in the monthly frequency.     

The relationship between reciprocal currency futures prices

Consider a futures contract on Country 2’s currency denominated in Country 1’s currency, and its reciprocal, a futures contract on Country 1’s currency denominated in Country 2’s currency. Because both are marked to market in different currencies, the relationship between the associated futures prices is not simple. We investigate the functional relationship between these two futures prices.     

官方外汇市场操作制度安排比较分析——以美国、欧盟、英国和日本为例

美国财政部下设外汇稳定基金,通常与美联储共同进行外汇市场操作;欧盟理事会有权缔结汇率体系协定及制定汇率政策方针,外汇操作全部由欧洲央行出资;英国财政部通过外汇平衡账户进行外汇操作,英格兰银行也出于货币政策目的进行干预;日本财务省设立外汇基金专项账户,日本银行无权自主进行外汇市场操作。上述制度安排具有如下特点:(1)财政部负责汇率政策和主导外汇市场操作;(2)分为财政部出资、央行出资和共同出资三类;(3)财政部出资不涉及基础货币的投放与回笼环节,但涉及本币的融资环节;(4)进行货币互换和发行外币债券是筹集外汇的基本方式。     

Volatility linkage among currency futures markets during US trading and non-trading periods

This paper examines the volatility transmission across different currency markets during trading and non-trading periods. Using vector autoregressive analysis (VAR), we find similar patterns between information flows during trading and non-trading hours of the US currency futures exchange. The results indicate that trading-hour information and non-trading-hour information have similar effects on currency prices and that the markets do not differentiate information based upon the timing of its release. Our study observes that currencies exhibit different levels of global linkage and appear to play different informational roles in the currency market. Additionally, this study observes a trend toward increased integration among the currency futures markets.     

Overreaction and underreaction in the foreign exchange market

Research has documented overreaction and underreaction for stocks and stock market indices, but it has not yet analyzed these phenomena with regard to currency exchange rates. This paper examines exchange rate changes following extreme 1-day fluctuations for currencies in industrialized and emerging markets. In this study, the exchange rate is defined as the number of foreign currency units per US dollar. An overreaction phenomenon for currencies in emerging markets and an underreaction phenomenon for currencies in industrial markets are found. Each extreme 1-day currency fluctuation event is classified according to the type of underlying reason as described in the Wall Street Journal. Events for which no announcements (undefined events) were found are associated with a stronger tendency toward overreaction than those events for which an explanation was given (defined events). This suggests that investors overreact more when the source of the extreme fluctuation is largely unknown. The defined events are classified into two groups: economic events and political events. There is some evidence that political events are associated with a stronger tendency toward overreaction than economic events. These findings can be attributed to uncertainty. Political events (e.g., civil uprising) should be more difficult to assess than economic events (e.g., the release of an inflation report), and undefined events should be associated with the largest degree of uncertainty. Cross-sectional analysis is used to relate post-event exchange rate changes to the magnitude of the initial exchange rate change, leakage, day of the week effects, type of currency (from emerging or industrial market), and the type of announcement (economic, political, or undefined) that appeared in the Wall Street Journal. The cross-sectional analysis confirms that currencies in emerging markets experience stronger degrees of overreaction than those of industrial markets, even after controlling for potentially confounding factors. Moreover, it confirms that undefined events experience stronger degrees of overreaction than defined events, even when controlling for other factors.     

货币国际化降低了出口汇率风险吗?——以金融危机中的日本为例

本文通过实证分析发现,金融危机爆发后,日元对出口中标价货币的汇率升值是日元标价出口价格和收入大幅下降的关键原因,然后我们证明了日本的出口标价结构和日元对主要标价货币的名义汇率变动直接决定了日元对标价货币的汇率变动,说明出口中的本币国际化程度对企业的出口价格和收入产生直接的影响,货币国际化能有效降低出口的汇率风险。结合中国的出口竞争力和出口标价结构,本文认为推进人民币国际化是降低出口企业汇率风险的重要途径,而在未来的汇率制度改革过程中需要考虑出口标价结构和本币国际化程度的影响。     

Are options redundant? Further evidence from currency futures markets

This paper investigates the impact of the introduction of options on the underlying asset's price formation process, using Geweke feedback measures. We derive the feedback measures from the Deutsche Mark, British Pound, Swiss Franc, Japanese Yen and Canadian Dollar futures and spot prices, before and after the introduction of options for these currency futures. While each currency market maintains some distinct characteristics in the post-option period, a common theme is found: after the option introduction, the instantaneous feedback between spot and futures markets improves drastically. The feedback from the spot to the futures market tends to decrease and remains small. The feedback from the futures market to the spot market tends to decrease as well. These results confirm the dominance of options markets, probably due to their smaller transaction costs. When made available, options assume a leading role for information transmission in currency markets.     

U.S. Monetary Policy Surprises and Currency Futures Markets: A New Look

Intraday currency futures prices react to both surprises in the federal funds target rate (the target factor) and surprises in the anticipated future direction of Federal Reserve monetary policy (the path factor) in similar magnitude, and the reaction is short‐lived. Dollar‐denominated currency futures prices drop significantly in response to positive surprises (i.e., unexpected increases) in the target and path factors, but have generally little response to negative surprises. A monetary policy tightening during expansionary periods leads to an appreciation of the domestic currency, while a monetary policy loosening during recessionary periods tends to have no significant impact.     

Foreign exchange market return spillovers and connectedness among African countries

This paper examines the foreign exchange return shock spillovers and network connectedness among African countries during crisis periods using (Diebold & Yilmaz, 2012; 2014; 2016) which is based on generalized VAR and network theory between June 2004 and June 2021. Overall, the study found a low system-wide spillover connectedness among African foreign exchange markets. However, the total systemic spillover index increased during the eurozone sovereign debt crisis followed by global financial crisis, indicating evidence of contagion effects. This offers good diversification opportunities in the African currency market during crisis periods. The study also found no significant evidence of spillover effects among African currencies. Nonetheless, the network connectedness analysis found a positive significant pairwise return spillovers from the South African rand, Moroccan dirham and the CFA francs to Botswana pula, and from Moroccan dirham to CFA francs and South African rand. Furthermore, the study found South African rand, Moroccan dirham and CFA francs as the most significant net-transmitter of return shocks to other currencies whiles the Kenyan shilling and Botswana pula are the net-receivers of return shocks from other currencies. These results have implications for African central banks interventions in stabilizing their exchange rates to facilitate intra and inter-African trade and for international portfolio investors in managing their foreign exchange risk exposures.     

Segmentation and time-of-day patterns in foreign exchange markets

This paper sheds light on a puzzling pattern in spot foreign exchange markets: domestic currencies appreciate (depreciate) systematically during foreign (domestic) working hours. This phenomenon spans many years and several exchange rates, and overrides calendar effects. We argue that it is mainly due to liquidity and inventory patterns that emerge from the combination of two factors: domestic agents tend to be net buyers of foreign currency and to trade mostly in their country’s working hours. The prevalence of domestic (foreign) traders demanding the counterpart currency during domestic (foreign) working hours implies sell-price (buy-price) pressure on the domestic currency during domestic (foreign) working hours.     

Currency futures-spot basis and risk premium

This paper explores the usefulness of currency futures-spot basis in predicting spot rate changes and currency futures returns. We conjecture that the currency risk premium may be an important component of the basis for long-maturity futures contracts, but may not be so for short-maturities. Thus, the basis of long-maturity contracts cannot predict the spot rate changes between now and maturity, rejecting uncovered interest rate parity (UIP), but can predict currency futures returns, which are solely determined by the risk premium. Conversely, the basis of the short-maturity contracts can predict the spot rate changes between now and maturity, validating the UIP, but cannot predict currency futures returns. Empirical tests support these conjectures for the Japanese, British, Swiss, and German currencies over the last two decades. The results are also consistent with Longstaff [Longstaff, F., 2000. The term structure of very short-term rates: new evidence for the Expectation Hypothesis. Journal of Financial Economics 58, 397–415], who shows that the Expectations Hypothesis holds at the very short end of the term structure of interest rates.     

货币国际化的国际经验:比较与借鉴

本文拟通过影响货币国际化因素的分析,从中总结英镑、美元、日元和欧元国际化成功和失败的经验教训及启示,研究思考推进人民币国际化的思路。     

Performance of Currency Trading Strategies in Developed and Emerging Markets: Some Striking Differences

Expanding the currency investment universe makes a lot of sense from a diversification point of view. Nevertheless, 60% of the total foreign exchange turnover is still only traded in three currency pairs (USD/EUR, USD/JPY and USD/GBP). The share of trading in local currencies in emerging markets is only around 5%. This can be explained by the fact that some currency managers fear investing in emerging market currencies. Many believe that political risk is the most dominant driver in these markets and that traditional investment rules do not work. In this paper, I apply four technical trading strategies for the developed market currencies and for the most traded emerging market currencies. The empirical results show some striking differences. They suggest that trend-following rules work better for emerging market currencies, while carry trading strategies perform better across developed market currencies. Nevertheless, it seems that conventional techniques could be successfully applied to both developed and emerging market currencies. I conclude that currency managers should not be afraid to diversify into emerging market currencies. They should, however, adjust their trading style accordingly.     

Safehavenness of currencies

This study assesses the ‘safehavenness’ of a number of currencies with a view to providing a better understanding of how capital flow tends to react to a sharp increase in global risk aversion in turbulent times. It focuses on how the currencies are perceived by international investors or, more specifically, whether they are seen as safe-haven or risky currencies. To assess the safehavenness of the currency, we use risk reversal, which is the price difference between the call and put options of a currency, as it reflects how disproportionately market participants are willing to pay to hedge against its appreciation or depreciation. The relationship between the risk reversal of the currency and global risk aversion is estimated by means of parametric and non-parametric regressions that allow us to capture currency behaviour in times of extreme adversity, that is, the tail risk. Our empirical results found the Japanese yen and, to a lesser extent, the Hong Kong dollar to be the only safe havens under stressful conditions among the 34 currencies vis-à-vis the US dollar.     

Why Do Firms Raise Foreign Currency Denominated Debt? Evidence from Finland

This study examines the determinants of the decision to raise currency debt. The results suggest that hedging figures importantly in the currency–of–denomination decision: firms in which exports constitute a significant fraction of net sales are more likely to raise currency debt. However, firms also tend to borrow in periods when the nominal interest rate for the loan currency, relative to other currencies, is lower than usual. This is consistent with the currency debt issue decision being affected by speculative motives. Large firms, with a wider access to the international capital markets, are more likely to borrow in foreign currencies than small firms.     

Risk Premia in Foreign Currency Futures

This paper tests the uncorrelatedness of increments of daily foreign currency futures prices and derives implications for risk premia based on a heteroscedasticity-robust variance ratio test. There is evidence suggesting the existence of a time-varying risk premia. Moreover, the results suggest that currency futures price is not an unbiased predictor of currency spot price on corresponding maturity date of currency futures contract. The paper also applies a heteroscedasticity-adjusted Box-Pierce Q test to the same data set for comparison.     

PRICING CURRENCY OPTIONS UNDER STOCHASTIC INTEREST RATES AND JUMP‐DIFFUSION PROCESSES

We investigate the effects of stochastic interest rates and jumps in the spot exchange rate on the pricing of currency futures, forwards, and futures options. The proposed model extends Bates's model by allowing both the domestic and foreign interest rates to move around randomly, in a generalized Vasicek term‐structure framework. Numerical examples show that the model prices of European currency futures options are similar to those given by Bates's and Black's models in the absence of jumps and when the volatilities of the domestic and foreign interest rates and futures price are negligible. Changes in these volatilities affect the futures options prices. Bates's and Black's models underprice the European currency futures options in both the presence and the absence of jumps. The mispricing increases with the volatilities of interest rates and futures prices. JEL classification: G13