An analysis of extreme movements of exchange rates of the main currencies traded in the Foreign Exchange market

This article analyses the extreme movements of exchange rates of the seven main currencies traded in the Foreign Exchange market against the US dollar: Euro, British pound, Canadian dollar, Japanese Yen, Swiss franc, Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar by using tail index indicators. Payaslio?lu (2009) considers the case of the Turkish exchange rate using the traditional Hill (1975) estimator as a tool. In this article, we employ also an alternative estimator proposed in Iglesias and Linton (2009) that is shown to have, in some cases, improved finite sample properties and it provides substantially different results versus the Hill estimator. We find that for the Euro, Japanese Yen, Swiss franc, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand dollars, the Hill estimator provides a better measure to analyse the extreme behaviour; while for the British pound, the Iglesias and Linton alternative estimator is superior by using Hausman-type tests of misspecification. Measures of value at risk are also provided for the seven markets. We also find that the largest estimated value at risk by far is for the Japanese Yen, followed by the Swiss franc, the Canadian dollar, the Euro, the New Zealand dollar and the Australian dollar. The UK pound has the smallest value at risk when extreme movements occur.     

A heterogeneous agent exchange rate model with speculators and non-speculators

This paper constructs a heterogeneous agent exchange rate model of speculators and non-speculators from a simple monetary framework. The model replaces rational expectations with an adaptive learning rule that forecasts future exchange rates with an econometric model, and assumes two types of market participants, speculators and non-speculators, that differ by their forecasting model. Speculators employ a correctly specified forecasting model, are relatively short-term oriented, and are subject to momentum and herding effects via an expectation shock; non-speculators utilize a simple forecasting model, have no incentive to be short-term oriented, and are not subject to herding effects. Parameters are calibrated and estimated using the method of simulated moments, and simulation results show that the model is able to replicate foreign exchange market stylized facts better than a model of representative agent rational expectations. Furthermore, the dynamics of the model are shown to derive from both agent heterogeneity and the expectation shock.     

Genetic multi-model composite forecast for non-linear prediction of exchange rates

The existence of non-linear deterministic structures in the dynamics of exchange rates has already been amply demonstrated. In this paper, we attempt to exploit these non-linear structures employing forecasting techniques, such as Genetic Programming and Neural Networks, in the specific case of the Yen/US$ and Pound Sterling/US$ exchange rates. Forecasts obtained from genetic programming and neural networks are then genetically fused to verify whether synergy provides an improvement in the predictions. Our analysis considers both point predictions and the anticipating of either depreciations or appreciations.First version received: July 2003 / Final version received: June 2004We wish to thank Pacific Exchange Rate Service for providing us the data.     

Do forecasters of major exchange rates herd?

This paper uses forecast data from 1995 through 2014 to examine, whether the market consensus of exchange rate forecasts has an effect on the forecasts of individual experts. Such an effect could take the form of herding or anti-herding. We use a very comprehensive data set to study experts' forecasts of three of the most important exchange rates. The results indicate that anti-herding vis-à-vis the consensus of forecasts occurs more often than herding. We also show how the increase in the forecasting horizon and financial crises affect the intensity of anti-herding behavior. Moreover, we report that the (anti-)herding behavior does not affect the forcasting performnce.     

Exchange rates forecasting: local or global methods?

Exchange rates forecasters usually assume that local methods (nearest neighbour) dominate the global ones (neural networks or genetic programming, for example). In this article, first, we use different generalizations of the standard nearest neighbours to predict the dynamic evolution of the Yen/US$ and Pound Sterling/US$ exchange rates one-period ahead. Second, we compare our results with those employing global methods such as neural networks, genetic programming, data fusion and evolutionary neural networks. Finally, we find out the existence of predictable structures τ?periods ahead. Our results reveal a slightly but significant forecasting ability for one-period ahead which is lost when more periods ahead are considered, and no important predictive differences between local and global methods have been found.     

Exchange rate puzzles: A tale of switching attractors

The rational expectations efficient market model of the exchange rate has failed empirically. In this paper, we develop a model of the exchange rate in which agents use simple forecasting rules. Based on an ex post evaluation of the relative profitability of these rules they decide whether to switch or not. In addition, transactions costs in the goods market are introduced. We show that this simple model creates great complexity in the market which is characterised by the fact that the exchange rate is disconnected from its fundamental most of the time. Finally we show that this model mimicks most of the empirical puzzles uncovered in the literature.     

‘Ex-ante’ Taylor rules – Newly discovered evidence from the G7 countries

This paper addresses the question of whether financial market participants apply the framework of Taylor-type rules in their forecasts for the G7 countries. To this end, we use the Consensus Economic Forecast poll providing us a unique data set of inflation rate, interest rate and growth rate forecasts for the time period 1989-2008. We provide empirical evidence that financial market participants incorporate Taylor-type rules in their forecasts. Thus, the paper uses ex-ante data for the estimation of Taylor rules. This is a new approach, because so far only ex-post (revised) or real-time data have been applied.     

FORECASTING THE UK/US EXCHANGE RATE WITH DIVISIA MONETARY MODELS AND NEURAL NETWORKS

This paper compares the UK/US exchange rate forecasting performance of linear and nonlinear models based on monetary fundamentals, to a random walk (RW) model. Structural breaks are identified and taken into account. The exchange rate forecasting framework is also used for assessing the relative merits of the official Simple Sum and the weighted Divisia measures of money. Overall, there are four main findings. First, the majority of the models with fundamentals are able to beat the RW model in forecasting the UK/US exchange rate. Second, the most accurate forecasts of the UK/US exchange rate are obtained with a nonlinear model. Third, taking into account structural breaks reveals that the Divisia aggregate performs better than its Simple Sum counterpart. Finally, Divisia‐based models provide more accurate forecasts than Simple Sum‐based models provided they are constructed within a nonlinear framework.     

FORECASTING AUSTRALIAN MACROECONOMIC VARIABLES USING A LARGE DATASET

This paper investigates the forecasting performance of the diffusion index approach for the Australian economy, and considers the forecasting performance of the diffusion index approach relative to composite forecasts. Weighted and unweighted factor forecasts are benchmarked against composite forecasts, and forecasts derived from individual forecasting models. The results suggest that diffusion index forecasts tend to improve on the benchmark AR forecasts. We also observe that weighted factors tend to produce better forecasts than their unweighted counterparts. We find, however, that the size of the forecasting improvement is less marked than previous research, with the diffusion index forecasts typically producing mean square errors of a similar magnitude to the VAR and BVAR approaches.     

Exchange Rates, Market Structure, Prices and Imports*

Eighteen months after sizable declines in the US and Australian dollars in 1985, the trade accounts of both countries showed little improvement In some markets import prices failed to decline as expected Was this due to normal lags, or are there markets where exchange rate responses are limited? This paper analyzes the impact of firm behaviour and market structure on the sensitivity of import markets to exchange rate changes.     

A Note on Forecasting Emerging Market Exchange Rates: Evidence of Anti‐herding

Using survey forecasts of a large number of Asian, European, and South American emerging market exchange rates, we studied empirically whether evidence of herding or anti‐herding behavior of exchange‐rate forecasters can be detected in the cross‐section of forecasts. Emerging market exchange‐rate forecasts are consistent with herding (anti‐herding) if forecasts are biased towards (away from) the consensus forecast. Our empirical findings provide strong evidence of anti‐herding of emerging market exchange‐rate forecasters.     

A look into the future of wireless mobile communication technologies

The number of wireless mobile communication service subscribers reached 4.6 billion worldwide in 2009, and mobile revenues are expected to be over US$1 trillion around 2012 according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). A significant number of studies have been made to forecast the growing market and evaluate the new generation technology, the ‘beyond 3rd generation’ (B3G). However, there is no study that forecasts when any of these new technologies will be commercialised. This paper presents a technical framework for forecasting the commercialisation timeline of B3G technologies and provides insight on technology trajectories from 1G to 4G. The results show that a combination of technical parameters can explain heterogeneous wireless mobile communication technologies. Three parameters selected include channel bandwidth, channel bit rate and data capacity for technical framework.     

Modeling the Australian Dollar–US Dollar Exchange Rate Using Cointegration Techniques

This paper examines the link between the Australian dollar's exchange rate and Australia's terms of trade. The US$/A$ rate is found to be cointegrated with the terms of trade, and the relationship between the two variables appears to be robust. An estimated error-correction model for changes in the nominal US$/A$ is shown to have reasonable out-of-sample predictive powers. Weak exogeneity tests within the Johansen framework indicate highly significant causality running from the terms of trade to the exchange rate but less significant causality running from the exchange rate to the terms of trade.     

Forecasting the yield curve and the role of macroeconomic information in Turkey

In this study we investigate the yield curve forecasting performance of Dynamic Nelson–Siegel Model (DNS), affine term structure VAR model (ATSM VAR) and principal component model (PC) in Turkey. We also investigate the role of macroeconomic variables in forecasting the yield curve. We have reached numbers of important results: 1—Macroeconomic variables are very useful in forecasting the yield curve. 2—The forecasting performances of the models depend on the period under review. 3—Considering the structural break which associates with change in monetary policy leads models to produce better forecasts than the random walk. 4—The role of exchange rate should not be ruled out in forecasting the yield curve in an emerging market like Turkey.     

Excessive Volatility is Also a Feature of Individual Level Forecasts

The excessive volatility of prices in financial markets is one of the most pressing puzzles in social science. It has led many to question economic theory, which attributes beneficial effects to markets in the allocation of risks and the aggregation of information. In exploring its causes, we investigated to what extent excessive volatility can be observed at the individual level. Economists claim that securities prices are forecasts of future outcomes. Here, we report on a simple experiment in which participants were rewarded to make the most accurate possible forecast of a canonical financial time series. We discovered excessive volatility in individual-level forecasts, paralleling the finding at the market level. Assuming that participants updated their beliefs based on reinforcement learning, we show that excess volatility emerged because of a combination of three factors. First, we found that submitted forecasts were noisy perturbations of participants’ revealed beliefs. Second, beliefs were updated using a prediction error based on submitted forecast rather than revealed past beliefs. Third, in updating beliefs, participants maladaptively decreased learning speed with prediction risk. Our results reveal formerly undocumented features in individual-level forecasting that may be critical to understand the inherent instability of financial markets and inform regulatory policy.     

Fiscal policy rules,budget deficits,and forecasting biases

In this paper, we analyze the impact fiscal policy rules have on budget deficits and forecasting biases in official budget outlooks. Persistent budget deficits and over-optimistic budget forecasts have been observed in many countries in the past, especially in the euro area. To prevent such developments from happening in the future, fiscal rules have been revised or implemented with the aim to strengthen both preventive (ex-ante) and corrective (ex-post) elements of fiscal rules frameworks. Do such ex-ante and ex-post rules differ in their effects? In an attempt to answer this question, we build a two-period model and distinguish between ex-ante rules that apply to budget forecasts and ex-post rules that apply to realized budget deficits. Our model indicates that effectively enforced ex-post rules are more effective than ex-ante rules at reducing budget deficits. Interestingly, ex-ante rules differ from ex-post rules in their effects on forecasting biases. Only ex-post sanctions reduce forecasting biases, while ex-ante rules have no impact on such biases. In addition, we show that political stability and the size of government increase the effectiveness of fiscal rules. If, however, financial markets have a disciplining effect on governments, the effectiveness of fiscal rules is reduced. Our results imply that if fiscal policy rules cannot be effectively enforced, reforming other areas such as electoral rules or financial market regulations might be a more promising approach to ensuring sound public finances than fiscal policy rules.     

The performance of Euromoney Currency Report hedging recommendations

Several empirical studies have appeared recently on the subject of the accuracy of professional foreign exchange forecasting services (see King, 1977; Levich, 1980). The evidence from these studies has shown that different forecasting services have different levels of success but in general do a poor prediction job (for example, Levich, 1980). That is, most of these professional forecasts are not as accurate as the forward rate. While some gains may realize from following the advice of the advisory sevices, it is not clear whether these gains are sufficient to compensate for the risk of taking open exchange positions. However, the results of these studies require cautious interpretation as they are not entirely conclusive.

Recently, the Euromoney Currency Report(ECR) has been added to the foreign exchange rate forecasting industry. The distinct characteristic of the ECR is that it makes recommendations as to the percentage of asset/liability exposure of a US dollar or UK sterling based firm should cover forward. The hedge recommendations of the ECR are based on its ‘assessment of the probability of the currency proving weaker or stronger than the forward rate’ (ECR, April 5, 1984).

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate ECR's hedging performance and to consider the implications of the findings for corporate management of foreign exchange risk. Specifically this study is aimed to determine if the ECR advisory sevice possesses ‘expertise’. In a way, the evidence on the performance of ECR is clearly related to the efficient market theory. Concentration on ECR's performance is unique in comparison to Goodman (1979) and Levich (1980) studies in the sense that this study evaluates a specific hedging recommendation rather than a prediction of the future spot rate. Finally, it is hoped that on the basis of additional empirical evidence on the subject of foreign exchange advisory sevices some conclusions can be drawn about the usefulness of these forecasts.     

News sentiment and overshooting of exchange rates

In a globalized world, the volume of international trade is based on both import and export prices, thereby making a country’s economy highly dependent on exchange rates. In order to study exchange rate movements, one frequently exploits the so-called Dornbusch overshooting model. However, the model is controversial from a theoretical point of view: it explains exchange rate movements by a number of fundamental variables but ignores how novel information in the form of news can enter the market. As a remedy, this article adjusts for information dissemination by performing a multivariate analysis to compare the classical overshooting model with an extended variant that includes news sentiment. Our results show that news sentiment has a substantial explanatory power of 11% of the exchange rate forecasting error variance. In addition, we also find statistical evidence that a shock in news sentiment may lead to overshooting.     

Forecaster Rationality and Expectation Formation in Foreign Exchange Markets: Do Emerging Countries Differ from Industrialized Economies?

ABSTRACT

This paper uses the Consensus Economic Forecast poll to investigate how forecasters in the foreign exchange market form expectations and whether the expectation formation process differs between industrialized and emerging countries. In order to explain the expectation formation of forecasters in countries and country groups, we analyze around 50,000 forecasts for 22 OECD member currencies. We find that differences between the way forecasters in industrialized countries and emerging countries form exchange rate expectations. However, we show that one important difference is due to a difference in forecasting behavior of emerging countries. Controlling for this feature lets the forecasting behavior in emerging countries resemble more the ones found for industrialized countries, but not for all forecast horizons.     

Professional forecasts of interest rates and exchange rates: Evidence from the Wall Street Journal’s panel of economists

We analyze economists’ forecasts of interest rates and exchange rates from the Wall Street Journal. We find that a majority of economists produced unbiased forecasts but that none predicted directions of changes more accurately than chance. Most economists’ forecast accuracy is statistically indistinguishable from a random walk model in forecasting the Treasury bill rate, but many are significantly worse in forecasting the Treasury bond rate and the exchange rate. We also find systematic forecast heterogeneity, support for strategic models predicting the industry employing the economist matters, and evidence that economists deviate less from the consensus as they age.