FX strategies based on real exchange rates
New empirical research provides guidance as to how to use real exchange rates for currency strategies. First, real exchange rates can serve as a...
The concept of “real financial exchange rates”
A Bundesbank paper proposes a new type of real exchange rate index. Rather than measuring the competitiveness of goods markets, this “real financial exchange...
Markets’ neglect of macro news
Empirical evidence suggests that investors pay less attention to macroeconomic news when market sentiment is positive. Market responses to economic data surprises have historically...
The relation between value and momentum strategies
Simple value and momentum strategies often end up with opposite market positions. One strategy succeeds when the other fails. There are two plausible reasons...
Equity values and credit spreads: the inflation effect
A theoretical paper shows that a downward shift in expected inflation increases equity valuations and credit default risk at the same time. The reason...
Term premia and macro factors
The fixed income term premium is the difference between the yield of a longer-maturity bond and the average expected risk-free short-term rate for that...
Earnings yields, equity carry and risk premia
Forward earnings yields and equity carry are plausible indicators of risk premia embedded in equity index futures prices. Data for a panel of 25...
A market-to-book formula for equity strategies
A new proxy formula for equity market-to-book ratios suggests that (the logarithm of) such a ratio is equal to the discounted expected value of...
Seasonal effects in commodity futures curves
Seasonal fluctuations are evident for many commodity prices. However, their exact size can be quite uncertain. Hence, seasons affect commodity futures curves in two...
FX forward returns: basic empirical lessons
FX forward returns for 29 floating and convertible currencies since 1999 provide important empirical lessons. First, the long-term performance of FX returns has been...
RECENT ARTICLES
The power of macro trends in rates markets
Broad macroeconomic trends, such as inflation, economic growth, and credit creation are critical factors of shifts in monetary policy. Above-target trends support monetary tightening....
Six ways to estimate realized volatility
Asset return volatility is typically calculated as (annualized) standard deviation of returns over a sequence of periods, usually daily from close to close. However,...
Duration volatility risk premia
Duration volatility risk premium means compensation for bearing return volatility risk of an interest rate swap (IRS) contract. It is the scaled difference between...