Tag Archive: Swiss National Bank

The Chinese Government, a bubble creator or when finally does China consume ?

The years 2009 to 2011 have seen four institutions that created bubbles in commodity, stock and real estate markets. 2008 and 2009 saw the massive Keynesian interventions by the US state and the Chinese government. In 2009 the first Quantitative Easing measures enabled a first flood of hot money into Emerging Markets. Summer 2010 witnessed …

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Is the SNB pegging away from the Euro to the SDR currency basket using their FX reserves ?

We reckon that the central bank has introduced an automatic peg mechanism which obliges them to buy euros at exactly 1.2010 and sell euros above this level (reasons and details here). If they sold more euros than they bought, they are happy to have offloaded some items of their overloaded balance sheet. If they bought more euros than they sold, however, there are some "superfluous" euros. Instead putting these euros on their balance sheet, they...

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Forget Non-Farm Payrolls, Take US Personal Disposable Income as Lead Economic Indicator

The unreliable Non-Farm Payrolls has far too much importance  Interesting to see that markets needed two relatively bad NFPs to really believe that their main indicators, the “Non-Farm Payroll” reports were strongly biased in January and February by a positive weather effect. HFT algorithms that highly influence stock market prices, are not able to take …

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SNB buys Swiss Francs and sells Euro: Welcome to the EUR/CHF peg

Why the big Q1 loss of the SNB was actually a big win for the central bank Anybody watching the EUR/CHF exchange rate this year was wondering why the volatility the pair saw last year had completely left. The pair slowly fell from 1.2156 over 1.2040 at the end of Q1 to 1.2014 today. FX … Continue reading...

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EUR/CHF, A History, The Game Changes: April 2012

EUR/GBP: If You Want To Know Why Its Falling, Have A Look At The SNB Thanks Goose for the reminder that the SNB released figures on its FX reserves holdings and these showed a marked increase in GBP holdings. This has been a constant theme over the last few weeks/months, the SNB buys EUR/CHF in the marketplace … Continue reading »

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Why is the Swiss safe-haven so completely different from the Yen ?

4 future scenarios for the Swiss franc and the Japanese yen For many people it is astonishing that the Swiss franc continuously rises against the euro, especially when markets are up. Is the CHF no safe-haven any more ? This year the Japanese yen has strongly fallen against the major currencies. Together with the upturn …

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EUR/CHF, A History, Market Betting on Floor: March 2012

Nomura Touts EUR/CHF Longs Strategists there advise going long around the current levels, they say the floor will not break. They target 1.24. I have to agree. To me, it’s a question of buying low or buying a bit lower. By Adam Button  || March 30, 2012 at 14:50 GMT EUR/CHF Touches One-Month Low Bounced off … Continue reading »

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SNB Statistical Publications



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SNB meeting on March 15th, 2012: Pure Speculation that SNB raises floor, How to Trade it ?

Between November 2011 and January 2012 mostly left-wing politicians and trade unions wanted the EUR/CHF floor to be risen to 1.30 or 1.40 and uttered their wishes regularly in the Swiss newspapers, triggering many FX traders to speculate on this hike. Recently these demands have become more silent even if some UBS analysts still see the floor to …

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Written in February 2012: Will the EUR/CHF never rise over 1.22 or 1.23 again?

Our analysis from February 2012 shows astonishing accurateness: It predicted that the euro would not rise against CHF and that the commodity currencies were overvalued and subject to correction. Basic foreign exchange theory, the SNB price stability mandate and strong fundamentals for Switzerland and bad ones for the peripheral countries of the euro zone speak for the thesis that the EUR/CHF exchange rate might never go over the level of around...

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Oil price increases in 2012 and why they are not real

Oil prices  Oil prices will rise quickly this year along with the recovery, the Iran issues and last but not least driven by investor demands of yield, implemented in the HFT algos. Interestingly the Iran issues already existed in December, but oil prices were falling, at that moment investors did not believe in a global recovery yet, …

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Keynesians vs. Anti-Keynesians: How price deflation has kick started the US growth

In recent posts Keynesians were criticized that hikes in the monetary base like Quantitative Easing (QE2) failed to lift the US economy, but it was the debt ceiling that helped to restore confidence in the US and that austerity can lead to GDP growth. Paul Krugman angrily replied that “even a huge rise in the …

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EUR/CHF, A History, Market Betting on Floor Hike: February 2012

EUR/CHF Busy Doing Jack; Jordan Gobbing Off Later EUR/CHF sits at 1.2048, some 7 pips easier from when I started out. Barrier option interest sits at 1.2025 and ofcourse 1.2000. SNB interim head honcho Jordan speaks later this evening (18:30 GMT) in Zurich.  Might be giving instructions on how to make his favourite alpine muesli … Continue reading...

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EUR/CHF, A History, Market Betting on Floor Hike: January 2012

1.2034 The EUR/CHF Low As Risk-Off Resumes   1.2025 barrier supposedly in play while the 1.2000 peg below will act as a magnet if broken. There is something about the forex mindset that prompts markets to reach out and touch things that are not meant to be touched. EUR/US fell to 1.3063, triggering a few … Continue reading »

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The new European Save-Havens: Trade SEK/CHF and NOK/CHF

After the announcement of the floor in the EUR/CHF pair, many predicted the Swedish and the Norwegian Krone to take the place of the Swiss Franc as European save-haven against the Euro turmoil (http://on.ft.com/pKSJ1V). Both countries possess a low level of debt, positive trade balance and very competitive economies.

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A Swiss central-banking scandal: Called to account

IT IS starting to look like a sustained attack. On January 4th an article in Die Weltwoche, a Swiss weekly magazine, accused Philipp Hildebrand, president of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), of personal currency speculation while the SNB was intervening to stabilise the Swiss franc/US dollar rate.

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EUR/CHF, Market betting on Floor Hike, December 2011

Four Trades For 2012: #2 Sell The Swiss Franc I bought EUR/CHF shortly after the 1.20 peg was introduced and have held it ever since. My only regret has not been trading the range more aggressively. At this point everyone has an opinion of the SNB so I won’t try to convince the bears. Personally, … Continue reading »

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Jürgen Stark’s resignation and the ECB 2005 warning about labor cost divergence in the Euro-zone

The Wirtschaftswoche reports about the real reasons of ECB Chief economist Jürgen Stark’s resignation. The reasons are rather political, namely a protest against European governments:

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SNB: Lift EUR/CHF floor or not ?

Many participants in the FX markets seem to be sure that the SNB will lift the EUR/CHF flow to 1.25 Here the pros and the cons:

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