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Extreme returns: The case of currencies

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  • Osler, Carol
  • Savaser, Tanseli

Abstract

Financial market crashes can occur even in the absence of news. This paper highlights four properties of price-contingent trading that increase the frequency of such events. Price-contingent trading is common across financial market, since it includes algorithmic trading, technical trading, and dynamic option hedging. The four properties we consider are: (1) high kurtosis in the distribution of order sizes; (2) clustering of trades within the day; (3) clustering of trades at certain prices; and (4) feedback between trading and returns. The paper estimates the relative importance of these factors using data from the foreign exchange market. Calibrated simulations indicate that interactions among these factors are at least as important as any single one. Among individual factors, the orders' size distribution and feedback effects have the strongest influence. Overall, price-contingent trading could account for half of realized excess kurtosis. The paper suggests that extreme returns unaccompanied by news are statistically inevitable in the presence of price-contingent trading.

Suggested Citation

  • Osler, Carol & Savaser, Tanseli, 2011. "Extreme returns: The case of currencies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 2868-2880, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:35:y:2011:i:11:p:2868-2880
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Stop Orders Drive Half of Abnormal Currency Moves, Suggests Research
      by admin in HistorySquared on 2011-06-30 00:03:19

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    Cited by:

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    2. Siroos Khademalomoom & Paresh Kumar Narayan & Susan Sunila Sharma, 2019. "Higher Moments and Exchange Rate Behavior," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 54(1), pages 201-229, February.
    3. Erdemlioglu, Deniz & Laurent, Sébastien & Neely, Christopher J., 2015. "Which continuous-time model is most appropriate for exchange rates?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(S2), pages 256-268.
    4. Gradojevic, Nikola & Erdemlioglu, Deniz & Gençay, Ramazan, 2017. "Informativeness of trade size in foreign exchange markets," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 27-33.
    5. Ledenyov, Dimitri O. & Ledenyov, Viktor O., 2015. "Wave function method to forecast foreign currencies exchange rates at ultra high frequency electronic trading in foreign currencies exchange markets," MPRA Paper 67470, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Cotter, John & Dowd, Kevin, 2010. "Intra-day seasonality in foreign exchange market transactions," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 287-294, April.
    7. Jörgen Blomvall & Jonas Ekblom, 2018. "Corporate hedging: an answer to the “how” question," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 266(1), pages 35-69, July.
    8. Rakovská, Zuzana, 2021. "Composite survey sentiment as a predictor of future market returns: Evidence for German equity indices," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 473-495.
    9. Mohamed S. Ahmed & John A. Doukas, 2021. "Revisiting disposition effect and momentum: a quantile regression perspective," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 1087-1128, April.
    10. Patrick Steffen Michelberger & Jan Hendrik Witte, 2015. "Foreign Exchange Market Microstructure and the WM/Reuters 4pm Fix," Papers 1501.07778, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2016.
    11. Kam Fong Chan & Phil Gray & Zheyao Pan, 2021. "The profitability of trading on large Lévy jumps," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 21(2), pages 627-635, June.
    12. King, Michael R. & Osler, Carol L. & Rime, Dagfinn, 2013. "The market microstructure approach to foreign exchange: Looking back and looking forward," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 95-119.
    13. Dungey, Mardi & Matei, Marius & Treepongkaruna, Sirimon, 2020. "Examining stress in Asian currencies: A perspective offered by high frequency financial market data," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    14. Katusiime, Lorna & Shamsuddin, Abul & Agbola, Frank W., 2015. "Foreign exchange market efficiency and profitability of trading rules: Evidence from a developing country," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 315-332.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Crash risk Fat tails Exchange rates High frequency Microstructure Jump process Value-at-risk;

    JEL classification:

    • G1 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets
    • F3 - International Economics - - International Finance

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