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Conditioning carry trades: Less risk, more return

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  • Mulder, Arjen
  • Tims, Ben

Abstract

Prior studies show that extreme interest rate differentials (IRDs) and high foreign exchange rate (FX) volatility have substantial explanatory power for the validity of UIP. We show that these contemporaneous drivers also have predictive power by implementing a conditional currency carry trade (CT) strategy that excludes regimes for which UIP is likely to hold. Conditioning high FX volatility only, or on both FX volatility and extreme IRDs outperforms the base-case unconditional CT strategy in virtually any of the settings analyzed. Conditioning on very large IRDs only shows mixed findings. Our strategy works best for smaller CT portfolios.

Suggested Citation

  • Mulder, Arjen & Tims, Ben, 2018. "Conditioning carry trades: Less risk, more return," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 1-19.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jimfin:v:85:y:2018:i:c:p:1-19
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jimonfin.2018.03.003
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    Cited by:

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    3. Li, XiaoPing & Tong, Bin & Zhou, ChunYang, 2020. "Uncertainty aversion, carry trades and agent heterogeneity in the FX market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    4. Hertrich, Daniel, 2023. "Carry and conditional value at risk trend: Capturing the short-, intermediate-, and long-term trends of left-tail risk forecasts," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    5. Qian Zhang & Kuo-Jui Wu & Ming-Lang Tseng, 2019. "Exploring Carry Trade and Exchange Rate toward Sustainable Financial Resources: An application of the Artificial Intelligence UKF Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-26, June.

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