On the disappearance of calendar anomalies: have the currency markets become efficient?

Purpose - This study aims to examine the presence of the day-of-the-week (DOW), January and turn-of-month (TOM) effect in 20 currency pairs against the US dollar, from January, 1995 to December, 2014. Design/methodology/approach - Ordinary least square with GARCH (1,1) framework is used to examine the presence of DOW, January and TOM effect to test the efficiency of the currency markets. The sample period is later divided into two sub-periods of equal length, that is, from 1995 to 2004 and 2005 to 2014, to explore the time-varying behavior of the calendar anomalies. Further, the authors also use the non-parametric technique, the Kruskal–Wallis test, to provide robustness check for the results. Findings - For the DOW effect, the results indicate that the returns on Monday and Wednesday are negative and lower than the returns on Thursday and Friday which show positive and higher returns. The returns of all the currencies are higher (lower) in January (TOM trading days) and lower (higher) during rest of the year (non-TOM trading days). However, these calendar anomalies seem to have disappeared for almost all currencies during 2005 to 2014 and indicate that the markets have achieved a higher degree of efficiency in the later part of the sample. Practical implications - The results have important implications for both traders and investors. The findings suggest that the investors might not be able to earn excess profits by timing their positions in some particular currencies taking the advantage of DOW, January or TOM effect, which in turn indicates that the currency markets have become more efficient with time. The results might be appealing to the practitioners as well in a way that they can consider the state of financial market for financial decision-making. Social implications - The findings of lower returns on Monday and Wednesday and high returns during Thursday and Friday for all the currencies indicate that the foreign investors can take the advantage by going short on Monday and Wednesday and long on Thursday and Friday. Similarly, the returns of all the currencies are higher (lower) in January (TOM trading days) and lower (higher) during rest of the year (non-TOM trading days). During this period, investors in the currency markets could benefit themselves by taking long (short) positions in January (TOM trading days) and short (long) positions during rest of the year (non-TOM trading days). Originality/value - The author provides a pioneer study on the presence of calendar anomalies (DOW, TOM and the January effect) across a wide range of currencies using 20 years of data from January 1995 to December 2014. To the best of the author’s knowledge, no study has examined the presence of January effect in the currency market; therefore, the author provides the first study in which January effect in a number of currencies is investigated.