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Expectations Driven Distortions in the Foreign Exchange Market

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  • Frank H. Westerhoff

Abstract

This paper explores the phenomenon of lasting deviations of the exchange rate from its fundamental value in the foreign exchange market. Motivated by empirical observations a chartists-fundamentalists model is developed in which boundedly rational agents repeatedly choose between technical and fundamental trading rules to determine their speculative investment positions. Crucial for the dynamics is how the traders perceive the fundamental exchange rate. This perception process is based on psychological evidence. Simulations give rise to bubbles but simultaneously display quite realistic exchange rate dynamics (unit roots in the exchange rates, fat tails for returns, and volatility clustering).

Suggested Citation

  • Frank H. Westerhoff, 2001. "Expectations Driven Distortions in the Foreign Exchange Market," Computing in Economics and Finance 2001 48, Society for Computational Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:sce:scecf1:48
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    Cited by:

    1. Reitz, Stefan & Rülke, Jan & Stadtmann, Georg, 2012. "Nonlinear Expectations in Speculative Markets," VfS Annual Conference 2012 (Goettingen): New Approaches and Challenges for the Labor Market of the 21st Century 62045, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    2. Schmidt, Robert & Wollmershäuser, Timo, 2004. "Sterilized Foreign Exchange Market Interventions in a Chartist-Fundamentalist Exchange Rate Model," W.E.P. - Würzburg Economic Papers 50, University of Würzburg, Department of Economics.
    3. Reitz, Stefan & Rülke, Jan-Christoph & Stadtmann, Georg, 2012. "Nonlinear expectations in speculative markets – Evidence from the ECB survey of professional forecasters," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 36(9), pages 1349-1363.
    4. Westerhoff, Frank H., 2004. "Multiasset Market Dynamics," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(5), pages 596-616, November.
    5. Gardini, Laura & Radi, Davide & Schmitt, Noemi & Sushko, Iryna & Westerhoff, Frank, 2022. "Currency manipulation and currency wars: Analyzing the dynamics of competitive central bank interventions," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    6. Georges, Christophre, 2006. "Learning with misspecification in an artificial currency market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 70-84, May.
    7. Carl Chiarella & Xue-Zhong He & Min Zheng, 2013. "Heterogeneous expectations and exchange rate dynamics," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(5), pages 392-419, May.
    8. Naimzada, Ahmad & Pireddu, Marina, 2015. "Real and financial interacting markets: A behavioral macro-model," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 111-131.
    9. Neslihan Topbas, 2014. "Tests of Rationality in Turkish Foreign Exchange Market," Central Bank Review, Research and Monetary Policy Department, Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, vol. 14(2), pages 65-78.
    10. Murphy, Austin, 2008. "An empirical investigation of investor expectations in the currency market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 108-133.
    11. Luis Goncalves de Faria, 2022. "An Agent-Based Model With Realistic Financial Time Series: A Method for Agent-Based Models Validation," Papers 2206.09772, arXiv.org.
    12. Menkhoff, Lukas & Rebitzky, Rafael R. & Schröder, Michael, 2009. "Heterogeneity in exchange rate expectations: Evidence on the chartist-fundamentalist approach," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(1-2), pages 241-252, May.
    13. Raquel Almeida Ramos & Federico Bassi & Dany Lang, 2020. "Bet against the trend and cash in profits," CEPN Working Papers halshs-02956879, HAL.
    14. Soumya Datta, 2019. "Exchange rate dynamics under limits of arbitrage and heterogeneous expectations," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 14(3), pages 521-550, September.
    15. Ling-Yun He, 2010. "Is Price Behavior Scaling and Multiscaling in a Dealer Market? Perspectives from Multi-Agent Based Experiments," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 263-282, October.
    16. Federico Bassi & Raquel Ramos & Dany Lang, 2023. "Bet against the trend and cash in profits: An agent-based model of endogenous fluctuations of exchange rates," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 429-472, April.
    17. Lukas Menkhoff & Mark P. Taylor, 2007. "The Obstinate Passion of Foreign Exchange Professionals: Technical Analysis," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(4), pages 936-972, December.
    18. Sashikanta Khuntia & J. K. Pattanayak, 2020. "Evolving Efficiency of Exchange Rate Movement: An Evidence from Indian Foreign Exchange Market," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 21(4), pages 956-969, August.
    19. Scarlat, E.I. & Stan, Cristina & Cristescu, C.P., 2007. "Chaotic features in Romanian transition economy as reflected onto the currency exchange rate," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 396-404.
    20. De Grauwe, Paul & Rovira Kaltwasser, Pablo, 2012. "Animal spirits in the foreign exchange market," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1176-1192.
    21. Kaltwasser, Pablo Rovira, 2010. "Uncertainty about fundamentals and herding behavior in the FOREX market," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(6), pages 1215-1222.
    22. 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.
    23. Ahmad Naimzada & Marina Pireddu, 2014. "Real and financial interacting oscillators: a behavioral macro-model with animal spirits," Working Papers 268, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2014.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    exchange rate theory; technical and fundamental trading rules; expectations and learning; market efficiency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F31 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Exchange
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

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