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Empirical evidence on the currency carry trade, 1900–2012

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  • Doskov, Nikolay
  • Swinkels, Laurens

Abstract

Most of the currency literature investigates the risk and return characteristics of the currency carry trade after the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. In order to gauge the long-term currency carry premium, we extend the sample to 20 currencies over the period 1900 to 2012. We find modest Sharpe ratios in the range of 0.2–0.4 for carry trading over this period. This is markedly lower than the Sharpe ratios above 0.6 reported for recent sample periods. We document that carry trading occasionally incurs substantial losses, which fits well with risk-based explanations for deviations from uncovered interest parity. We find that large carry trading losses do not necessarily coincide with large losses in global equity markets. Our results help to better understand the source and nature of excess returns on the carry trade.

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  • Doskov, Nikolay & Swinkels, Laurens, 2015. "Empirical evidence on the currency carry trade, 1900–2012," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 370-389.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jimfin:v:51:y:2015:i:c:p:370-389
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jimonfin.2014.12.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Lothian, James R., 2016. "Uncovered interest parity: The long and the short of it," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-7.
    2. Bruno Thiago Tomio, 2019. "Carry trade in developing and developed countries : a Granger-causality analysis with the Toda-Yamamo to approach," Post-Print halshs-03131073, HAL.
    3. Hsu, Po-Hsuan & Taylor, Mark P. & Wang, Zigan & Li, Yan, 2024. "The out-of-sample performance of carry trades," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    4. 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.
    5. Nils Herger, 2017. "Testing the interest parity condition with Irving Fisher's example of Indian rupee and sterling bonds in the London financial market (1869 - 1906)," Working Papers 17.04, Swiss National Bank, Study Center Gerzensee.
    6. Ali Shehadeh & Peter Erdos & Youwei Li & Michael Moore, 2016. "US Dollar Carry Trades in the Era of "Cheap Money"," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 66(5), pages 374-404, October.
    7. Bruno Thiago Tomio & Guillaume Vallet, 2021. "Carry Trade and Negative Policy Rates in Switzerland : Low-lying fog or storm ?," Post-Print halshs-03669561, HAL.
    8. Bruno Thiago Tomio, 2020. "Carry trade in developing and developed countries: A Granger causality analysis with the Toda-Yamamoto appr," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(3), pages 2154-2164.
    9. Lumengo Bonga-Bonga & Tebogo Maake, 2021. "The Relationship between Carry Trade and Asset Markets in South Africa," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-13, July.
    10. Stephen A. Gorman & Frank J. Fabozzi, 2021. "The ABC’s of the alternative risk premium: academic roots," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(6), pages 405-436, October.
    11. Cepni, Oguzhan & Emirmahmutoglu, Furkan & Guney, Ibrahim Ethem & Yilmaz, Muhammed Hasan, 2023. "Do the carry trades respond to geopolitical risks? Evidence from BRICS countries," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 47(2).
    12. Mantzura, Ariel & Schreiber, Ben Z., 2019. "Predicting foreign investors’ carry trade activity in the Israeli FX market using a time-varying currency risk premium approach," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 438-457.
    13. Sussman, Nathan & Saadon, Yossi, 2018. "Nominal exchange rate dynamics and monetary policy: uncovered interest rate parity and purchasing power parity revisited," CEPR Discussion Papers 13235, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Söhnke M. Bartram & Harald Lohre & Peter F. Pope & Ananthalakshmi Ranganathan, 2021. "Navigating the factor zoo around the world: an institutional investor perspective," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 91(5), pages 655-703, July.
    15. Accominotti, Olivier & Chambers, David, 2014. "Out-of-sample evidence on the returns to currency trading," Economic History Working Papers 84582, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    16. Stephen A. Gorman & Frank J. Fabozzi, 2023. "Alternative risk premium: specification noise," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(6), pages 459-473, October.
    17. Shehadeh, Ali & Li, Youwei & Moore, Michael, 2016. "The Forward Premium Bias, Carry Trade Return and the Risks of Volatility and Liquidity," MPRA Paper 71709, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Baltussen, Guido & Swinkels, Laurens & Van Vliet, Pim, 2021. "Global factor premiums," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(3), pages 1128-1154.
    19. Auer, Benjamin R. & Hoffmann, Andreas, 2016. "Do carry trade returns show signs of long memory?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 201-208.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Currency carry trade; Currency crisis; Foreign exchange; Forward discount;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • F31 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Exchange
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • N20 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - General, International, or Comparative

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