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On the Credibility of the Euro/Swiss Franc Floor: A Financial Market Perspective

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  • MARKUS HERTRICH
  • HEINZ ZIMMERMANN
Abstract
We estimate the risk‐neutral break probabilities of a realignment of the EUR/CHF 1.20 floor, maintained by the SNB from September 6, 2011, to January 15, 2015, using put options and an option pricing model, which assumes a lower barrier for the exchange rate. We estimate probabilities considerably different from zero, even when the exchange rate traded far above the floor. We observe a drastic increase in the break probabilities up to approximately 50% shortly before the floor was abandoned. From an option market perspective, the credibility of the SNB in maintaining the floor was, thus, substantially lower than publicly claimed.

Suggested Citation

  • Markus Hertrich & Heinz Zimmermann, 2017. "On the Credibility of the Euro/Swiss Franc Floor: A Financial Market Perspective," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(2-3), pages 567-578, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jmoncb:v:49:y:2017:i:2-3:p:567-578
    DOI: 10.1111/jmcb.12390
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    2. Berhold, Kerstin & Stadtmann, Georg, 2017. "Who put the holes in the Swiss cheese? Currency crisis under appreciation pressure," Discussion Papers 391, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), Department of Business Administration and Economics.
    3. Dean Buckner & Kevin Dowd & Hardy Hulley, 2022. "Arbitrage Problems with Reflected Geometric Brownian Motion," Papers 2201.05312, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2022.
    4. Nikola Mirkov & Igor Pozdeev & Paul Söderlind, 2016. "Toward Removal of the Swiss Franc Cap: Market Expectations and Verbal Interventions," Working Papers 2016-10, Swiss National Bank.
    5. Markus Hertrich, 2022. "Foreign exchange interventions under a minimum exchange rate regime and the Swiss franc," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 450-489, May.
    6. Iain J. Clark & Saeed Amen, 2017. "Implied Distributions from GBPUSD Risk-Reversals and Implication for Brexit Scenarios," Risks, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-17, July.
    7. Mirkov, Nikola & Pozdeev, Igor & Söderlind, Paul, 2019. "Verbal interventions and exchange rate policies: The case of Swiss franc cap," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 42-54.
    8. Hertrich Markus, 2016. "The Costs of Implementing a Unilateral One-Sided Exchange Rate Target Zone," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 67(1), pages 91-120, May.
    9. Markus Hertrich, 2015. "A Cautionary Note on the Put-Call Parity under an Asset Pricing Model with a Lower Reflecting Barrier," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 151(III), pages 227-260, September.
    10. Ranaldo, Angelo & de Magistris, Paolo Santucci, 2022. "Liquidity in the global currency market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(3), pages 859-883.
    11. Breedon, Francis & Chen, Louisa & Ranaldo, Angelo & Vause, Nicholas, 2023. "Judgment day: Algorithmic trading around the Swiss franc cap removal," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    12. Michael Funke & Julius Loermann & Richhild Moessner, 2017. "The discontinuation of the EUR/CHF minimum exchange rate in January 2015: was it expected?," BIS Working Papers 652, Bank for International Settlements.
    13. Alex Cukierman, 2019. "Forex Intervention and Reserve Management in Switzerland and Israel since the Financial Crisis: Comparison and Policy Lessons," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 403-424, April.
    14. Yang, Yan-Hong & Shao, Ying-Hui & Shao, Hao-Lin & Stanley, H. Eugene, 2019. "Revisiting the weak-form efficiency of the EUR/CHF exchange rate market: Evidence from episodes of different Swiss franc regimes," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 523(C), pages 734-746.
    15. Gregor Bäurle & Daniel Kaufmann, 2018. "Measuring Exchange Rate, Price, and Output Dynamics at the Effective Lower Bound," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 80(6), pages 1243-1266, December.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • F31 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Exchange
    • G13 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Contingent Pricing; Futures Pricing

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