Category Archive: 1) SNB and CHF

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Upcoming SNB Events

The link gives an overview about the upcoming SNB events.

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History of SNB monetary policy assessments vs. economic data

Development of Swiss GDP vs. GNI Gross National Income Gross Domestic Product

History of SNB monetary policy assessments vs. the Swiss gross national product (GDP) and gross national income (GNI).

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Because They Knew What They Were Doing: The Parallels between European and SNB Leaders

Similarly as European leaders knew what they were doing with the euro, namely introducing a not feasible currency, Swiss National Bank did between 2005 and 2008, namely the absolutely wrong thing.

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Correlations Between the Swiss Franc, Gold and the German Economy

2012-12-21

by George Dorgan

2012-12-21

In yesterday’s post we focused on several economic events that weakened the position of the Swiss National Bank (SNB). In this extended replacement post, we give several reasons for recent movements in the gold price and explain the correlation between German economic data, gold and the Swiss franc. IFO data shows that Germany will not …

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SNB Losses: 1.85 Billion Francs in Just One Day, 231 Francs, 250$ per Inhabitant

2012-12-18

by George Dorgan

2012-12-18

After the disappointing US current account data, traders have realized which countries have strong trade balances, namely Germany and Switzerland (see here for our details on the ever rising Swiss trade surplus), additionally fueled the good German IFO data. Both the euro and the Swissie strongly rose against the dollar. Due to Abe’s pressure on the …

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SNB Monetary Policy Assessment December 2012: (Nearly) Full Text

2012-12-14

by George Dorgan

2012-12-14

snb monetary policy assessment december 2012 jordan danthine zurbrügg

The SNB decided to maintain the floor at 1.20 and the Libor target between 0% and 0.25%. As we expected in our outlook on the assessment, there were still important downwards drivers of inflation after the strong appreciation of the franc. Therefore, the SNB has moved its inflation expectations downwards for 2013 to minus 0.1% …

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Warum die SNB nicht Hongkong, sondern Singapur imitieren wird

2012-12-11

by George Dorgan

2012-12-11

Im Gegensatz zu Hongkong mit dem USD/HKD-Peg kann die Schweiz ein Currency Board, einen fixen Kurs zum Euro nicht für Jahre durchhalten. Die Gründe auf snbchf.com

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‘Negative’ has such unfairly negative connotations

2012-12-11

by David Keohane

2012-12-11

Dear people, ATTENTION: HEAD OF FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS/NETWORKMANAGEMENT/TREASURY AND/OR CASH MANAGEMENT FURTHER TO OUR SWIFT DATED 26 08 2011 PLEASE BE INFORMED THAT DUE TO THE CONTINUED PREVAILING MARKET SITUATION AFFECTING THE SWISS FRANC, WE HAVE...

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How Currency Speculators Help the SNB to Fight against Ordinary Investors

2012-12-05

by George Dorgan

2012-12-05

A discussion in the investor forum made clear how currency speculators currently help the SNB to maintain the floor against normal investors. A situation that was different in August/September 2011, when the SNB had to fight against these speculators. A discussion in the investor forum Seeking Alpha: part one Based on our analysis of …

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Jim Rogers, 2012: When Will the Peg Fall? Will Switzerland Become Bulgaria?

2012-12-03

by George Dorgan

2012-12-03

Given that most farmers are rather old, he says that the world should be very grateful to speculators that bet on food prices, this helps to obtain the required younger farmers. Jim Rogers has exchanged all his euros into francs, he thinks that the EUR/CHF peg will fall soon. Tagesanzeiger (

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Gold, CHF, Brent Arbitrage Trading after Negative CS, UBS Interest Rates

2012-12-01

by George Dorgan

2012-12-01

Credit Suisse and UBS will charge negative interests for cash clearing clients above a threshold. Last year such news was worth 250 bps, on December 3 only 28 bips. One remembers August 26, 2011, when UBS only spoke of negative interests and consequently EUR/CHF rose from 1.1420 to 1.1688. At the time FX traders …

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SNB Valuation Losses in October: Around 6 Billion Francs

2012-11-08

by George Dorgan

2012-11-08

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) had valuation losses of around 6 billion francs in October due to the weaker EUR/CHF exchange rate and a weaker gold price.

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Die Wiederwahl Obamas bedeutet nichts Gutes für die Schweiz

2012-11-07

by George Dorgan

2012-11-07

Barack Obama war und ist der präferierte Kandidat vieler Schweizer. Obama scheint der Mann von Welt zu sein, während vom konservativen Mitt Romney eher feindselige Politik gegen Russland, China und Iran zu erwarten ist. Daher sind die Neutralität- und Frieden-liebenden Schweizer eher auf Obamas Seite. Aber auch wirtschaftspolitisch scheinen viele Eidgenossen Obama zu mögen. …

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SNB Results Q3 2012: SNB Radically Reduces Euro Share from 60% to 48%

2012-11-02

by George Dorgan

2012-11-02

snb q3 breakdown in currencies usd eur gbp

SNB Q3 Profits: 10 billion francs The Swiss National Bank (SNB) radically reduced its euro share, in the third quarter from 60% to 48%, and bought US dollars and sterling instead. In the second quarter, however, it increased the euro share from 51% to 60% and concentrated on buying euros. Given that the EUR/USD was … Continue reading...

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The Swiss National Bank straddle

2012-10-31

by David Keohane

2012-10-31

It’s Swiss National Bank reserve figures Wednesday! That glorious day when we get to see how exactly the ingredients of the SNB’s cake have changed. Or to put it more literally, how have they been dealing with the masses of euro assets they are colle...

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How the SNB Destroyed Ashraf Laidi’s EUR/USD 1.35 Party

2012-10-31

by George Dorgan

2012-10-31

Trend Follower Ashraf Laidi Loses Against the Contrarian Investor SNB The currency strategist Ashraf Laidi recently evoked a EUR/USD exchange rate of 1.35 thanks to the risk appetite after the easing operations of the Fed and the ECB. We show that he and the masses of his Forex rooters actually traded against a big central …

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Trade Like a Central Bank: Buy EUR/USD at 1.24 and sell at 1.30! .. SNB

2012-10-31

by George Dorgan

2012-10-31

Composition of SNB Forex Reserves, Q3 2012 The Swiss National Bank (SNB) reduced the share of euros in the third quarter substantially from 60% in Q2 to 48% in Q3 and increased dollar and pound positions. The SNB bought 80 billion euros or more when the common currency was trading around 1.24$, especially at the end of …

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Did the SNB Front-Run ECB Decisions Far Ahead of Hedge Funds?

2012-10-30

by George Dorgan

2012-10-30

We think that the Swiss National Bank invested far more in Italian and Spanish bonds than analysts like Standard and Poor’s expected and was able to front-run ECB decisions. This new style of hedge funds, formerly called “central banks”, can refinance at zero percent and is able to show a lot better performance than the …

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SNB Monetary Data Week October 26

2012-10-29

by George Dorgan

2012-10-29

Seasonal effects, the good months for the SNB and the US economy, but weaker ones for emerging markets and Switzerland Despite the seasonal effects between October and March, the SNB is not able to sell currency reserves consistently. Traditionally the USD gets stronger and stocks rise over the autumn months till January. This year’s stocks appreciation was possibly already anticipated …

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SNB Monetary Data Week October 19

2012-10-22

by George Dorgan

2012-10-22

Seasonal effects, the good months for the SNB and the US economy, but weaker ones for emerging markets and Switzerland Given that the seasonal effects between October to March have started, the SNB might be able to sell some currency reserves. Traditionally both the USD gets stronger and stocks rise over the autumn months till January. This year’s stocks appreciation was …

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