Category Archive: 1) SNB and CHF

History of SNB monetary policy assessments vs. economic data

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

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

  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

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

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

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?

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

  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

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

  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%

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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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SNB Monetary Data Week October 12

Seasonal effects, the good months for the SNB and the US economy, but weaker ones for emerging markets and Switzerland, have started 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 …

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