Category Archive: 1) SNB and CHF
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 …
Read More »
Read More »
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 (
Read More »
Read More »
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 …
Read More »
Read More »
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.
Read More »
Read More »
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. …
Read More »
Read More »
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...
Read More »
Read More »
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...
Read More »
Read More »
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 …
Read More »
Read More »
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 …
Read More »
Read More »
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 …
Read More »
Read More »
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 …
Read More »
Read More »
IMF Data: SNB Forex Reserves and Gold in September 2012
This link on the SNB website shows the data the central bank provides to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It shows the SNB Forex and gold reserves in the last month. It is so-called “IMF Special Data Dissemination Standard (SNB Data)” It is released together with the international investment position, some monetary aggregates and the balance of payments two weeks after …
Read More »
Read More »
Strange movement in EUR/CHF in Asia session, a possible explanation
Strange movement in the EUR/CHF in the Asian session today The Asian session was a risk-on session, it recovered some of yesterday’s losses. After yesterday’s rather good HSBC services PMI, Shanghai Composite was up today by 1.97%. Therefore safe-havens like the yen and the Swissie were under pressure. At first, some Forex traders …
Read More »
Read More »
SNB Monetary Data Week October 5
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 the United States and the USD dollar become stronger and stocks rise over the autumn months …
Read More »
Read More »
SNB Monetary Data Week of September 28
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 the United States and the USD dollar become stronger over the autumn months till …
Read More »
Read More »
Standard and Poor’s critique of the Swiss National Bank, part 1
Part 1: Swiss investments abroad [This paper includes some of the S&P critique, but also aims to clarify some of S&P’s misleading points] Last Thursday Thomas Moser, a member of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) governing council, said that one of the main reasons for the strong franc is the conversion of Swiss foreign incomes …
Read More »
Read More »
Do Swiss companies prefer to hold cash at the SNB instead of local banks ?
The most recent SNB monetary data show that more and more companies are increasing their deposits at the central bank at a quicker speed than local banks. Might this be missing trust in the Swiss banking system ?
Read More »
Read More »