Reserve Currencies A reserve currency is defined as a currency held by government for international payment purposes. The most important usages are: Repay back international debt (generally issued in reserve currencies) Defend the domestic currency against depreciation Improve the government credit rating Reserve currencies are many. The IMF chooses the Read more…
Differences between historical realized volatility and option implied volatility has for long been known as a potential indicator for volatility mispricing. To our knowledge, the first well-known academic study on the topic was conducted by Goyal and Saretto in 2009 and published as the paper ‘Cross-section of Option Returns and Read more…
Introduction Volatility is a key feature of financial markets. It is commonly used as a measure for risk and is a common an indicator of the investors’ fear and concern about the future. While higher volatility means bigger profits and losses in a directional strategy (one which bets on a Read more…
The concept of risk parity is not well-known among market participants. However, its resiliency to different market environment makes it a very interesting capital allocation strategy. It was first theorized in the sixties by Ray Dalio – founder of Bridgewater Associates – when he tried to find an answer to Read more…
Brazil is coming from a three-year recessionary period, with an unemployment rate still above 12%. Despite this, the Bovespa index (IBOV), which is the top equity index for the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange and has 59 components, is up almost 10% since January 1st 2017 and up 70% since January Read more…
United States After reaching its weekly high at 2075, following good news from Facebook earnings, the S&P 500 fell to a low of 2033 and finished at a mid 2053 the end of earnings’ season. The Fed Once again proved to be Dovish and incapable of raising rates which drove Read more…
Oil has long been one of the main drivers of the worldwide economy and for this reason it is closely watched by all investors and traders. The central role of what, back in the days, was called the “Black gold” is given by its high cross asset correlation. It has Read more…
[edmc id= 3872]Download here the Market brief[/edmc] USA Earnings season is over and in the tech sector we observed important market reactions: the most notable one was AAPL 10% depreciation caused by its disappointing results. The hedge fund manager Karl Icahn expressed a bearish view on US stocks for the Read more…
[edmc id= 3846]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States Microsoft and Alphabet weighed heavily on the major US stock indices Friday when the two stocks fell 7.3% and 5.1% respectively following disappointing earnings reports published late Thursday. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 broke 2,100 for the first time since December, Read more…
[edmc id= 3619]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States Market sentiment improved this week, with major US indexes pushing higher on Super Tuesday: S&P 500 and Nasdaq surged 2.4% and 2.9% respectively, and election excitement increased risk-on appetite. S&P 500 finished at $1,999, up 2.7% on the week. Vix volalitily Read more…
[edmc id= 3544]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States S&P 500 began the week trading in the red but rose on rebounding oil prices, ending with a weekly gain of 1.6% to 1,947. Oil also ended the week up, with Brent up 6.3% at $35.10 per barrel, on the back Read more…
[edmc id= 3486]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States S&P 500 started the week off strong and closed 2.8% higher, at 1,917, on the back of an oil price rally. The rally was due to an agreement between major oil producers, including Russia and Saudi Arabia, to set crude output Read more…
[edmc id= 3343]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States US economic data came in mixed, giving supple reason for the volatility seen in financial markets. The S&P 500 is trading near 2014 lows, due to intense dollar weakness on the back of the futures market pricing in almost 0% chance Read more…
Can volatility indices provide useful signals on the “underlying” market? We tried to figure it out analysing some relations between the VIX and other indices provided by the Chicago Board Options Exchange. The VIX index, which is derived from prices of a basket of out-of-the-money options on the S&P500, represents Read more…
The VIX, known also as the Wall Street’s fear gauge, is the most common measure for expected volatility in the equity market. It is implicitly derived from the price of currently traded options on the S&P500 and over the years it evolved into an asset class of its own. Short-selling volatility Read more…