Adventures in FX intervention

Discussion in 'Wall St. News' started by ASusilovic, Sep 8, 2010.

  1. Now, even by Japanese central banking standards, this… is weird.

    Via Citigroup’s FX wire on Wednesday:

    Apparently, the BoJ has been carrying out what a colleague calls “mock dry runs/drills in intervention” over last few days since it has been a while since it last intervened. Naturally I have had to ask what a mock dry run is exactly. “Has it opened up a demo account with a retail aggregator,” I asked. “That would be a novel way to intervene.”

    Cheeky Citi. Moving on (emphasis ours):

    Despite my scepticism, another colleague in Tokyo says testing, even if it isn’t with a retail platform, is entirely plausible. “We Japanese are pretty serious and diligent. The BoJ FX team turns over almost completely every three to four years.”

    In other words, there is nobody at the BoJ who has ever experienced the pleasure of wading into the market in the name of dampening down volatility — a description which has always struck me as odd given the carnage which invariable ensues.

    At the moment, intervention is seen as very anachronistic. If it does materialize, I wonder if we’ll see the revival of another 1980s practice – sticking the trades in the pension fund when it all goes wrong.

    We have images of BoJ bureaucrats dry-running their way through an obstacle course of straw-stuffed Mrs Watanabe mannequins.

    Either that, or the Bank of Japan has become really good at head-faking the FX market.

    http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2010/09/08/337646/adventures-in-fx-intervention/


    ROFL !!! :) :) :D :p