It's not a belief...When Citi starts a cascade...well it is real. Three or four years ago late one evening, I traded it live right here in ET... ES P.S. I no longer have the luxury of a friend sitting at a trading desk with a red phone. P.P.S. shopster trades the banks all the time...look for his thread.
that's what I used to think when they told me it was a trillion dollar market. But that doesn't meant that it's a trillion dollars in every pair every minute. A big bank can move a market quite a bit without much effort. Unlike speculators they may actually need to buy something, and when they do, they usually sell everything they have to clear out all the stops and THEN they start accumulating. At first it freaked me out when I saw those big long candles. Now I know it's just part of the deal. painting the tape? I don't know enough to comment. But you are correct, CB has a hard time driving down their currency on a sustained basis (although SNB has been doing pretty well for pretty long now.)
When the SNB links its currency to the Euro it stands ready to buy a very significant amount of Euros. Very few central banks can do that because they have ALREADY inflated themselves beyond recognition. If a guy eats right all year and indulges himself between Christmas and the New Year (or even between Thanksgiving and the New Year) the pounds he puts on are from a fit base. Very few countries have run their affairs in a responsible manner. The Swiss are an anomaly not an example of what others can do.