The Beneficial Aspect of FX Volatility for Market Liquidity

39 Pages Posted: 29 Apr 2017

See all articles by Jakree Koosakul

Jakree Koosakul

Bank of Thailand - Financial Markets Department; International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Ilhyock Shim

Bank for International Settlements (BIS)

Date Written: April 2017

Abstract

A substantial body of existing research suggests that asset price volatility is harmful to market liquidity. This paper explores a contrarian view that, by creating opportunities for profit making, exchange rate volatility can be beneficial to trading activity. Utilising granular data from the Thai foreign exchange (FX) market from January 2010 to March 2016, we find that the volatility of the US dollar-Thai baht exchange rate has significant positive effects on trading volume in the spot market, except at very high levels of volatility. We also observe significant heterogeneity in such effects across different types of market participant. In particular, FX volatility has positive effects on the FX trading activity of foreign and interbank players, but it negatively affects that of local players. These results are robust when we control for potential confounding variables, such as information arrivals, that can generate a positive but non-causal co-movement between volatility and volume.

Keywords: asset price volatility, foreign exchange market, investor type, market liquidity, nonlinear effect

JEL Classification: F31, G12

Suggested Citation

Koosakul, Jakree and Shim, Ilhyock, The Beneficial Aspect of FX Volatility for Market Liquidity (April 2017). BIS Working Paper No. 629, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2958188

Jakree Koosakul

Bank of Thailand - Financial Markets Department ( email )

273 Samsen Road
Watsamphraya
Bangkok, Phra Nakhon District
Thailand

International Monetary Fund (IMF) ( email )

700 19th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20431
United States

Ilhyock Shim (Contact Author)

Bank for International Settlements (BIS) ( email )

78F, Two International Finance Centre
8 Finance Street, Central
Hong Kong, n/a n/a
Hong Kong

HOME PAGE: http://www.bis.org/author/ilhyock_shim.htm

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