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Swiss Franc EUR/CHF - Euro Swiss Franc, March 16(see more posts on EUR/CHF, ) Source: Investing.com - Click to enlarge GBP/CHF Sterling vs the Swiss Franc has fallen again as the US Federal Reserve have raised interest rates last night. This has seen the Pound fall against most major currencies and the safe haven status of the Swiss Franc has once again helped to improve CHF/GBP rates We now also have the news...

Summary: Fed made mostly minor changes in the statement as it hiked the Fed funds rate for the third time in the cycle. The average and median dot for Fed funds crept slightly higher. There was only one dissent to the decision. The Federal Reserve delivered the much-anticipated rate hike. There was one dissent, the Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari. In the first paragraph of the FOMC statement tweaked the...

There is no change to the risk budget this month. For the moderate risk investor, the allocation between risk assets and bonds is unchanged at 50/50.  The Fed spent the last month forward guiding the market to the rate hike they implemented today. Interest rates, real and nominal, moved up in anticipation of a more aggressive Fed rate hiking cycle. Post meeting, a lot of the rise came out of the market. Nominal and...

A funny thing happened on the way to a low-risk environment: loans in default (non-performing loans) didn’t suddenly become performing loans. If we had to summarize what’s happened in eight years of “recovery,” we could start with this: everyone’s been pushed into risky assets while being told risk has been transformed from something to avoid (by buying risk-off assets) to something you chase to score essentially...

The Producer Price Index (PPI) or officially named "Producer and Import Price Index" describes the changes in prices for producers and importers. For us it is interesting because it is used in the formula for the Real Effective Exchange Rate. When producers and importers profit on lower price changes when compared to other countries, then the Swiss Franc reduces its overvaluation. The Swiss PPI values of -6% in 2015...

Swiss Franc EUR/CHF - Euro Swiss Franc, March 14(see more posts on EUR/CHF, ) - Click to enlarge FX Rates UK Prime Minister May got the parliamentary approval the courts ruled was necessary to formally trigger Article 50.   It is not clear what UK she will lead out the EU.  Scotland is beginning the legal proceedings to hold another referendum on independence.  There is some talk that Northern Ireland, which...

See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. Rumor-Mongering vs. Data The question on the lips of everyone who plans to exchange his metal for dollars—widely thought to be money—is why did silver go down? The price of silver in dollar terms dropped from about 18 bucks to about 17, or about 5 percent. The facile answer is manipulation. With no need of evidence —...

Long Term Technical Backdrop Constructive After a challenging Q4 in 2016 in the context of rising bond yields and a stronger US dollar, gold seems to be getting its shine back in Q1. The technical picture is beginning to look a little more constructive and the “reflation trade”, spurred on further by expectations of higher infrastructure spending and tax cuts in the US, has thus far also benefited gold. From a...

Summary: Confrontation with China has been dialed down. Criticism of the Fed has been walked back. There is less talk about the dollar. Employment data has been embraced. As a candidate, Trump took a hardline. China is manipulating its currency. The Federal Reserve is acting to help Clinton get elected. The jobs data is fake. Over the past week, the each of these three positions has been considerably softened. It is...

  Systematic Trading Based on Statistics Trading methods based on statistics represent an unusual approach for many investors. Evaluation of a security’s fundamental merits is not of concern, even though it can of course be done additionally. Rather, the only important criterion consists of typical price patterns determined by statistical examination of past trends. Systematic trading on the basis of statistical...