Handbook of Exchange Rates

Praise for Handbook of Exchange Rates

“This book is remarkable. I expect it to become the anchor reference for people working in the foreign exchange field.”

―Richard K. Lyons, Dean and Professor of Finance, Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley

“It is quite easily the most wide ranging treaty of expertise on the forex market I have ever come across. I will be keeping a copy close to my fingertips.”

―Jim O’Neill, Chairman, Goldman Sachs Asset Management

How should we evaluate the forecasting power of models? What are appropriate loss functions for major market participants? Is the exchange rate the only means of adjustment? Handbook of Exchange Rates answers these questions and many more, equipping readers with the relevant concepts and policies for working in today’s international economic climate.

Featuring contributions written by leading specialists from the global financial arena, this handbook provides a collection of original ideas on foreign exchange (FX) rates in four succinct sections:

• Overview introduces the history of the FX market and exchange rate regimes, discussing key instruments in the trading environment as well as macro and micro approaches to FX determination.

• Exchange Rate Models and Methods focuses on forecasting exchange rates, featuring methodological contributions on the statistical methods for evaluating forecast performance, parity relationships, fair value models, and flow–based models.

• FX Markets and Products outlines active currency management, currency hedging, hedge accounting; high frequency and algorithmic trading in FX; and FX strategy-based products.

• FX Markets and Policy explores the current policies in place in global markets and presents a framework for analyzing financial crises.

Throughout the book, topics are explored in-depth alongside their founding principles. Each chapter uses real-world examples from the financial industry and concludes with a summary that outlines key points and concepts.

Handbook of Exchange Rates is an essential reference for fund managers and investors as well as practitioners and researchers working in finance, banking, business, and econometrics. The book also serves as a valuable supplement for courses on economics, business, and international finance at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels.

JESSICA JAMES, PhD, is a Managing Director and Co-Head of the Quantitative Solution Team at Commerzbank in London, where she is responsible for FX client risk advisory. She has published on the topics of credit derivatives and total return swaps and is the coauthor of Interest Rate Modelling (Wiley).

IAN W. MARSH, PhD, is Professor of Finance in the Cass Business School at City University London. Dr. Marsh has extensive consulting experience with companies including JPMorgan Chase, Morley Fund Managment, and the Royal Bank of Scotland. He currently focuses his research on credit risk transfer markets and the foreign exchange market.

LUCIO SARNO, PhD, is Associate Dean, Head of Faculty, and Professor of Finance in the Cass Business School at City University London. Dr. Sarno has extensive industry experience in consulting and trading foreign exchange for several major asset management companies and has contributed to policy, training, and research for the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, and the World Bank.