Free Trial

Dovish Fed Fuelling Demand for JPY Upside

OPTIONS
  • The Fed decision and subsequent USD sell-off helped fuel the late market for FX options yesterday, helping tip daily options notional above $100bln for the first time this month. Activity is suitably higher again early Thursday, with clear demand for USD/JPY, AUD/USD, EUR/JPY and CHF/JPY evident across late Asia/early Europe hours.
  • Solid trade in JPY upside is observed across a number of crosses, evident in the put/call ratio of 2.4 so far Thursday. Put strikes in focus include Y140.00 and Y141.00, but demand is noted as low as Y137.00. Reflecting the demand for OTM puts, the front-end of the risk reversals is under pressure, pushing 3m risk reversals to print the largest skew in favour of puts over calls since May.
  • The move in spot today has pushed USD/JPY below a large part of the more sizeable strikes rolling off after the BoJ decision next week, helping 1-week USD/JPY vols crest at new multi-month highs of 18.7 points today – despite the Fed decision now being in the rear view mirror.

To read the full story

Close

Why MNI

MNI is the leading provider

of intelligence and analysis on the Global Fixed Income, Foreign Exchange and Energy markets. We use an innovative combination of real-time analysis, deep fundamental research and journalism to provide unique and actionable insights for traders and investors. Our "All signal, no noise" approach drives an intelligence service that is succinct and timely, which is highly regarded by our time constrained client base.

Our Head Office is in London with offices in Chicago, Washington and Beijing, as well as an on the ground presence in other major financial centres across the world.