Why diverting more UK aid to fund cost of hosting refugees would be a mistake
Apr 26, 2017 07:53 am UTC| Insights & Views
There has been an ongoing debate over the British governments commitment to spend 0.7% of the UKs gross national income (GNI) on foreign aid. First achieved in 2013, and enshrined in law by the Conservative-Liberal...

Japan has turned its culture into a powerful political tool
Apr 26, 2017 07:49 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics
Much has been made of Japans recent turn away from pacifism and growing military muscle, but Tokyo is also extending its global reach in more subtle ways. Japan is especially serious about increasing its soft power, the...

FxWirePro: Uphold AUD/NZD call flies amid tepid IVs ahead of more dovish RBA
Apr 26, 2017 07:30 am UTC| Central Banks Research & Analysis Insights & Views
RBAs monetary policy meeting is scheduled on May 2nd; Aprils central banks board meeting minutes has been more dovish than previous months. 1Q CPI next weeks focus; we forecast headline at 0.6% q/q and core at 0.4%...
FxWirePro: Yet another geopolitical calamity to pave the way for ECB
Apr 25, 2017 13:11 pm UTC| Insights & Views Central Banks
The conventional wisdom was proven right in France last night, and another political earthquake averted. Macron looks likely to win the French presidency in the runoff vote on May 7. Macron is the most pro-EU of the...

FxWirePro: USD/ZAR Options KOs to tackle elevated skew-to-vol ratio
Apr 25, 2017 13:06 pm UTC| Research & Analysis Insights & Views
The implied volatility of the South African rand is the highest among EMFX space, though not unjustifiably expensive versus realized volatility, which makes any vanilla USDZAR put option expensive. Skew is also...

FxWirePro: How do you keep KRW risk reversals on check? Butterfly spreads in play
Apr 25, 2017 12:39 pm UTC| Research & Analysis Insights & Views
The explosion in KRW risk-reversals in response to geopolitical developments around North Korea has garnered a lot of attention. The 1.5 pt. the spike in 1Y 25D riskies is understandable when risks around a baseline...

Apr 25, 2017 11:41 am UTC| Research & Analysis Insights & Views
GBP vols bounced this week after PM May called a snap general election. 1M ATMs are up 0.5 pts. on the week, while 2M expiries that cover the June 8th election date are 0.7 pts. higher to account for the increased event...