Dispersion of Beliefs in the Foreign Exchange Market

46 Pages Posted: 11 Jun 2008

See all articles by Ron Jongen

Ron Jongen

Dutch Central Bank (DNB)

Willem F. C. Verschoor

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, School of Business and Economics; Tinbergen Institute

Christian C. P. Wolff

University of Luxembourg; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Remco C. J. Zwinkels

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Tinbergen Institute

Date Written: March 2008

Abstract

This paper analyzes the sources of the differential beliefs of market participants in the foreign exchange market and their relative role in forming exchange rate expectations. We find that there are distinct periods of high and low dispersion and document that dispersion arises because of a combined effect of market participants holding individual information and attach different weights to some elements of the common information set. In addition to these two effect, we also document evidence of the existence of different types of agents and find that chartist rules are predominantly used at the shorter spectrum of the forecast horizon and fundamentalist rules are predominantly used at the longer spectrum of the forecast horizon. Finally, our evidence suggests that the relationship between market volatility and trader dispersion tends to be significant and positive for different measures of both trader heterogeneity and market volatility.

Keywords: exchange rates, expectations, heterogeneity, survey data

JEL Classification: F31

Suggested Citation

Jongen, Ron and Verschoor, Willem F. C. and Wolff, Christian C. P. and Zwinkels, Remco C.J., Dispersion of Beliefs in the Foreign Exchange Market (March 2008). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP6738, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1141644

Ron Jongen (Contact Author)

Dutch Central Bank (DNB) ( email )

P.O. Box 98
Amsterdam, 1000 AB
Netherlands

Willem F. C. Verschoor

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, School of Business and Economics ( email )

De Boelelaan 1105
Amsterdam, 1081 HV
Netherlands

Tinbergen Institute ( email )

Gustav Mahlerplein 117
Amsterdam, 1082 MS
Netherlands

Christian C. P. Wolff

University of Luxembourg ( email )

6, rue Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi
Kirchberg Campus
Luxembourg, South 1359
Luxembourg

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

Remco C.J. Zwinkels

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam ( email )

De Boelelaan 1105
Amsterdam, NH 1081 HV
Netherlands
+31205985220 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://research.vu.nl/en/persons/remco-zwinkels

Tinbergen Institute ( email )

Burg. Oudlaan 50
Rotterdam, 3062 PA
Netherlands

HOME PAGE: http://tinbergen.nl/person/1574/remco-zwinkels

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