Swiss Franc

For those who trade the CHF (and by risk extension, gold) the following observations by the boss of FX concepts may be of particular interest.

The USDCHD just printed at 0.9780, the lowest ever in history. The dollar obliteration, and the rush to safety away from the psychopaths of the Federal Reserve continues. Surely the destruction that the Fed is reaping everywhere will get investors to regain their confidence in what is now nothing more than a battlefield where the central bankers of the world can conduct their own little pissing contest while the HFT algos watch in awe and buy shit.

EURCHF has just taken out all stops as it plunged by almost 60 pips in the span of a few minutes as Japan opens.... Which opened about 2% down... Which goes to show just the idiocy levels of our markets - there was nothing incremental from last night's BoJ decision, so the Nikkei should have been dropping then. But instead it decided to trade way higher and only plunge once Made In New York Atari algos told it it was safe to plunge. Either way, set your alarm clocks to around 5 am, which is when the SNB tends to intervene most often, and have those upside EURCHF stops ready, as the pair is wound so tight it is just waiting for the Hildebrand match: the (very temporary) bounce, which will cost the SNB another CHF10 billion will likely send the CHF about 150-200 pips lower, only to retrace all losses imminently. Either way, tomorrow will be a day of fireworks. Also, time to put on all those way out of the money GTC bids.

Just looking at the pieces of the puzzle.

The UBS Private Wealth Management team seems to think so. In a report titled "Franc loans might become a threat for Switzerland" the UBS economists analyze the impact of the surging EURCHF (last at 1.33, not to mention the USDCHF which is quickly going to parity), combined with the over $500 billion in Swiss franc loans lent abroad to banks and non-banks, that "The franc's rapid appreciation remains painful for foreign borrowers, as the amount of their franc-denominated debt has increased remarkably in their local currencies. The franc would receive further support if borrowers were to switch their loans into local currencies at some point in the future, as they would have to unwind their franc short positions." In other words, should a positive feedback loop be activated, the already dramatic squeeze in the covering of CHF positions will accelerate dramatically, likely pushing the CHF far beyond parity and causing major pain for both the local Swiss manufacturing industry and offshore lenders who join the unwind party late. Quote UBS: "At some point, franc borrowers might realize that the franc might stay strong for longer, which could induce them to switch their loans. While the franc is affected by many factors, should the borrowers of franc loans at some point decide to switch their loans into local currencies, it could support the franc further, as the borrowers have to unwind their franc short positions. We therefore conclude that the large amount of outstanding Swiss franc loans to foreign countries remains a threat for the Swiss economy."

Now that it has been made clear that the BIS and its member banks engage in gold swaps, which imply that gold price volatility has to be kept to a minimum, thus inviting the opportunity for, gasp, manipulation, Europe, once again seeing spiking commercial paper rates (yeah, that whole myth about dramatically better money markets was vastly exaggerated), was scratching its head earlier today as to what is a good safe haven for capital. And judging by the EURCHF chart below the answer soon presented itself. After getting sold in droves by the SNB last night as the Swiss Bank was intervening in the pair (contrary to posturing otherwise), today the market is once again testing the bank's resolve,to load up even more euros on its already burgeoning balance sheet.

Well that was quick. On June 17 the SNB announced it was ending currency interventions. After much ridicule, a straight line appreciation, and a SNB balance sheet bloated with euros, the SNB has realized the folly of its non-interventionist ways in a manipulative, Keynesian world, and at midnight eastern time came storming back into FX intervention by gobbling up another roughly ten billion in EUR, causing a 200 pip spike in the EURCHF. And as we have discussed previously, such episodes of lunacy do nothing but load up the country's balance sheet with even more euros, while the intervention half time is so low now to be negligible. Bloomberg reports, "The franc is already expensive but above 1.30 it will become a serious issue,” said David Kohl, deputy chief economist at Julius Baer Holding AG in Frankfurt. “They’ll wait for the right moment to punish speculators. It’s only a question of time, the appreciation is simply too fast." Unfortunately for the SNB it will be speculators who have the last laugh, and with Switzerland now the target of every new deposit account opened in a bank-distrustful Europe, nothing that the SNB does will matter to curb the inflow of funds.

With the ECB determined to hold the EURUSD above 1.20 for the time being, the question of whether the EUR will hit parity with the CHF first is becoming more topical. The Swiss currency has been dropping consistently every single day, and just hit a fresh all time high against the EUR at 1.3491, and looks like it will hit parity with the so called reserve currency within the month. Even as gold is once again on fire (+ $10 so far today), investors have suddenly realized that with all of Europe moving its deposits to Swiss banks, it may in fact be the Swiss currency that is safest out there, backed by an increasing amount of deposits, and not to mention, gold. Should the Fed indeed announce a $5 trillion QE expansion as predicted by AEP yesterday, and Bob Janjuah a month ago, look for the "risk haven" currency to promptly regain its place as everyone's favorite short, leaving just the CHF on top, especially since the SNB now appears to have given up on intervention for good.

The SNB has released provisional data indicating FX investments on its balance sheet have exploded by 50% in just the last month, to CHF 232 billion from CHF 153 billion, is indicative of a rate of FX intervention in the market more than double the prior record set in April! All this has occurred as the SNB has tried to keep the EURCHF above 1.40. It has now officially failed at this attempt, as the Euro just hit a fresh all time low against the Franc of 1.3763. Furthermore, recent market talk indicates that the SNB will no longer directly intervene in the pair, thus confirming that there is likely much more room for CHF appreciation in the near term, and more pain for Eastern European countries, where the bulk of real estate bubble borrowing has been denominated in CHFs. In the meantime the side effects of consistent SNB intervention are hard to miss: the Swiss balance sheet has increased to 3 times its pre-2009 average. Unlike the US, it is not loaded up with toxic GSE filth but merely with currencies increasingly backed by such filth, such as euros.

A 3 bps move in a currency in a short period of time is the endgame for any FX trader. The ECB is now indirectly performing stealth operations via the SNB. And as the net result is a weaker EURUSD, one could see the Fed's finger in this.

As we expected yesterday, when we pointed out that the CHF has hit a 10 year high against the euro, the Swiss National Bank confirmed that it was likely one step away from curbing "excessive appreciation" of its currency. SNB president Phillip Hildebrand said that “we can’t fully rule out deflation threats in the case of
renewed external shocks,” Hildebrand, who took over the helm of
the SNB in January, said at an event in St. Gallen, Switzerland,
today. “An excessive appreciation of the franc against the euro
would for example be such a shock.” Well, the appreciation can't really go much higher, as "the franc appreciated for an eighth day today and was 0.2
percent stronger at 1.4323 per euro as of 12:40 p.m. in Zurich.
It reached 1.4309 yesterday, the highest since the euro’s debut
in 1999." In the meantime, those buying straddles on the CHF is multiplying, with the expectation of repeating a little piece of Soros history.

Currency devaluation is here: Traders seeing SNB intervention to weaken frank. Swiss Bank unavailable for comment.