Abstract
This study examines the relationship between JPY/USD futures trading activities and foreign exchange intervention by the Bank of Japan from 1991 through 2000. It finds that there is a positive relationship between JPY/USD futures volume and volatility as predicted by the mixture of distribution hypothesis. This effect remains significant even when volume and volatility are conditioned on contemporaneous or lagged intervention by the Bank of Japan. It concludes that positive correlation between volume and volatility could result from information other than intervention by the Bank of Japan.
Notes
Lyons (Citation2000) provides a comprehensive review of the trading volume data in currency markets.
We exclude observations that have zero trading volume in the sample period.