Exchange Rate Prediction with Machine Learning and a Smart Carry Trade Portfolio

Mark Taylor, Ilias Filippou, David Rapach and Guofu Zhou

No 15305, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We establish the out-of-sample predictability of monthly exchange rate changes via machine learning techniques based on 70 predictors capturing country characteristics, global variables, and their interactions. To guard against overfi tting, we use the elastic net to estimate a high-dimensional panel predictive regression and find that the resulting forecast consistently outperforms the naive no-change benchmark, which has proven difficult to beat in the literature. The forecast also markedly improves the performance of a carry trade portfolio, especially during and after the global financial crisis. When we allow for more complex deep learning models, nonlinearities do not appear substantial in the data.

Keywords: Exchange rate predictability; Elastic net; Carry trade; Deep neural network (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C45 F31 F37 G11 G12 G15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-big, nep-cmp, nep-for, nep-ifn and nep-opm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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