Limits to arbitrage during the crisis: funding liquidity constraints and covered interest parity

Tommaso Mancini Griffoli and Angelo Ranaldo

No 2010-14, Working Papers from Swiss National Bank

Abstract: Arbitrage normally ensures that covered interest parity (CIP) holds. Until recently, excess profits, if any, were documented to last merely seconds and reach a few pips. Instead, this paper finds that following the Lehman bankruptcy, these were large, persisted for months and involved strategies short in dollars. Profits are estimated by specifying the arbitrage strategy as a speculator would actually implement it, considering both unsecured and secured funding. Either way, it seems that dollar funding constraints kept traders from arbitraging away excess profits. The claim finds support in an empirical analysis drawing on several novel high frequency datasets of synchronous quotes across securities, including transaction costs.

Keywords: Arbitrage limits; covered interest parity; funding liquidity; financial crisis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F31 G01 G14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (46)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Limits to Arbitrage during the Crisis: Finding Liquidity Constraints and Covered Interest Parity (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:snb:snbwpa:2010-14

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