DP341 Charts, Noise and Fundamentals: A Study of the London Foreign Exchange Market

Author(s): Mark P Taylor
Publication Date: September 1989
Keyword(s): Chartism, Exchange Rates, Forecasting, Foreign Exchange
JEL(s): 132, 431
Programme Areas: International Macroeconomics
Link to this Page: cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=341

Recent research in financial economics has concentrated on the role of non-economic, or non-fundamentalist, speculators in asset markets. This paper presents some empirical evidence concerning the nature and perceived importance of a major form of non-fundamentalist analysis, chartism, in the London foreign exchange market. It analyzes the results of a questionnaire survey on chartism conducted among chief foreign exchange dealers in the London market and data on a panel of chartists' one-week and four-week-ahead exchange rate predictions. The analysis suggests that a majority of chief dealers use at least some chartist input into their trading decisions, especially at the shorter time horizo.