Quote from Cutten:
Relative to past forex vol, they are higher than the norm, yes. But relative to the size of long-term forex moves, they are fairly low. If you are trading pure direction, it's the premium as a % of the expected move that determines how cheap the option is.
Then your prediction is that implied vol is underestimated. Here are the current vol curves:
Sunday, January 13, 2008 2:30:00 PM
[LAST UPDATE - 22:30 GMT] [EUR/JPY QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS]
! IMPLIED VOLATILITY .. HISTORIC VOLATILITY !
.LAST . Z .%RANK.YR HI .YR LOW.YR AVG LAST . Z .YR HI .YR LOW.YR AVG
1 WK 7.20 -0.4 5.3 13.00 5.30 7.53 5.78 -0.2 21.16 0.00 6.20
1 MO 7.10 -0.3 8.0 10.35 5.65 7.26 6.42 -0.2 12.59 0.00 6.70
2 MO 7.10 -0.2 8.4 9.50 5.75 7.19 9.64 0.4 10.19 0.00 8.84
3 MO 7.10 -0.2 9.9 9.00 5.85 7.16 9.07 0.4 9.22 0.00 8.26
6 MO 7.05 -0.1 9.1 8.20 6.05 7.08 7.32 0.3 7.45 0.00 6.91
1 YR ' 7.05'-0.1' 11.4' 7.85' 6.25' 7.06'' 7.40' 0.2' 7.60' 0.00' 7.16
[ IMP VS SPOT CORRELATION ] [IMP VS HIST CORRELATION] [30D IMP/HIST RATIO ]
.30 DAY 60 DAY 90 DAY.. 30 DAY 60 DAY 90 DAY .. LAST MEAN Z
1 WK 0.00 0.00 0.00 N/A N/A N/A 1.25 1.25
1 MO 0.00 N/A N/A N/A -0.38 0.12 1.11 1.11
2 MO 0.00 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 0.74 0.74
3 MO 0.00 N/A N/A 1.19 -2.11 N/A 0.78 0.78 0.01
'6 MO ' N/A N/A 0.00 '' -3.99 N/A -0.31 '' 0.96 0.96
30d implied vols are trading 11% over stat. 60d is trading at a discount. 30d is typically the most reliable vol-line and indicative of OTC traded vols. The long calendar trade has been unwound, hence the term-structure anomaly. Time to go long calendars on yen. IOW, I believe vol has peaked. Data from IFR Markets.