SNB sets franc floor at CHF1.20 versus euro.

Quote from DT-waw:
The Swiss government has basically told the world that they will print as much money as it takes, and buy up as much crap sovereign debt as they can, to competitively devalue the currency.

This essentially puts Switzerland in the same sinking boat as Italy, Greece, and Portugal… with one key difference: Switzerland has 0% interest rates.

In other words, you can now borrow in francs at 0% and buy government-backed euro garbage yielding 5%, 10%, 30%…. with absolutely no downside currency risk.


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-immediate-effect
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That's the usual ZH bullsh1t. Firstly, the SNB doesn't buy crap sov debt. In EUR, they only buy Germany and, to a lesser extent, the other AAA Eurozone sovereigns (France and Austria). They also diversify their reserves into a variety of ccies other than the EUR, so they buy lots of CAD and JPY and, more recently, Scandies.

And yes, you can now borrow CHF at 0% and buy EUR-denominated govt debt that yields whatever. However, it's stupid to mention "no downside currency risk", 'cause if you buy Greek paper, the last thing you're worried about is ccy risk. Moreover, how is it suddenly news that you can borrow francs at 0%? You could borrow CHF at below 50bps for the past 2 years.
 
Quote from Martinghoul:

However, it's stupid to mention "no downside currency risk", 'cause if you buy Greek paper, the last thing you're worried about is ccy risk.
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if you're an private individual, yes.
if you're a big bank, you don't care.
lose money on greek bonds? the central bank will bail you out.

make money on greek bonds/chf arb? you're talented speculator, the bonus is yours.
 
Quote from DT-waw:
if you're an private individual, yes.
if you're a big bank, you don't care.
lose money on greek bonds? the central bank will bail you out.

make money on greek bonds/chf arb? you're talented speculator, the bonus is yours.
More...
Well, it's not quite that easy... Arnd these here parts, if you lose money on Greeek bonds, you'll lose your job, at the very least. You will also likely get sued, although it would depend.
 
Quote from DT-waw:


make money on greek bonds/chf arb? you're talented speculator, the bonus is yours.
More...

Publicizing lost and privatizing gain are very common practices in financial world, it is so common, it seems criminally beyond belief.
Anyway, no one is bigger than the market, intervention is hardly working in long run, Japan is good example.
 
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