These FX options are becoming 'the Trump trade'
Repeats with no changes
Oct 16 (Reuters) -U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has regained his poll lead over Democratic rival Kamala Harris with only three weeks to go before the U.S. election and it's fuelling demand for options to hedge the risk of a stronger USD rebound.
USD call options give holders the right to buy the USD at levels that are advantageous to the FX spot rate, for an upfront premium. These options are in demand by funds to protect portfolios from more USD gains - a scenario deemed likely if Trump wins the election.
Risk reversals are FX options that allow holders to take advantage of FX volatility in a particular direction. They have seen their premiums increase for USD calls over USD puts amid the recent USD recovery - the right to buy the USD versus sell it. The benchmark 1-month expiry risk reversals are at new recent highs for USD versus many major currencies such as EUR, GBP and AUD.
Dealers also report increased demand for implied volatility and USD call strikes options on other expiry dates, with 6-12-months proving popular.
A French bank thinks AUD/USD could fall sharply in the event of a Trump win and recently published recommendations for AUD/USD downside strike options to hedge that risk.
The benchmark 1-month expiry FX option implied volatility has been elevated since including the U.S. election. Holders will be looking for realised volatility to outperform implied volatility over the election to return profits.
The biggest gainers have been 1-month expiry USD/MXN and USD/CNH, while 1-month expiry USD/JPY implied volatility is actually looking cheap.
For more click on FXBUZ
1-month expiry FXO implied volatility https://tmsnrt.rs/4f2io5l
USD/CNH 1-month expiry FXO implied volatility https://tmsnrt.rs/4f5M1Tp
EUR/USD 1-month expiry 25 delta risk reversals https://tmsnrt.rs/4h3RU5d
(Richard Pace is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)
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