CHINA’S domestic yuan traders appear to be more confident than their offshore counterparts that the currency’s turbulence will be contained around the US presidential election period.
A gauge of one-month implied volatility for the onshore yuan based on options is trading near the largest discount since 2022 to a similar measure for its offshore counterpart, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Part of the reason appears to be that local traders have greater conviction the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) will keep yuan fluctuations under control, even if the vote is won by Donald Trump, who has threatened to boost tariffs on Chinese goods.
“Onshore traders are at ease because the PBOC will be the backstop for any volatility,” said Mingze Wu, a currency trader at StoneX Group in Singapore. The offshore yuan “is a different story. I guess that’s the difference between having a security blanket versus not having one”, he said.
Both the onshore and offshore yuan have weakened this month as markets wound back bets on Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts and the US dollar has been boosted by the possibility of a Trump victory. The onshore yuan has fallen 1.2 per cent in October, while its offshore peer has dropped 1.6 per cent.
PBOC governor Pan Gongsheng said last month China will prevent the building of one-sided expectations in the currency market and seek to avoid any overshooting in the exchange rate. He also reiterated the yuan has a solid foundation to remain largely stable.
‘More drastic’
The central bank appears likely to intervene if the yuan keeps weakening, said Fiona Lim, a senior currency strategist at Malayan Banking in Singapore.
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If the advance in the US dollar-yuan pair accelerates, “the PBOC could step in with a counter-cyclical adjustment factor in its daily fixes, and the scenario of a Trump win would probably require more drastic measures to stabilise the yuan”, she said. The counter-cyclical factor refers to a tool the PBOC uses at certain times to guide its daily currency fixing.
There are a number of market players who are seeking to make a profit from the surge in option prices, according to traders.
The yuan’s implied volatility priced into option contracts for three-month and one-year tenors is lower than for the one-month gauge, reflecting expectations that any fluctuations in the currency are likely to abate shortly after the US election on Nov 5.
If Trump wins and the yuan starts to slide, “the PBOC could step in to manage expectations without hesitation, instead of permitting a freefall of the CNY or engineering CNY depreciation as a counter tool” to US tariffs, said Xiaojia Zhi, an economist at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong. BLOOMBERG
