Fixed Income and Currency Strategist

Gautam Jain, PhD, CFA

Gautam Jain has over 25 years of experience covering global emerging fixed income and currency markets, both as a strategist and a portfolio manager. He has worked in buy-side and sell-side firms, including The Rohatyn Group (TRG Management), Barclays Capital, and Millennium Partners. He has helped manage emerging markets local-currency and hard-currency debt funds. The assets that he covers include currencies, interest rates, sovereign credits, and related derivatives. He specializes in portfolio construction, smart-beta index creation, and asset allocation. Mr. Jain holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Columbia University and is a CFA charter holder.

Speculative Long Dollar Positions Highest Since 2019

Alpha Bites: Long Indian Rupee (INR) Vs Short Indonesian Rupiah (IDR)

Not All Winners Are Equal: 2021 EM FX Outliers and Implications for 2022

Alpha Bites: Long Hungarian Forint (HUF) Vs Short Czech Koruna (CZK)

How Effective Has the Euro Hedge Been for EM FX?

Alpha Bites: Performance Summary of Trade Recommendations – November 2021

Battle Lines Drawn As BABA Builds Out First/Last-Mile Capacity; But Who Will Fund 75+ Bn CNY CapEx?

FX & Rates

<ul>
<li>The volatility of the US dollar has risen sharply in recent weeks with the dollar appreciating strongly starting in early November but coming off the highs on the Omicron variant.</li>
<li>I expect the dollar's volatility to stay high whether the Omicron variant turns out to be as big a threat to the economic recovery as feared or not.</li>
<li>For EM currencies, the environment is therefore likely to be less supportive and it's best to hedge exposures with the euro and consider beta-neutral relative-value trades.</li>
</ul>


The volatility of the US dollar has risen sharply in recent weeks with the dollar appreciating strongly starting in early November but coming off the highs on the Omicron variant.
I expect the dollar's volatility to stay high whether the Omicron variant turns out to be as big a threat to the economic recovery as feared or not.
For EM currencies, the environment is therefore likely to be less supportive and it's best to hedge exposures with the euro and consider beta-neutral relative-value trades.


Implications of Higher Dollar Volatility for EM Currencies

Dollar Index

Implications of Higher Dollar Volatility for EM Currencies