The distribution of exchange rate returns and the pricing of currency options

Abstract

An empirical model of the distribution of exchange rate returns based on a combination of the generalized Student t distribution and conditional variance specifications, is formulated and estimated for four daily bilateral exchange rates over the period 1984 to 1991. The empirical results show that the stylized characteristics of exchange rate returns such as volatility clustering, leptokurtosis and skewness, are consistently captured by this model, in contrast with other model specifications based on more restrictive distributional assumptions. Implications of the analysis are also investigated for the pricing of currency options, including comparisons with Black-Scholes prices.