This year, the Japanese Yen has been the currency to watch. Earlier in the year, the Japanese Ministry of Finance (MOF) was forced to intervene twice, bringing the amounts spent since the 2022 inflation shock to a staggering 100 bn + USD to halt the Yen's depreciation!
There’s a saying that the Yen goes down the escalator and up the elevator. After the latest intervention in July, lower-than-expected inflation data and the surprise rise in US unemployment catapulted the Yen higher.
The market flipped from extremely Yen short to long, and the MOF could sigh with relief.
However, the Yen is slowly creeping down again. Potentially, asset inflationary US election results (e.g., Trump and Republicans sweeping the House) could spell some trouble for the MOF.
Just in case the market forces the MOF's hand again, we have an interesting research piece out there for other Yen aficionados, where we outline, among other things, our trading process for trading the interventions.