Wednesday 12th June 2013 | The lowest selling rate for the US dollar jumped $15.33 to $97 in today’s trading. The highest buying rate also climbed but by a smaller $1.05. the highest rate for the pound climbed by 90 cents today and the lowest buying rates moved up $1.12 for the pound while the British currency was sold at the highest rate of $1.08 more than yesterdays $159.12 but the currency was sold at it lowest of $2 less than on Tuesday.

Once again, the amount of funds purchased exceeded the amounts sold as a total of $29.69 million US equivalent was purchased while selling amounted to US$28.3 million as all the rates moved up with the buying rates climbing the most for the Pound Sterling and Canadian Dollar by $1.02 and $1.58 respectively.

The selling rate for the US dollar inched up another 16 cents the same as yesterday and the Canadian 15 cents and the Pound 60 cents.

Tuesday, 11th June 2013 | A total of US$31.1 million of foreign was purchased in today’s foreign exchange trading and US$26.7 million sold, but $24.26 million in US dollars were purchased and $21.3 million were sold at an average rate of J$100.30, 16 cents more than on Monday. Buying took place 3 cents lower than on Monday at $99.41. Buying of the Canadian and the Pound were once more greater than the amounts sold.

The Canadian was purchased for 38 cents less and the Pound for $1.76 more than on Monday. Selling took place at 6 cents less for the Canadian and 70 cents more for the pound.

The highest buying rate for the US dollar actually fell marginally but the selling rates moved up to 21 cents for the highest sell rate and 26 cent for the highest sell rate. All the rates for the Canadian dollar rose noticeably while those for the Pound were mixed with the lowest selling rate rising $3 and the highest sell rate shedding $1.70.

Monday, 10th June 2013 | The selling of US dollars to purchase BOJ bond instruments seems to have come to a halt in Monday’s trading as the buying of foreign exchange exceeded selling for the first time since the week ending May 31. Authorized dealers purchased US$32.78 million and sold US $30.16 million. C$1.2 million was purchased and C$933,500 was sold. GBP1.9 million was purchased and GBP985,000 was sold.

All the rates moved up marginally except the buying rate of pound sterling which moved up quite a bit. The movements in rates were more moderate than on Friday.

The US dollar put on 19 cents on the buying side while just barely inching up 6 cents on the sell side. For the Canadian dollar it took 10 cents more to buy the dollar while selling cost 49 cents more and for pound sterling the buying rate rose by $1.57 to $153.18 and selling rose to $155.64, some 20 cents more.

On Friday the US$ buying rate increased by 22 cents and the selling rate was up 15 cents, while the Canadian dollar buying rate was up $1.60, and the selling rate gained  81 cents. Buying rate down $2.30, selling rates up $0.56.

Friday, 7th June 2013 | The Jamaican dollar hit the dreaded $100 mark to the US dollar on Friday but Bank of Jamaica seems to have been the major buyer of the foreign funds as opposed to serious speculation of the local dollar. The central bank, in response to an ICInsider query, stated, “please note that Jamaica Dollar liquidity conditions were constrained during last week (3-7 June), given fairly strong subscriptions to the longer tenors of BOJ instruments on offer. In that context, several institutions sold USD to BOJ to shore up their Jamaica Dollar positions.”

Trading patterns seemed odd for the past two weeks as the dealers bought US$17 million more in the week ending May 31 but sold substantially more than they bought in the week ending on Friday, in a scenario that did not appear to be buying pressure even as the average selling rate slipped to hit J$100 to the US dollar on Friday.

In a market where demand was greater that supply, dealers would most likely be selling what they purchased and not much more as occurred during the current week. This suggested that they were switching from foreign currency holdings to local currency and this was supported by the presence of the two bonds that were on the market with that objective in mind. The bonds that were put out by Bank of Jamaica was to tighten Jamaican dollar liquidity and pump more foreign currencies into the central bank coffers closed on Friday.

Dealers bought US$24.65 million on Friday and sold $37.97 million, they bought GBP2.35 million and sold GBP800,986 and sold C$866,000 while buying C$1.25 million.

Wednesday & Thursday, 6th & 7th June 2013

USD | Trading on the foreign exchange market has seen heavy buying of the US dollars by end users compared with much less buying by authorised dealers for the past four trading days. Thursday trades were no exception as $18.4 million US dollars were purchased while $33.8 million were sold. The rates moved up to an average of $99.04 on the buying side and $99.93 on the sell side up 21 cents for the day.

In Wednesdays trading, US$23.6 million were purchased and US$38.5 million were sold while the buying rate went up 27 cents to $98.99 and the sell rate climbed 12 cents to $99.72.

CND | The Canadian dollar climbed on the buying side by 24 cent to $95 but fell for selling by 15 cents to $97.09 with C$780,908 bought and C$516,282 sold.

On Wednesday C$685.658 was bought and C$451,935 sold with the buying rate falling by 88 cents to $94.76 and the selling rate rising to $97.24 up 35 cents.

GBP  | The Pound Sterling traded £3.18 million at a buying rate of $153.91 up $3.14 from Wednesday’s buying rate and £2.48 million was sold at an average rate of $154.88 up $2.10 on the day. On Wednesday £1.76 were purchased at an average arte of $150.77 up 70 cents from Tuesday and selling amounted to £501,000 at a rate of $152.77 up 35 cents.

Tuesday, 4th June 2013 | Trading levels moderated in the foreign exchange market with much less currency changing hands. The equivalent of US$27.9 million, were purchased and US$35.57 million sold. US$23 million were purchased at an average rate of $98.72 actually 16 cents less than on Monday and US$32.6 million sold at an average rate of $99.61, just one cent more than on Monday.

While the US dollar was pretty, dealers forked out $1.28 more on average for the Canadian dollar but they only sold it for 27 cents more than the day before and in the case of the Pound Sterling, it cost $1 more on both the buy and sell side to exchange the currency than on Monday.

Buying of Pound sterling and Canadian dollars exceeded the amounts that were sold for these currencies once again.

One US dollar was purchased as high as $100 and the highest sell rate stood at $104.49.

Monday, 3rd June 2013 | It was a big day in the foreign exchange market today as selling out paced buying and the rates slipped with the US dollar close once more to the J$100 market with just 40 cents separating them on the sell side. In all, the total amount of currency traded amounted to the equivalent of US$46.5 million and they sold the equivalent of US$71 million.

US$42.7 million was purchased with US$69.1 million being sold. There was Can$1 million purchased with Can$691,000 sold. £1.66 million pounds were purchased and £1 million was sold. On average, it took 22 cents more to buy US dollars and selling took place at an average of 15 cents more. The authorised dealers bought the Canadian currency for 20 cents less on Monday that on Friday and they sold them at 13 cents more. For the Pound sterling dealers bought the pound at 72 cents more and sold for 11 cents more than on Friday. There was hardly any change to the highest and lowest rates for the US dollar. The Canadian dollar and the pound sterling mostly increased except for the lowest buying rate for the Canadian.

Friday, 31 May 2013 | The local foreign currency market seems odd at best. There is more buying by financial institutions than they are selling, to the extent that they are picking up the currency for less than the did yesterday but buyers form these institutions are buying at higher and higher rates. The amount of currency bought on Friday amounted to US$30.46 million and the equivalent of US$28.1 million were sold. For the entire week the authorized dealers bought $16.8 million more than they sold with only Monday being a day of sales exceeding purchases. The signals are at best conflicting.

Oblivious to some traders is the fact that the country’s central bank is using open market methods to mop up excess liquidity from the system. Additionally, although the IMF or some executive may say the Jamaican dollar is still overvalued and adjustments are needed is not to say that the currency needs to move in nominal terms. There are other methods that can get greater level of competitiveness in the system. One such is tax reform that can lower the cost of production if properly applied, another is to allow the recent tax package and the effect of government reducing their spending to have moderating effect on inflation and therefore improve the competitiveness of the currency.

Regardless the selling rate for the US dollar climbed today by 11 cents to close at J$99.45, the pound sterling climbed 97 cents to close at J$151.29 and the Canadian closed at $96.48 up just 6 cents. But while Jamaican were paying more for funds from the institutions that trade in foreign currencies the finance houses were paying the public less for the funds. In the case of the US dollar it was 3 cents less , 55 cents less for the Canadian and 34 cents less for the pound sterling. Is the public more knowledgeable than the banks and cambios?

Wednesday 29 May, 2013 | The level of buying of foreign currency climbed as Wednesday trades topped the high level of Tuesday’s trading. Although the amount bought out-paced the amounts sold, the selling rate for the US dollar inched up for the third day in a row. Buying ($40 million) exceeded selling for the second day in a row and selling was in the mid $30 million range. The US dollar selling rate went up by 8 cents and the pound sterling gained 26 cents while the Canadian dollar fell by 97 cents.

At the same time the central bank launched two new variable rate instruments to manage liquidity effective Friday May 29.

A 184-day Certificate of Deposit, for an unlimited amount. The instrument re-prices quarterly at 0.15 percentage point above the 3-month GOJ Treasury Bill rate existing at the start of each re-pricing period. The initial coupon for the first three months is 6.77 per cent per annum. This offer is extended to all Primary Dealers and commercial banks from 29 May 2013 to 07 June 2013.

An 18-month Certificate of Deposit, for an unlimited amount. The instrument re-prices quarterly at 0.25 percentage point above the 3-month GOJ Treasury Bill rate existing at the start of each re-pricing period. The initial coupon for the first three months is 6.87 per cent per annum. This offer is extended to all Primary Dealers and commercial banks from 29 May 2013 to 07 June 2013.

The move suggests that the central bank is more than comfortable with the existing rate of the Jamaica dollar versus the main intervention currency the US dollar.