Japanese Grannies Trounce Kiwi Bank

Loving this people-power story in the Daily Telegraph which describes how Japanese old ladies have caused a run on the New Zealand currency which even the New Zealand central bank couldn’t stop:

Japan’s day-trading grannies and housewives have overwhelmed New Zealand’s central bank, driving the Kiwi dollar to record highs against the yen despite heavy intervention.

The bank’s attempt to hold the line by flooding the market with Kiwis from its reserve fund appears headed for failure as Japanese investors and hedge funds renew the assault.

Some 600,000 Japanese citizens have currency trading accounts. They are mostly women playing the futures markets, some making small fortunes using “Doji candlestick” chart techniques. Last year they traded an estimated $11bn (£5.5bn) a day.

The less nimble stick to ”uridashi” foreign-currency bonds to escape the miserable returns in Japan, where interest rates are still 0.5pc. The favourite target is New Zealand, now offering 8pc rates to check a property boom and surging food prices.

New Zealand’s intervention is the first time since 2000 that a central bank from the OECD club of rich countries has jumped directly into the currency markets to confront speculators.

While the shock move caused panic last week, the effect is rapidly wearing off. The Kiwi dollar has blasted through to a fresh high of yen93.16 against the yen.

Japanese grannies trounce Kiwi bank |Telegraph

Slightly tangental - we tried to find a photo for this story by typing ‘Japanese Granny’ into Google Image Search… surprising odd results from the big-algorythm-machine.