ABSTRACT
Covid-19 salgınının ortaya çıkmasından sonra dünya çapında ekonomik çalkantılar ve şiddetli piyasa düşüşlerinin ortaya çıktığı görülmüştür. Bu dönemde hisse senedi piyasalarına yatırım yapmış ajanlar için hedge ve/veya güvenli liman araçları arayışları artmıştır. Kripto paralar ve altın özellikle gelişmekte olan ülke piyasalarındaki yatırımcılar için hedge ve/veya güvenli liman olma konusunda iyi potansiyellere sahiptir. Bu çalışmada, Borsa Ístanbul için Bitcoin, Etherium, Ripple, Litecoin ve altın piyasalarının hedge ve/veya güvenli liman piyasalar olup olmadığı, GARCH(1,1) hata terimleri varsayımı altında modellenmiş regresyon sistemi yardımı ile araştırılmıştır. Analizlerde örneklem olarak 4 Eylül 2017 – 30 Mart 2022 tarihleri arasındaki günlük frekanslı verilerden faydalanılmıştır. Ayrıca, Covid-19 salgın dönemi etkilerini ayrıştırmak için örneklem iki alt gruba ayrılmış ve tahminler Covid-19 öncesi dönem (31 Aralık 2019 öncesi) ve Covid-19 dönemi (31 Aralık 2019 ve sonrası) için ayrı ayrı analiz edilmiştir.A.B.D. doları cinsinden elde edilmiş kripto para (BTC, ETH, XRP, LTC), altın ve BÍST100 endeks getirileri kullanılarak bulunan tahmin sonuçlarına göre, tüm örneklem için Litecoin zayıf güvenli liman olarak ortaya çıkarken, Covid-19 öncesi dönemde Bitcoin ve Etherium zayıf hedge, Covid-19 salgın döneminde de Etherium zayıf güvenli liman olma özellikleri göstermektedir. Tüm örneklem ve salgın öncesi dönem verileri söz konusu olduğunda, BÍST100 endeks getiri dağılımının %10 çeyrek değerinden az olduğu durumlarda Bitcoin, Etherium ve Ripple güvenli liman piyasalar olarak gözlemlenirken, salgın döneminde altın, BÍST100 endeks getiri dağılımının %1 çeyrek değerinden az olduğu durumlarda güvenli bir liman olarak ortaya çıkmıştır. Fakat tüm analizlere dayanarak, altının genel görünümüyle BÍST100 endeksi için hedge veya güvenli limandan çok bir çeşitlendirici varlık olarak öne çıktığı söylenebilir.Alternate :After the Covid-19 outbreak, economic turmoil and severe market crashes have been observed around the world. During this crisis period, cyriptocurrencies and gold have become potentially good hedge and/or safe haven assets for especially the stock investors in emerging markets. This study investigates whether or not Bitcoin, Etherium, Ripple, Litecoin and gold markets have hedge and/or safe-haven properties for Borsa Ístanbul through a regression system modeled under the assumption of GARCH(1,1) error terms. Daily frequency data covering the period September 4, 2017 through March 30, 2022 is used in the sample analysis. In addition, to separate out the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the analysis, full sample is divided into two subgroups and the estimations are made separately for the pre-Covid-19 period (before 31 December 2019) and the Covid-19 period (31 December 2019 and later).According to the estimation results, Litecoin emerges as a weak safe haven for Borsa Ístanbul over the entire sample period, while Bitcoin and Etherium appear to be weak hedges in the pre-pandemic period. During the Covid-19 pandemic period, Etherium is shown to be a weak safe haven for the BÍST100 index. Full sample and pre-pandemic data analysis reveal that, Bitcoin, Etherium and Ripple act as safe-haven markets in some cases when the BÍST100 index returns hit lower than their 10% quantile value. After the outburst of the Covid-19 however, gold seems to act as a safe haven asset for Borsa Ístanbul when the BÍST100 index returns hit lower than their 1% quantile value. Based on the overall estimation results, gold stands out as a diversifier rather than a hedge and/or a safe haven asset for the BÍST100 index.
ABSTRACT
PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic has led to global economic policy uncertainty, which has increased the need to investigate ways to mitigate the uncertainty. This study aims to examine the potential of cryptocurrencies as a hedge and safe haven avenue against economic policy uncertainty.Design/methodology/approachThis study investigates the behavior of the five leading cryptocurrencies in relation to country-level and group-level economic policy uncertainty indices, as measured by the text-based method developed by Baker et al. (The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2016, 131, 1593-1636). The research covers a broad range of emerging and developed economies from July 2013 to September 2020. The study employs the approach of Narayan et al. (Economic Modelling, 2016, 53, 388-397) to examine the hedging and safe-haven properties of cryptocurrencies.FindingsThis study finds that the top cryptocurrencies play a hedging role against economic policy uncertainty, with some exceptions. Additionally, there is evidence to support the idea that cryptocurrencies can serve as a safe haven during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, investors may benefit from using cryptocurrencies as a risk-management avenue during times of uncertainty.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the existing literature by testing the cryptocurrencies' hedging and safe haven properties in a new way, by analyzing their lead and lag behaviors using a recent and innovative approach. Additionally, it examines a wide range of emerging and advanced markets, providing insight into the potential of using cryptocurrencies as a risk mitigation avenue.
ABSTRACT
This paper investigates the safe haven attributes of gold under extreme market conditions. Our main goal is to understand if this property still holds under exceptional times characterized by unusual high levels of uncertainty. To this end, we gathered data from 2018 to 2023 for a group of emerging markets – the CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa) – thus encompassing a stable and a particularly turbulent period, which was marked by two consecutive crises: the COVID-19 and the Russian-Ukrainian war. We chose these countries as they are fast growing economies, which represent important investing opportunities, and because among the emerging markets these are the least studied. To achieve our goal we employed the Multifractal Detrended Cross-Correlation Analysis (MF-DCCA). Our results showed that before the pandemic the cross-correlations between gold and the financial markets were mainly negative. However, with the onset of the crisis they became positive. This demonstrates that gold lost its popular safe haven attributes and highlights the need for investors to seek alternative investments to protect downward risk, especially under extremely turbulent scenarios.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: This study aims to identify the ability of gold and cryptocurrency (Cryptocurrency Uncertainty Index (UCRY) Price) as safe haven assets (SHA) for stocks and bonds in both conventional (i.e. stock indices and government bonds) and Islamic markets (i.e. Islamic stock indices and Islamic bonds (IB)). Design/methodology/approach: The authors employed the nonadditive panel quantile regression model by Powell (2016). It measured the safe haven characteristics of gold and UCRY Price for stock indices, government bonds, Islamic stocks, and IB under gold circumstances and level of cryptocurrency uncertainty, respectively. The period spanned from 11 March 2020 to 31 December 2021. Findings: This study discovered three findings, including: (1) gold is a strong safe haven for stocks and bonds in conventional and Islamic markets under bearish conditions;(2) UCRY Price is a strong safe haven for conventional stocks and bonds but only a weak safe haven for Islamic stocks under high crypto uncertainty;and (3) gold offers a safe haven in both emerging and developed countries, while UCRY Price provides a better safe haven in developed than in emerging countries. Practical implications: Gold always wins big for safe haven properties during unstable economy. It can also win over investors who consider shariah compliant products. Therefore, it should be included in an investor's portfolio. Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies are more common for developed countries. Thus, the governments and regulators of emerging countries need to provide more guidance around cryptocurrency so that the societies have better literacy. On top of that, the investors can consider crypto to mitigate risks but with limited safe haven functions. Originality/value: The originality aspects of this study include: (1) four chosen assets from conventional and Islamic markets altogether (i.e. stock indices, government bonds, Islamic stock indices and IB);(2) indicator countries selected based on the most used and owned cryptocurrencies for the SHA study;and (3) the utilization of UCRY Price as a crypto indicator and a further examination of the SHA study toward four financial assets. © 2023, Michaelia Widjaja, Gaby and Shinta Amalina Hazrati Havidz.
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We examine the risk minimization utility of Islamic stock and Sukuk (bond) indices by studying their linkages against traditional global counterparts. We first employ an asymmetric power ARCH-based ADCC model on an extended dataset employed by Kenourgios et al. (2016). Our sample ranges from July 2007 to June 2021 covering the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the European Sovereign Debt Crisis (ESDC), and the COVID-19 pandemic. Econometric tests suggest strong evidence of coupling in the bulk of Islamic equity indices. A handful of emerging market indices constitute exceptions. Qualitatively similar results emerge from time–frequency analysis via wavelet tools, revealing pervasive coupling in both returns and volatility series. The linkages are scale-dependent in only a few pairs. In contrast, Sukuk indices are uncoupled from their global fixed income counterparts and relevant risky debt portfolios. In sum, the risk-return characteristics of Islamic equities (especially in developed economies) remain coupled to major global benchmarks and therefore are unlikely to appeal as safe haven candidates. The converse applies to Sukuk, which promises potential portfolio diversification benefits and safe haven status in ‘normal' and crisis periods.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic poses a serious threat to investors in the crude oil market. Furthermore, investors have an increasing need to find a safe haven in their investment portfolios when facing unprecedented risks in crude oil markets during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a review of the literature, there are contradictory findings on which investment is the safer haven for the oil market. Therefore, this paper aims to evaluate whether bitcoin is a safer haven for the crude oil market than the commonly used gold during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three spillover measurements based on the time, and frequency domains, and a network framework are employed to quantify the return spillover effects among bitcoin, gold and three major crude oil futures markets. We divide the sample into two periods, pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19. The results show that bitcoin has a weak safe-haven effect on the crude oil market only over a short period, while gold maintains a good safe-haven ability for crude oil futures across various time horizons (frequencies), both before and after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings of this study have important implications for policy-makers, crude oil producers and global investors. In particularly, investors cannot ignore the importance of bitcoin and gold in selecting more profitable portfolio policies when searching for safe-haven assets.
ABSTRACT
This paper assesses the effectiveness of a broad set of 1066 active and continuously traded cryptocurrencies as a safe haven instrument against extreme oil price movements, in comparison to the corresponding roles of gold. The uncertainty for the oil market during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent Russia–Ukraine conflict set the tone for natural experiments for our study. We use a trail-blazing dynamic generalized autoregressive score model to estimate the tail riskiness of the potential safe haven assets from January 1, 2020, to September 30, 2022. By estimating the risk exposure of all cryptocurrency assets, we determine top ten safest assets for investment. Our results show the emergence of new safe haven cryptocurrencies, which have previously been ignored by the academic literature and policy makers alike. Intriguingly, our findings reveal that gold has been replaced by altcoins as the safest assets during both the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia–Ukraine conflict. At this instance, our findings suggest that Bitcoin provides lengthier safe haven properties than gold for oil returns in both periods. However, the safe haven properties of gold and cryptocurrencies are time varying. Last but not least, we introduce a new Cryptocurrency Tail Risk Index (CTRI) that captures the risk exposure of cryptocurrency market, as a whole. Our results suggest that investment in numerous cryptocurrencies provides lengthier safe haven properties than investing in gold alone.
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This paper examines the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, recent oil price fall, and both global and European financial crises on dependence structure and asymmetric risk spillovers between crude oil and Chinese stock sectors. Using time-varying symmetric and asymmetric copula functions and the conditional Value at Risk measure, we provide evidence of positive tail dependence in most sectors using copula and conditional Value-at-Risk techniques. We can see the average dependence between oil and industries during the oil crisis. Moreover, we find strong evidence of bidirectional risk spillovers for all oil-sector pairs. The intensity of risk spillovers from oil to all stock sectors varies across sectors. The risk spillovers from sectors to oil are substantially larger than those from oil to sectors during COVID-19. Furthermore, the return spillover is time varying and sensitive to external shocks. The spillover strengths are higher during COVID-19 than financial and oil crises. Finally, oil do not exhibit neither hedge nor safe-haven characteristics irrespective of crisis periods.
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This study follows Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) to examine the existing literature on the connectedness of green bonds with other markets as an attempt to highlight the effectiveness of green bonds in risk management and the benefits associated with incorporating green bonds in investment portfolios. An extensive search of relevant research papers to the scope of the review led to the identification of 31 articles published by February 2022. Our analysis traces the evolution of studies on green bonds' interactions with other markets, the methodologies and data frequencies used for cross-market relations analysis, and the role of green bonds in portfolio risk management (diversifier, hedge, and safe-haven) in normal and extreme market conditions. The study reports several interesting findings. First, green bonds can be a strategic safe-haven avenue for investors in stocks, dirty energy stocks, and the foreign exchange market in the US and China in extreme market downturns. Second, green bonds demonstrated hedging properties against spillovers from Bitcoin, forex, soft commodities, and CO2 emission allowance. Third, the role of green bonds in the markets of natural gas, industrial metals, and crude oil is limited to a portfolio diversifier in different investment horizons. Fourth, green bonds had no diversification or hedge benefits for investors in conventional bonds. Fifth, the interrelationships between green bonds and most markets' understudy were influenced by macroeconomic and global factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, economic policy uncertainty, OVX, and VIX. Our review of the literature also facilitated identification of future research topics. The outcome of the review offers insightful information to investors in green bonds in risk management and assets allocation. Policy makers can benefit from this review in effective policy legislation for the advancement of the green bonds market and acceleration of a smooth transition to a net zero emission economy.
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PurposeThe study aims to examine the relationship among economic policy uncertainty (EPU), geopolitical-risks (GPR), the interaction (EPGR) of EPU and GPR and the returns of gold, silver, platinum, palladium and rhodium using monthly data from January (1997) to May (2021).Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs the Markov-switching and the novel Shi et al. (2020) bootstrap time-varying Granger-causality approach.FindingsThough the Markov-switching shows variation in the responses of precious metals to EPU, GPR and EPGR across low and high states, the paper observes the safe-haven potential of the precious metals in the high regime while the hedging potency is also evident in the results. To further substantiate the safe-haven and hedging properties, the time-varying Granger-causality shows the causal effect of EPU on all the selected precious metal returns coinciding with global events. While the authors show that GPR Granger causes platinum, palladium and rhodium consistently under the rolling/recursive-evolving tests, the authors cannot find the causal effect of GPR on gold and silver returns across the algorithms. The paper also observes persistence in the causal effect of EPGR on palladium and platinum across all the algorithms, while gold and rhodium only show consistency in the responses under the rolling- and recursive-evolving algorithms given the conditions of homoscedasticity and heteroscedasticity.Practical implicationsThe authors' results are essential to investors and policymakers since both typically leverage the hedging and safe-haven characteristics of precious metals to obviate downside risks during highly uncertain periods.Originality/valueThe authors' techniques allow examining the hedging and safe-haven properties of precious metals across regimes and date-stamp critical periods of causation inherent in the relationship.
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PurposeThis paper aims to empirically investigate the extent to which interdependence in markets may be driven by COVID-19 effects.Design/methodology/approachThe current global COVID-19 pandemic is adversely affecting the oil market (West Texas Intermediate) and crypto-assets markets.FindingsThe authors find that the dependence structure changes significantly after the global pandemic, providing valuable information on how the COVID-19 crisis affects interdependencies. The results also prove that the performance of digital gold seems to be better compared to stablecoin.Originality/valueThe authors fit copulas to pairs of before and after returns, analyze the observed changes in the dependence structure and discuss asymmetries on propagation of crisis. The authors also use the findings to construct portfolios possessing desirable expected behavior.
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PurposeThis study aims to examine the hedge and safe-haven properties of the Sukuk and green bond for the stock markets pre- and during the COVID-19 pandemic period.Design/methodology/approachTo test the hedge and safe-haven characteristics of Sukuk and green bonds for stock markets, the study first uses the methodology proposed by Ratner and Chiu (2013). Next, the authors estimate the hedge ratios and hedge effectiveness of using Sukuk and green bonds in a portfolio with stock markets.FindingsStrong safe-haven features of ethical (green) bonds reveal that adding green bonds into the investment portfolios brings considerable diversification avenues for the investors who tend to take fewer risks in periods of economic stress and turbulence. The hedge ratio and hedge effectiveness estimates reveal that green bonds provide sufficient evidence of the hedge effectiveness for various international stocks.Practical implicationsThe study has significant implications for faith-based investors, ethical investors, policymakers and regulatory bodies. Religious investors can invest in Sukuk to relish low-risk and interest-free investments, whereas green investors can satisfy their socially responsible motives by investing in these investment streams. Policymakers can direct the businesses to include these diversifiers for portfolio and risk management.Originality/valueThe study provides novel insights in the testing hedge and safe-haven attributes of green bonds and Sukuk while using unique methodologies to identify multiple low-risk investors for investors following the uncertain COVID-19 pandemic.
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This study conducted the econometric analysis to test the hedge and safe haven effects of Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) on major traditional asset markets in the global financial system. We investigate the estimates of these effects in times of extreme market conditions and the COVID-19 crisis. Our empirical results show evidence of the hedge and safe haven properties of NFTs, confirming two main findings: (i) NFTs act as a hedge and safe haven for particular stock markets and oil, bond, and USD indices, even though the degree of effects varies across asset classes;and (ii) NFTs also serve as sheltering facilities for the markets mentioned above, with more substantial safe haven benefits for bond and USD indices during the recent pandemic crisis. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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The purpose of the research is to explore the dynamic multiscale linkage between economic policy uncertainty, equity market volatility, energy and sustainable cryptocurrencies during the COVID-19 period. We use a multiscale TVP-VAR model considering level (EPUs and IDEMV) and returns series (cryptocurrencies) from 1 December 2019 to 30 September 2022. The data are then decomposed into six wavelet components, based on the wavelet MODWT method. The TVP-VAR connectedness approach is used to uncover the dynamic connectedness among EPUs, energy and sustainable cryptocurrency returns. Our findings reveal that CNEPU (USEPU) is the strongest (weakest) NET volatility transmitter. IDEMV is the most consistent volatility NET transmitter among all uncertainty indices across the original returns and wavelet scales (D1~D6). Energy cryptocurrencies, i.e., GRID, POW and SNC, are more likely to receive volatility spillovers than sustainable cryptocurrencies during a turbulent period (COVID-19). XLM (XNO) is least (most) affected by volatility spillover in system-wide connectedness, and XLM (ADA and MIOTA) showed a consistent (heterogeneous) non-recipient behavior across the six wavelet (D1~D6) scales and original return series. This study uncovers the dynamic connectedness across multiscale, which will support investors considering different investment horizons (D1~D6). © 2023 by the authors.
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PurposeThis paper aims to examine the hedge, diversifier and safe haven properties of the global listed infrastructure sector and subsector indices against two traditional asset classes, stocks and bonds, and four alternative asset classes, including commodities, real estate, private equity and hedge funds during extreme negative stock market movements.Design/methodology/approachUsing dynamic conditional correlation and quantile regression, the authors analyze a data set of 12 indices comprising listed infrastructure and traditional asset classes from 2010 to 2019.FindingsOverall, the findings indicate that listed infrastructure acts as an effective diversifier but not as a strong safe haven or hedge when considered in a multiasset context. With minor exceptions, listed infrastructure cannot be concluded as a safe haven against other asset classes under investigation.Practical implicationsThe present study has implications for institutional investors looking to incorporate infrastructure in their multiasset portfolios for increased portfolio diversification benefits.Originality/valueDespite the increased influence of infrastructure as an asset class, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the hedge, safe haven and diversifying properties of infrastructure in a multi-asset context.
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This paper aims to investigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war on the interconnectedness between the US and China stock markets, major cryptocurrency and commodity markets using the wavelet coherence approach over the period from January 1 2016 to April 18 2022. The aim is to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war have affected the hedging efficiency of volatile crypto-currencies and gold. Wavelet coherency analysis unveils perceptual differences between the short-term and longer-term market reactions. In the short-run, we find strong co-movements during the first and second waves of the pandemic. During the first wave, longer-term investors were driven by the belief of future pandemic demise. They make use of time diversification that results in positive returns. During the Russia-Ukraine war, S&P 500 leads Bitcoin, BNB, and Ripple whereas Ethereum leads S&P 500 and SSE. © 2023 The Operational Research Society.
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This paper introduces a unique perspective towards Bitcoin safe haven and hedge properties through the Bitcoin halving cycle. The Bitcoin halving cycle suggests that Bitcoin price movement follows specific sequences, and Bitcoin price movement is independent of other assets. This has significant implications for Bitcoin properties, encompassing its risk profile, volatility dynamics, safe haven properties, and hedge properties. Bitcoin's institutional and industrial adoption gained traction in 2021, while recent studies suggest that gold lost its safe haven properties against the S&P500 in 2021 amid signs of funds flowing out of gold into Bitcoin. Amid multiple forces at play (COVID-19, halving cycle, institutional adoption), the potential existence of regime changes should be considered when examining volatility dynamics. Therefore, the objective of this study is twofold. The first objective is to examine gold and Bitcoin safe haven and hedge properties against three US stock indices before and after the stock market selloff in March 2020. The second objective is to examine the potential regime changes and the symmetric properties of the Bitcoin volatility profile during the halving cycle. The Markov Switching GARCH model was used in this study to elucidate regime changes in the GARCH volatility dynamics of Bitcoin and its halving cycle. Results show that gold did not exhibit safe haven and hedge properties against three US stock indices after the COVID-19 outbreak, while Bitcoin did not exhibit safe haven or hedge properties against the US stock market indices before or after the COVID-19 pandemic market crash. Furthermore, this study also found that the regime changes are associated with low and high volatility periods rather than specific stages of a Bitcoin halving cycle and are asymmetric. Bitcoin may yet exhibit safe haven and hedge properties as, at the time of writing, these properties may manifest through sustained adoption growth. © 2023 by the authors.
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We identify diversification benefits among Asian equity markets in the COVID-19 era. We find that such benefits among Asia-Pacific markets changed considerably during the pandemic, and most changes were persistent. In most cases, any of the sample equities had at least one safe-haven protection. The exceptions are Pakistan, Thailand, and Singapore, where diversification benefits are limited and vary across subperiods. The Hong Kong equity market provides safe-haven protection to most markets during periods of extreme negative returns. Further, we find that greater (lower) weightings on the Bangladeshi, Taiwanese, and Malaysian (Thai) markets provide important diversification in terms of maximizing Sharpe ratio and minimizing variance during the pandemic. © 2023 Elsevier Inc.
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PurposeThis study aims to investigate the safe-haven and hedging properties of Bitcoin against a wide variety of conventional assets before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a smooth transition regression (STR) to jointly test the hedging properties of Bitcoin in normal conditions and Bitcoin's safe-haven properties in extreme stock market conditions.FindingsHighlighting the results, the authors show that Bitcoin is able to provide safe-haven feature during the COVID-19 pandemic period while Bitcoin serves as a hedge tool in the pre-COVID-19 pandemic period. The findings also show that the prowess of the safe-haven/hedge nature is sensitive to the type of the asset market and the time horizon when switching from daily to weekly frequency data.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies that conduct a combined analysis of the safe-haven and hedging capabilities of Bitcoin against several asset classes using an STR method. This study uses the longest sample period to yet, allowing researchers to examine Bitcoin's safe-haven and hedging features both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
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This paper aims to detect the sensitivity of the Oil market to different Covid-19 outbreak periods. To test its haven propriety, and its sensitivity to the study phase, our research investigates the Covid-19 indicators explanatory power. Using the OLS regression, our results reveal that new pandemic wave announcement declines the Oil market demand. It doubts its safe-haven property. In parallel, we detect that this market responds to the determining factors of the Covid-19 Pandemic. At this level, we found that the number of the reported cases has lost its explanatory power since the emergence of the second pandemic wave. On the contrary, mortality following this virus has become a significant explanatory factor.