Abstract This paper investigates the influence of global equity market value shocks on institutional investors’ (IIs’) hedging behavior and the resultant effects on exchange rates. Employing unique granular daily data on Israeli IIs’ foreign exchange (FX) forward flows and prices and a granular instrumental variable estimation approach, we find that foreign equity market value shocks generate significant selling of U.S. dollar forwards by IIs, as a hedge against heightened FX exposure, along with significant exchange rate appreciation. A value-shock-induced one-standard-deviation increase in IIs’ supply of forward flows appreciates IIs’ forward rate by 0.53%. (JEL E44, F3, F31, G15, G23)

We investigate daily flows to Israeli government bonds mutual funds, which are held primarily by retail investors. We divide the bonds into six categories: nominal/CPI-linked - short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term maturity. We find that unexpected daily net flows are contemporaneously correlated with price changes in all categories, with correlations ranging from 0.094 to 0.221 depending on the bond category. These price changes are significant, and they subsequently reverse fully or mostly within 10 trading days. The price reversal indicates that the initial price changes are due to “price pressure.” We find that these price distortions affect break-even inflation—a measure of inflation expectations. Our findings indicate that even government bonds are affected by retail price pressure.