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Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis Vol. 60 No. 5 2025

Foreign Exchange Order Flow as a Risk Factor

Craig Burnside1,2; Mario Cerrato2; Zhekai Zhang3

1 Duke University · 2 University of Glasgow · 3 Shenzhen Audencia Financial Technology Institute, Shenzhen University

open access

Abstract

We propose a novel pricing factor for currency returns motivated by the market microstructure literature. Our factor aggregates order flow data to provide a measure of buying and selling pressure related to conventional currency trading strategies. It successfully prices the cross-section of currency returns sorted on the basis of forward discount and momentum. The association between our factor and currency returns differs according to the customer segment of the foreign exchange market. In particular, it appears that financial customers are risk-takers in the market, while nonfinancial customers serve as liquidity providers.

DOI
10.1017/s0022109024000796
Volume
60
Issue
5
Pages
2555-2582
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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