Foreign Exchange Trading During World Cup Events (or I will watch the game while you trade)

Abstract We analyze foreign exchange (FX) trading on FIFA World Cup game days in comparison to “normal” days. The FX market is an interesting case to study, as it has an institutional feature that allows participants to shift their trading needs to a counterparty bank so that the bank executes the trades at the London 4 p.m. fix. This “trade‐shifting” allows the client to avoid actively managing their trades and spend more time on World Cup‐related events. Using data from two different sources (EBS and CLS), we document this behavior and find that the effects are statistically and economically significant.