Defragmenting the Effect of Major News Announcements on Financial Markets

The issue of High Frequency Trading (HFT) and its impact on financial markets is hitting the headlines hard nowadays. This paper looks at the effects of three major news announcements on two major currency pairs namely the Australian dollar against the US dollar and the Euro against the US dollar. The three major news announcements are the cash rate from the Reserve Bank of Australia, the minimum bid rate from European Central Bank (ECB) and the official bank rate from the Bank of England. A one minute data interval analysis is used over a time period of four years. Findings suggest the effects of the specific news under analysis to be insignificant for a trader to benefit from the fluctuations in the two major currency markets. The use of other macroeconomic news or higher frequency data is warranted to defragment the effects of major news announcements further.