Efficiency in Information Processing: A Study of Non-Nearby Currency Futures and Relationships with Nearby Counterparts

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the responses of non-nearby Japanese yen and Deutsche mark futures contracts to macroeconomic announcements and the efficiency of information flow between the nearby and non-nearby contracts. The results show that macroeconomic announcements affect the non-nearby futures returns more through their effects on interest rate differentials than through the underlying spot exchange rates. Information flows efficiently between the Deutsche mark nearby and non-nearby contracts, while information flows primarily from the Japanese yen nearby contracts to the non-nearby counterparts.