October 25th, 2013, 3:02 pm
Disclaimer : FX is not my primary market, so hopefully someone who knows more than me can confirm or deny the following in a more rigorous fashionThe rr and bf quotes are linear wrt to the vols, so parallel shifts in the IV curve wont affect these ratios. Hence, the ratio of the rr10 to rr25 gives an indicator of skewness in the market that is independent of volatility levels, and the strangle likewise for the convexity of the curve. By saying that this ratio is about 1.8 I would understand this to mean that there is a level of skewness in the vol curve that is considered normal, and this corresponds to an rr ratio of around 1.8. Should the ratio move significantly away from this number it would represent a deviation from typical historical vol curve shapeMy understanding is that this number is simply a historical ratio specific to each currency, and not based on anything theoretical