The Brexit vote sent shockwaves through financial markets and created substantial volatility for the GBP/USD forex pair. Traders can capitalize on Brexit-induced volatility to make substantial profits by diversifying their strategies with long and short positions.

Changes in investor risk perceptions can have a tremendous effect on expected returns, as was demonstrated by the Brexit vote and its ramifications on major currency pairs.

Political Uncertainty

Forex market traders and investors must remain alert to political factors that could negatively influence it. Being the largest financial market globally, forex allows traders to trade different currencies globally on an exchange market platform. Investor demand for currencies determines their value; therefore if a country’s political stability weakens over time, demand could decrease and cause its currency value to plummet as investors buy less of it – ultimately leading to decreased returns for investors trading that particular asset class.

One of the most significant political events of recent times has been Brexit. Large falls in sterling’s value prior to Brexit occurring largely resulted from negative expectations regarding investments denominated in sterling (Sampson et al 2016). Additionally, research indicates a high correlation among major safe-haven currencies as their changing investor expectations quickly become integrated into currency markets due to high volumes and speeds of trading activity.

Economic Uncertainty

The Brexit vote has caused widespread uncertainty across global markets, including forex. Being the world’s largest and most liquid market, forex is highly sensitive to changes in political events or economic risks that impact it.

Experts predict the UK economy will take an immediate short-term hit from Brexit; however, many remain unclear about how its effects will unfold over time. Some economists speculate that leaving the EU could limit competitiveness by restricting the country’s ability to negotiate favorable market access deals with other nations.

Importantly, traders should remember that the pound is a key player in the forex market and any significant movements in its value could have an effect on other pairs in their pair trade. Therefore, traders should carefully watch news and data regarding Brexit since this could potentially alter their trading strategies; for instance, should there be any declines in its value, traders may need to adjust stop-loss orders or reduce leverage so as to mitigate their risk exposure.

Financial Uncertainty

As with the economy, financial markets are facing considerable uncertainty. This has impacted global stock markets and caused risk aversion to increase significantly; this in turn has reduced expectations of interest rate cuts this year than was originally forecasted by many markets.

As political events tend to affect markets inextricably, Brexit’s effect has been even greater on forex trading markets; as a result, sterling has traded more volatile than usual and is falling against most major currencies.

The UK’s decision to leave the EU has taught currency markets some invaluable lessons about how they respond to political uncertainty. A clear Brexit deal would reduce uncertainty, helping the pound recover; in the meantime, however, it’s wise to stay informed on developments which could impact it.

Trade Deals

The decision by the UK to leave the European Union has reverberated through global financial markets, most significantly the forex market, which is by far the world’s largest exchange market. Two currencies that play an influential role here include sterling and euro – their fluctuations have an immediate and dramatic effect on traders and investors.

Brexit proponents claim the UK can benefit from reclaiming national sovereignty, enabling it to manage immigration and cut through regulations more effectively. Yet without access to single European market or passporting rights, financial sector could struggle significantly under this scenario.

This paper investigates the effect of Brexit on intra-EU trade using quarterly data from 2005Q1-2022Q3. A gravity model is estimated with three separate dummy variables representing three stages of Brexit and uses an EU-UK trade control variable that accounts for unobserved bilateral heterogeneity and multilateral resistance. Our results indicate that initial phase led to lower intra-EU trade while subsequent stages had only limited impacts.