If the EUR tanks due to QE or the Greeks, then now due to the pair — the CHF would skyrocket until the SNB came to the rescue and started buying a ton of EUR and EUR assets with CHFs. Thus, seems likely that they are anticipating a collapse in EUR value to such an extent that the SNB would not be able to keep up, so they decoupled early.

My guess is the QE + the Greek problem forced the SNB’s hand as they definitely didn’t want to do this.

Haus-Targaryen
Haus-Targaryen’s picture
Or, the inverse of the equation would be the SNB is expecting an appreciation of the CHF to such an extent that it could not purchase assets fast enough to hold the peg.

As I sit back and think about this — I think this would be the scarier option as it has the EUR surviving, but the CHF appreciating at a materially faster rate than the EUR. (E.g., another currency somewhere else in the world ora basket thereof goes to hell and quickly).

The more I “war game” this, the next few weeks will show us why they did this. They got a heads up from someone, and decided this is the best thing to do. I would imagine they have delayed this until the last possible moment.

Thu, 01/15/2015 – 06:53 | 5664050Keyser
Keyser’s picture
There will be no QE for the EU… Not unless they want Germany to exit the EU faster than you can say boo… So IMHO, the SNB has decoupled from the Euro to keep from being drug down with it when it dies…

Wanka deserves a cigar

Posted by eeos @ 7:54 on January 15, 2015

you da man!

Why would they do this? Is the Euro going to break up after the Greek’s exit? Pretty big news IMHO. Swiss Franc up 14% vs. USD right now

Posted by Buygold @ 7:48 on January 15, 2015

“It’s Carnage” – Swiss Franc Soars Most Ever After SNB Abandons EURCHF Floor; Macro Hedge Funds Crushed

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/15/2015 06:07 -0500

“As if millions of macro hedge funds suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced”

Over two decades ago, George Soros took on the Bank of England, and won. Just before lunch local time, the Swiss National Bank took on virtually every single macro hedge fund, the vast majority of which were short the Swiss Franc and crushed them, when it announced, first, that it would go further into NIRP, pushing its interest rate on deposit balances even more negative from -0.25% to -0.75%, a move which in itself would have been unprecedented and, second, announcing that the 1.20 EURCHF floor it had instituted in September 2011, the day gold hit its all time nominal high, was no more.

What happened next was truly shock and awe as algo after algo saw their EURCHF 1.1999 stops hit, and moments thereafter the EURCHF pair crashed to less then 0.75, margining out virtually every single long EURCHF position, before finally rebounding to a level just above 1.00, which is where it was trading just before the SNB instituted the currency floor over three years ago.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-15/its-tsunami-swiss-franc-soars-most-ever-after-snb-abandons-eurchf-floor-macro-hedge-