About USD/HKD
USD/HKD is one of the most tightly constrained pairs in the market. Hong Kong has operated a Linked Exchange Rate System since 1983, and since 2005 the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has committed to a convertibility band of 7.75 to 7.85 Hong Kong dollars per US dollar, buying or selling at the edges to keep the rate inside it. The pair therefore spends its life inside a ten-cent range, and what matters is where in that range it sits and why.
What Moves USD/HKD?
The HKMA convertibility band
The defining feature. The HKMA transacts at 7.75 and 7.85, and approaches to either edge are the pair’s most significant events.
Interest rate differentials
HIBOR can diverge from US dollar rates. When Hong Kong rates sit below US rates, carry trades push the spot rate towards the weak end of the band, which is the usual mechanism behind a move within it.
Capital flows
Equity issuance, mainland flows and portfolio movements affect demand for Hong Kong dollars.
Federal Reserve policy
Because the peg imports US monetary conditions, Fed decisions transmit into Hong Kong rates rather than into the exchange rate.
Trading USD/HKD
Prices on this page come from our own market feed. The chart, the 52-week range and the performance figures are measured from our own daily closes, and any figure our history cannot support is withheld rather than estimated. Nothing here is a recommendation or a forecast β see our methodology for how each figure is produced.