Narrow Results

The relationship between currencies in foreign exchange markets has been a topic of significance in economics. Previous studies have focused more on correlations between currencies. However, the detection of causality can reveal their inherent laws. Although the traditional Granger causality test can identify causality, it cannot take into account the nature and intensity of the causality. Thus, the objective of this paper is to identify the causalities of currencies from the perspective of dynamics. In this paper, we select 25 currencies (with the US dollar (USD) as the numeraire) from foreign exchange markets, as they occupy large shares in their regions. To detect the causalities of the foreign exchange markets, we combine PC (pattern causality) theory and complex networks to construct directed and weighted causality networks, in which the nodes represent the currencies and the directed edges represent the causal intensities. Furthermore, we study the symmetry of each causality and quantify the symmetry degree. The results demonstrate that causalities exist between currencies that differ in terms of nature and intensity. The positive causality network exhibits substantial robustness, which can be regarded as the dominant causal relationship in the foreign exchange markets, although a few exceptions are encountered, such as the dominant negative and disordered causalities between currency pairs. In addition, the dominant causalities between most currencies are symmetric in terms of nature, and they also exhibit symmetry in terms of intensity. Furthermore, by gradually deleting the network by thresholding according to the edge weights, we identify the important driving currencies of the markets. This paper may provide valuable information for investors and supervisory departments.

B-Course is a free web-based online data analysis tool, which allows the users to analyze their data for multivariate probabilistic dependencies. These dependencies are represented as Bayesian network models. In addition to this, B-Course also offers facilities for inferring certain type of causal dependencies from the data. The software uses a novel "tutorial stylerdquo; user-friendly interface which intertwines the steps in the data analysis with support material that gives an informal introduction to the Bayesian approach adopted. Although the analysis methods, modeling assumptions and restrictions are totally transparent to the user, this transparency is not achieved at the expense of analysis power: with the restrictions stated in the support material, B-Course is a powerful analysis tool exploiting several theoretically elaborate results developed recently in the fields of Bayesian and causal modeling. B-Course can be used with most web-browsers (even Lynx), and the facilities include features such as automatic missing data handling and discretization, a flexible graphical interface for probabilistic inference on the constructed Bayesian network models (for Java enabled browsers), automatic prettyHyphen;printed layout for the networks, exportation of the models, and analysis of the importance of the derived dependencies. In this paper we discuss both the theoretical design principles underlying the B-Course tool, and the pragmatic methods adopted in the implementation of the software.

This paper considers the problem and appropriateness of filling-in missing conditional probabilities in causal networks by the use of maximum entropy. Results generalizing earlier work of Rhodes, Garside & Holmes are proved straightforwardly by the direct application of principles satisfied by the maximum entropy inference process under the assumed uniqueness of the maximum entropy solution. It is however demonstrated that the implicit assumption of uniqueness in the Rhodes, Garside & Holmes papers may fail even in the case of inverted trees. An alternative approach to filling in missing values using the limiting centre of mass inference process is then described which does not suffer this shortcoming, is trivially computationally feasible and arguably enjoys more justification in the context when the probabilities are objective (for example derived from frequencies) than by taking maximum entropy values.

In an expert system having a consistent set of linear constraints it is known that the Method of Tribus may be used to determine a probability distribution which exhibits maximised entropy. The method is extended here to include independence constraints (Accommodation).

The paper proceeds to discusses this extension, and its limitations, then goes on to advance a technique for determining a small set of independencies which can be added to the linear constraints required in a particular representation of an expert system called a causal network, so that the Maximum Entropy and Causal Networks methodologies give matching distributions (Emulation). This technique may also be applied in cases where no initial independencies are given and the linear constraints are incomplete, in order to provide an optimal ME fill-in for the missing information.

The desire to use Causal Networks as Expert Systems even when the causal information is incomplete and/or when non-causal information is available has led researchers to look into the possibility of utilising Maximum Entropy. If this approach is taken, the known information is supplemented by maximising entropy to provide a unique initial probability distribution which would otherwise have been a consequence of the known information and the independence relationships implied by the network. Traditional maximising techniques can be used if the constraints are linear but the independence relationships give rise to non-linear constraints. This paper extends traditional maximising techniques to incorporate those types of non-linear constraints that arise from the independence relationships and presents an algorithm for implementing the extended method. Maximising entropy does not involve the concept of "causal" information. Consequently, the extended method will accept any mutually consistent set of conditional probabilities and expressions of independence. The paper provides a small example of how this property can be used to provide complete causal information, for use in a causal network, when the known information is incomplete and not in a causal form.