As the dust settles on a tumultuous 2025, traders are left catching their breath after a year that defied the typical post-election script.
If 2024 was the prelude, 2025 was the main event—a year defined by a stark pivot toward American exceptionalism and the revamp of global trade volatility.
The year was dominated by the Trump administration’s aggressive “America First” policies, which paradoxically accelerated a global move away from reliance on the US Dollar.
While Washington secured new bilateral trade deals with partners, the broader message to the world was clear: the way the global economy functioned the past 50 years is changing.
Geopolitically, the “peace through strength” doctrine faced severe tests.
The conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine did not cease; they merely mutated.
While high-level summits—including the Trump-Xi meeting in Busan—offered temporary truces, the underlying friction points remained hot.
Meanwhile, central banks across the developed world continued their rate-cutting cycles, providing a liquidity backstop that kept equity markets buoyant despite the political chaos.
And who could forget the drama in Tokyo? The “Takaichi Yen-run” will be studied by FX traders for decades.
The market positioned aggressively for continued loose monetary policy under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi – After an 11% drop in USD/JPY throughout the first half of the year, the resulting volatility saw the pair get back to down only 1%.
Other currencies which had already strengthened against the dollar saw even wilder runs against the yen. Check out EUR/JPY!
