Last week, when the yen saw its biggest one-day gain in years amid a burst of speculation that the BOJ would hike rates as soon as this month, which in turn triggered a cascading short squeeze that sent the USDJPY as much as 550 pips on Thursday, we were amused for two reasons: i) more than half a year of JPY carry had just gotten wiped out, and ii) there was no way that the BOJ - which is absolutely terrified of what will happen to the $20 trillion yen carry trade if NIRP is ended - would unleash the biggest change to Japanese monetary policy in decades at a time when FX liquidity is already dismal, thus sparking ... (full story)