“We’re currently positioned for continued dollar strength, though we’d be surprised if it’s all one way,” Andrew White, a portfolio manager at SandAire in Singapore, said Wednesday in an interview.

Individual investors in Asia tend to be more proactive in managing their money than their counterparts in Europe and the U.S. because they’re more focused on generating short-term gains, according to Noor Quek, who runs Singapore-based family- office adviser NQ International Pte.

Bloomberg’s Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the U.S. currency against the euro, yen and eight others, touched its highest level this week since the measure started in 2004. The currency’s gains are being driven by speculation the Federal Reserve will soon raise its main interest rate from the zero to 0.25 percent range it’s been in since 2008.

Europe, Japan

The boost to the dollar is amplified by the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan’s efforts to increase the money supply in their own economies. The ECB surprised investors last week with the scope of its 1.1 trillion-euro ($1.24 trillion) quantitative-easing program, sending its currency to an 11-year low against the dollar.

Canada and Norway enacted shock rate cuts this month, while Switzerland removed its currency ceiling on Jan. 15, pushing an index of currency volatility to a 1 1/2-year high and sending investors piling into the dollar for safety. Singapore’s central bank on Wednesday eased monetary policy in an unscheduled decision to reduce the pace of gains in the city state’s dollar versus a basket of currencies.

The greenback has risen versus its peers for seven consecutive months. Fifty-four percent of investors, analysts and traders in a Bloomberg Global Poll this month picked the U.S. as the market likely to offer the best opportunities in the next year.

While Woodside in Singapore has put almost all its cash into dollars, the greenback is less attractive these days because recent gains have made it expensive, said Chief Investment Officer David Fergusson.

Choose Your Poison

Choosing whether to buy the dollar is like deciding “if you’d rather be shot in the head or leg,” Fergusson said in an interview. “You don’t really want to be shot at all, but given that you have to be shot somewhere, I’ll take the leg.”