Try to find a book that also mentions the effect of Mortgage Backed securities on the Bond Futures market and the Bond Options market. Over the last several years Countrywide, Pimco and Bank of America have been huge players in the 10 Year options, which inevitably effect price action in the futures.
riskless: and Fannie and Freddie when they hedge (or not) their huge portfolios.. it depends, if you trade technically you don't have to worry about every news story and every player's move, just watch what the price is doing and do what you have to do. otherwise it would be overwhelming to try to find out what the fannies, the freddies, pimco, lehman, bear sterns etc etc are doing...
Could someone offer an explanation why a FIT spread (5 yr notes and 10 Yr note), or NOB spread need to be put on a ratio basis? What are you basing the ratio on. I've put on stock pairs and try to keep the pairs $ equivalent Ex. ABC=$50 and XYZ=$25 Buy 2 XYZ / sell 1 ABC. I guess that is the same concept in the bonds? Thanks