Global Macro Trading Journal

Discussion in 'Journals' started by Daal, Feb 25, 2011.

  1. Daal

    Daal

    http://libertystreeteconomics.newyo...cess-reserves-and-cash-parked-at-the-fed.html

    The resolution to this apparent puzzle is that when one bank decides to hold a lower balance in its reserve account, the funds it sheds necessarily end up in the account of another bank, leaving the total unchanged (see FT Alphaville and this New York Fed Current Issues in Economics and Finance article for more detailed discussions of this point). In the aggregate, therefore, these balances do not represent “idle” funds that the banking system is unwilling to lend. In fact, the total quantity of reserve balances held by banks conveys no information about their lending activities – it simply reflects the Federal Reserve’s decisions on how many assets to acquire.

    A cut in the IOR would probably lead to a rush into short-term USTs, the price would get to a point where banks would not buy them any longer. Deposits at the fed would remain unchanged. The excess reserves 'sitting at the fed and not being lent' as same people put it will not change until the fed wants it to change
     
    #4691     Aug 28, 2012
  2. No, I mean STIR futures and options on them. So sub-2y interest rates... As to the books, you can try the "Eurodollar Futures and Options Handbook" by Galen Burghardt. It's sort of the bible.
     
    #4692     Aug 28, 2012
  3. Judging by the recent rhetoric, an IOER cut isn't very likely (certainly, not with the money mkt fund reform stalled). However, if you think it's a non-zero probability, TU is cheap here. I am long and I think it's one of the best in class calamity hedges around.
     
    #4693     Aug 28, 2012
  4. Daal

    Daal

    Whats TU?
     
    #4694     Aug 28, 2012
  5. Sorry, TU=ZT=2yr note futures...
     
    #4695     Aug 28, 2012
  6. Butterball

    Butterball

    Bass' fund is a beautiful example for one of these 'I have this great asymmetric payoff trade, this is a no-brainer' ideas gone haywire. There's no guarantee the trade will not incur a severe loss of capital even if premium is seemingly 'cheap' and something is 'obviously a bubble'.
     
    #4696     Aug 28, 2012
  7. Well, tbh, there are occasionally these genuine opportunities where optionality is massively mispriced. However, these types of "no-brainer" trades are few and far between and, even in those cases, timing is still a very important element. So I was generally willing to assume that Bass managed to get some muppets to sell him some options that were just stupid cheap. Clearly, that wasn't the case. As I mentioned, this is in stark contrast to the one guy who did a good job - Hugh Hendry with his "short corporate Napaj" CDS trade. I am not a huge fan of Hugh Hendry, generally, but this trade was just pure gold (in hindsight, of course).
     
    #4697     Aug 28, 2012
  8. #4698     Aug 28, 2012
  9. My one question about this is if mkts are truly this difficult, why are the biggest macro funds, like Bridgewater or Brevan Howard, not throwing the towel? Just sayin'...
     
    #4699     Aug 28, 2012
  10. zkf

    zkf

    Thank you Martinghoul, I will take a look.

    I thought Brvan Howard is more like Capula Investment , do you know how these guy trades? In a bloomberg news, it says their main fund is on the relative value, sort of spread trading?

    Thanks
     
    #4700     Aug 28, 2012