I shorted Dec 08 ZN futures at 116-12 a few days back. I believe the 10 year was yielding 3.50% at the time. Since then, the yield has risen to 3.82, but the price of the futures contract has only fallen to 114-06. Shouldn't there have been more than a 2 point move for such a large move in yields? Thanks for any input!
No, because 10 years is a short maturity. Today's data for cash Treasuries: 10 year 101-11 -1-06 / +.146 30 year 105-06 -2-19 / +.146
1) Extremely "low" short-term interest rates make it easier to carry inventory of higher-yielding treasury securities and futures contracts providing support to the market. 2) The actual 10-year note you were looking at doesn't move tick-for-tick with the futures contract. 3) There could have been a lot of liquidation-selling of T-Notes in order to raise cash, regardless of proper basis levels with respect to the futures contract. 4) There could have been something "weird" going on in the most-deferred Eurodollar futures contracts that impacted the T-Notes.