Ex-Hedge Fund Portfolio Manager, Full-Time Parent, Data Scientist and Rates Trader
Two weeks ago, I wrote that the front-end of the interest rates curve was in serious trouble – given that policymakers were keenly aware of their deficiency in handling any selloff; more so than any point I could recall in my two+ decades of Treasury trading.Today, we’ve just witnessed what qualifies as easily the largest 2wk move in the front-end of the Treasury market in 10+ years. So what happened, exactly?
Perhaps you’re wondering, having read breathless press accounts of what to expect from today’s ECB, what a “bazooka” buys you these days in Europe?
Well, Turns Out… A “Bazooka” Ain’t All That It Used to Be.
Fiat policy is successful not by virtue of the exhortation, but by manifestation of that which has been prescribed. It’s one thing to say you’re easing, quite another to convince markets of it.
On the threshold now of the first rate cut by the Federal Reserve since 2008, this question has to be even more vexing for those about to do the cutting. At this point, is a 25bp cut alone enough to “ease”? The simple answer is no.