The Son of Frankenstein

A very astute CMO trader once said to me – “Some things never change – somehow I bring 100m of pass thru securities backed by 30 year fixed rate loans into the room and miraculously 45m bullet proof 3 year notes pop out the other side”. Trading the mortgage market has...

What’s the opposite of “The Conundrum?”

The Answer - “The Debacle”. For the last decade, large reserve asset managers have accumulated sizeable positions in “low risk” US Treasury, Agency Mortgage and IG Corporate securities. We have all seen the charts where foreign holdings have gone parabolic since 2000....

Deflationstan in flames

The high print for the year in the current coupon 30 year mortgage rate was 4.67 on April 5th. We touched 4.45 yesterday and they are going up at 4.47 as I write. Only two months ago, back on October 8th, we touched a low of 3.20. If one were to have said in October...

The Great Expectation

I have spent the better part of the last couple weeks traveling throughout the US and Europe seeing clients from nearly all of JEFs' business lines - govvies, abs, emg and equities. By far, the number one topic of discussion has been QE2. And one thing is crystal...

Goodbye to the New Normal

The reality of QE2 has finally set in. Over the past month 10 year Treasury yields are about 50bps higher and the S&P is up about 3%. The US equity market is now up over 10% for the year while annual returns for 10yr US government securities, which had peaked at...