Is Treasury Market Liquidity Becoming More Concentrated?
Michael Fleming In an earlier post, we showed that Treasury market liquidity appears reasonably good by historical standards. That analysis focused on the most liquid benchmark securities, largely because data availability is best for those securities. However, some studies, such as this one and this one, report that market liquidity is concentrating in the most […]
Further Analysis of Corporate Bond Market Liquidity
Tobias Adrian, Michael Fleming, Erik Vogt, and Zachary Wojtowicz Our earlier analyses from last October and earlier in this series looked at market liquidity measures averaged across all corporate bonds or broad sub-groups of corporate bonds. Commentators have pointed out that such broad averages might mask important differences among narrower sub-groups of bonds and that […]
Corporate Bond Market Liquidity Redux: More Price‑Based Evidence
Has MBS Market Liquidity Deteriorated?
Rich Podjasek, Linsey Molloy, Michael J. Fleming, and Andreas Fuster Mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by the government-backed entities Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae, or so-called “agency MBS,” are the primary funding source for U.S. residential housing. A significant deterioration in the liquidity of the MBS market could lead investors to demand a premium for […]
Continuing the Conversation on Liquidity
Tobias Adrian, Michael J. Fleming, and Ernst Schaumburg Market participants and policymakers have raised concerns about market liquidity—the ability to buy and sell securities quickly, at any time, at minimal cost. Market liquidity supports the efficient allocation of financial capital, which is a catalyst for sustainable economic growth. Any possible decline in market liquidity, whether […]
Characterizing the Rising Settlement Fails in Seasoned Treasury Securities
Michael J. Fleming and Frank M. Keane Note: Updated versions of the charts in this post showing data through March 31, 2016, can be viewed here. In a 2014 post, we described what settlement fails are, why they arise and matter, and how they can be measured. A subsequent post explored the determinants of the […]
Dealer Positioning and Expected Returns
Tobias Adrian, Michael Fleming, and Erik Vogt Securities broker-dealers (dealers) trade securities on behalf of their customers and themselves. Recently, analysts have pointed to the decline in U.S. dealers’ corporate bond inventories as evidence that dealers’ market making capacity is impaired. However, historically such inventories also reflect dealers’ risk management and proprietary trading activities. In […]
At the New York Fed: Conference on the Evolving Structure of the U.S. Treasury Market
Michael Fleming, Frank Keane, Michael McMorrow, Ernst Schaumburg, and Nathaniel Wuerffel The New York Fed recently hosted a two-day conference on the evolving structure of the U.S. Treasury market, co-sponsored with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Board, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The […]
Should Monetary Policy Respond to Financial Conditions?
Bianca De Paoli There’s an ongoing debate about whether policymakers should respond to financial conditions when setting monetary policy. An argument is often made that financial stability concerns are more appropriately dealt with by using regulatory and macroprudential tools. This post offers a theoretical justification for policymakers to monitor and possibly respond to financial conditions […]