Download PDF Introduction Headlines over the last few months have been constantly showing investors and economists discussing the various “landing” narratives for the US economy. With many arguing for a soft-landing scenario, while others remained more skeptical. At its core, this debate revolves around a critical question: “What are the Read more…
Download PDF Introduction A yield curve depicts the returns of fixed income securities against their term, or time to maturity. In this article, we explain the role that the discount function and forward rates have in the creation of a yield curve and compare different methodologies to fit the yield Read more…
Download PDF Conventional economic theory suggests that Central Banks (CBs) should only intervene to influence short-term interest rates and allow the market to set long-term rates. However, in modern economic history, this belief has been put into question: most notably, the US and the Euro Area have reacted to the Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Structured products are complex OTC derivatives which offer a glance into some of the deeper aspects of pricing; they are hedged with vanilla products where possible, almost always leaving basis risk, the management of which is the art of making markets in SPs. These products are very Read more…
Download PDF Introduction A specter is in the horizon for US investors: the specter of inflation. As the fed policy objectives shifted toward allowing a brief term inflation “overshoot” the 10-year and 5-year breakeven inflation rates, the differential between TIPS and nominal bond yields, have reached new heights in the Read more…
Macro Environment 2018 is bound to be the point of inflection for the Greek economy. The Bank of Greece reports that GDP will grow 2.5% over the next two years, while the European Commission expects a 1.6% growth in 2017 – the economy’s best performance in a decade. Greece’s 10-year Read more…
Trump’s election and his plan of loose fiscal policy put upward pressure on US inflation. In order to cool down the economy on the verge of full employment, FED raised rates in December and March and has promised two other hikes in 2017. Hiking fed fund rates is not the Read more…
It is widely known that the USA and the EU are in different economic conditions: the American economy has risen from the crisis and the FED is tightening the policy, while Draghi, the president of the ECB, declared that they will keep the quantitative easing going. Unemployment in the US Read more…