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Another Sign Liquidity Is Drying Up

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Mark Melin
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As regulatory burdens have pared back the appetites of large banks and primary bond dealers in the “off-the-run” US Treasury market, bond liquidity has suffered and transaction costs, most notable in wider bid-ask spreads, have increased. Institutional investors in the $14 trillion government debt market are looking for alternatives, Greenwich Associates Kevin McPartland notes in a recent report.

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bond liquidity

As adjustments to Dodd-Frank regulations get considered in Washington DC, charges that the negative impact from the Volcker Rule has resulted in less market liquidity swirl. A recent Bank of America Merrill Lynch report, for instance, predicted that the corporate bond market “could get ugly” if interest rates rise quickly.

“Counterintuitively in...

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Mark Melin is an alternative investment practitioner whose specialty is recognizing the impact of beta market environment on a technical trading strategy. A portfolio and industry consultant, wrote or edited three books including High Performance Managed Futures (Wiley 2010) and The Chicago Board of Trade’s Handbook of Futures and Options (McGraw-Hill 2008) and taught a course at Northwestern University's executive education program.