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Discussion Paper
Why Do Mutual Funds Invest in Treasury Futures?
Asset managers’ net long positions in Treasury futures have reached their historical highs in recent months, driven in part by mutual funds’ demand for short- and medium-term Treasury futures. Analyzing mutual fund portfolio holdings reports on SEC Form N-PORT, we find that the increase in mutual funds’ futures holdings since 2020 can be attributed to both increased demand for Treasury exposures during a higher interest rate environment and mutual funds’ preference for sourcing these exposures through futures rather than securities.
Discussion Paper
Quantifying Treasury Cash-Futures Basis Trades
The Treasury cash-futures basis trade exploits the difference in prices between a Treasury security and a related Treasury futures contract – the so-called cash-futures basis – by purchasing the asset that is relatively undervalued and selling the other in a bet that the prices will converge. Basis traders support Treasury market functioning by keeping the prices of Treasury futures near their fair value relative to Treasury securities and by serving as an important source of demand for Treasury securities, including during the 2017-2019 period of quantitative tightening when basis ...
Discussion Paper
Dealer Balance Sheet Constraints: Evidence from Dealer-Level Data across Repo Market Segments
The continued growth of U.S. Treasury issuance has garnered interest in understanding dealers’ ability to intermediate the U.S. Treasury market. These trends have spurred various efforts to measure the degree to which dealer balance sheet constraints—broadly defined as restrictions on the overall size of an intermediary’s balance sheet—can affect the intermediation of the Treasury market.