Trader’s Narrative

Since I’ve been harping on about the gap between the Fed Funds rate and the 3 month Treasury Bill rate for almost a year now, I thought that it would be fun take a really long term look at their relationship.

Here is a chart of the difference between them going back more than 18 years:

There are several things that jump out from this cursory analysis:

• what we just went through was extraordinary
• spikes tend to correspond to stock market turmoil or bottoms but not always
• over the time covered, the average gap is 29 basis points
• under Bernanke, the gap has been larger & more protracted than Greenspan
• rarely does the 3 month T-Bill rate go lower than the Fed rate
• Fed responded very quickly to financial shock of 9/11

Since I’m lazy I used the historical data readily available from Yahoo! Finance but I’d appreciate someone with access to cleaner data from Bloomberg or Thompson to corroborate the results.

The most important thing to take away from this is that there definitely is a relationship between these two financial instruments. Their long term average difference is so small: 28.9 basis points. And they tend to follow each other around most of the time. This isn’t surprising though since just a glance at the two charts side by side going back to the 1940’s shows their relationship.

This indicator may be useful as a tool to gauge financial shocks, and by corollary, buying opportunities. But since the attitude and responsiveness of the Federal Reserve chairman in power can influence how fast they respond to the market rate, it isn’t that objective.

At best it is just a starting point for further study. If you play around with it and find something interesting, drop me a comment to update me.

The market got spooked today because of the release of the Fed minutes (April 30th meeting) showed a hawkish bent. First, I don’t think the market fell because of that. I’ve been cautious for a while now due to a number of technical and sentiment indicators.

But the reluctance of the Fed to continue cutting may not be a bad thing. For one, take a look at the comparison between the Fed Funds rate and the 3 month Treasury bill rate:

It is like the reunion of two lovers (this is as romantic as a trading blog can get). These two financial metrics usually go hand in hand but for far too long there has been a historic dislocation between them. I first pointed this out last summer: Fed should cut rates immediately.

The fact that now we are seeing the bond market and the Fed Funds rate return to their normal behavior bodes well. Especially considering the financial turmoil we’ve endured so far. Believe it or not, at one point they were 133 basis points apart!

And now we are down to just 14 basis points.

I know this is a very simplistic way of looking at an incredibly complex matter but what can I say? I like simple things. I prefer to allow the market’s voice, through the 3 month T-Bill rate, show me where the interest rate should be. I definitely think they do a much better job than a committee of economists harrumphing around an oak table.

I would have preferred the Fed to have taken the rate below, even if just a smattering, the bond market set rate. But I doubt that will happen. We can just settle for the fact that instead of the previous pattern of running away from the Fed, the bond market is now heading towards it in what seems an inevitable reunion or perhaps, even
a crossing.

After almost two years of estrangement, that calls for a celebration.

So the Fed had a working weekend. On Sunday they cut the discount rate by a quarter percent to 3.25% and today, they cut the Fed Funds rate by 75 basis points to 2.25%. The market almost unanimously rejoiced and rushed to buy with both hands, eventhough the Fed Funds futures indicated most were expecting a full 1% cut.

Is that enough? are we out of trouble now?

I don’t think so (just yet).

One of the theories of why we are in such a fine financial mess today is that we’ve had lax monetary policy. I’d like to propose another, without necessarily disagreeing or disproving that school of thought.

It goes something like this: while lax monetary policy is bad, what we are dealing with now isn’t just the after-tremours of the Greenspan bubble era. Since his first days as Chairman, Bernanke has refused to listen to the bond market.

By ignoring it, he has compounded the problems that were there to begin with. And instead of giving the economy the flexibility it needs to go through a short transition period to “fix” itself, he has in effect, extended this painful process (indefinitely).

I’m referring to Bernanke’s insistence to remain, month after month, firmly behind the 3 month Treasury Bill rates. This is something that I noticed last summer, when I wrote that the Fed should cut rates immediately.

And if you take a look at this long term chart of the Fed funds rate compared to the 90 T-Bill rate, you can easily compare the Bernanke Fed to the Greenspan Fed. Greenspan let the market lead him by the nose. His talent was in making every one believe he was in charge… the Maestro, orchestrating the economic symphony, while in fact, he was just flailing his arms around randomly.

Which brings us to today’s interest rate cut:

Unfortunately, since last month the gap has gotten worse! The Federal Funds rate gap is now 133 basis points away from what the short term bond market is saying it should be at.

So while another 75 point basis cut is dazzling, until the Fed actually gets in front of the short term bond market for at least a day or week, I can’t see this mess getting mopped up.

And believe you me, there is a fine mess out there. The Bear Stearns(BSC)/JP Morgan Chase (JPM) story has grabbed everyone’s attention but there is a lot more happening out there:

MF Global (a subsidiary of MAN Capital) was taken behind the toolshed
Carlyle Capital Corporation is about to go tits up
Hedge funds and private equity funds are being closed right, left and center

So on the one hand, things are darkest before dawn but on the other, the way Bernanke is dragging his feet worries me.