If you're like me, you're sick of seeing regurgitated information from corporate spinmeisters packaged, dumbed down, and re-digested. What you want is an inside source, the pure juice, the real skinny.
And if you're like me, you want to know what's happening in the financial markets right about now. What you want is someone who's a current or former trader with unvarnished opinions.
Well, have I got a site for you: acrossthecurve.com
This is a non-commercial blog put together by John Jansen, a guy with extensive bond trading experience. I'm not spamming here or promoting a friend's blog - I genuinely think this is a good resource as we work to figure out what the fuck is going on here.
Jansen has been right on the money in predicting a lot of this financial crisis, and has extensive experience. He's a 30-year veteran of the bond market. His grammar and spelling can be a little crappy, but man, the analysis is great. Good for background.
Here's a funny sample post for TODAY:
The Treasury market is locked in a narrow trading range as participants wait for Godot. Traders are biding their time watching the tape for news on the progress of discussions on the rescue bill.I watched President Bush earlier. As I watched him speak (and I mean no disrespect, sincerely) I was reminded of a line from a Beatles song which went, “I imagine that she is a very nice girl but she hasn’t got a lot to say”. He just doe not have much to say and in this event sadly he is not in control as events are.
Of course, he's not bending over for the Dems either:
Subsequently, Harry Reid and Chris Dodd found a podium and some press and began their locutions. They do not strike me as people with gravitas. They seemed more interested in bashing John McCain than in serious discussions about the problems which confront us as a nation.
And some hard-core analysis:
In the Treasury market I spoke with a Treasury Bond trader who described the illiquidity in his sector. He said that it reminded him of how bad the off the run bond market was following the collapse of Long Term Capital. He noted that the 2021through 2023 sector of the Treasury curve had become very cheap versus 2024 through 2025 paper. In the last couple of sessions the 2021 through 2023 paper has cheapened by about 5 basis points versus the longer dated paper. In his opinion this has resulted from deleveraging which has trading firms unloading securities which they once intended to warehouse.
Keep an eye on this site, I think it provides useful perspective. That is all.