Charles Gates

In March of 2020, an anomaly in a relatively obscure part of the U.S. Treasury bond futures market caused a major disruption in that market, which in turn prompted the U.S. Federal Reserve to put forth $5 trillion of liquidity to calm the markets. Yep, that was “trillion”, with a “t”! At the root of […]

The repo markets in the United States have historically been a relatively obscure but highly important part of the “plumbing” of the capital markets by facilitating overnight and generally, short-term financing of securities transactions primarily in the US Treasury market. Repos are also a key provider of short-term liquidity to US brokerage firms facilitating both […]

High fashion and high finance may have an all too apparent connection when it comes to the new season and folks with considerable means go shopping for the latest styles in trendy boutiques. Last season’s finery may well have drifted rapidly out of style and that change may take its toll on one’s liquid assets. […]

In the historic conversion of the world’s financial markets away from Libor as the most widely used benchmark rate for loans and derivatives, most attention in the United States has been focused on the switch from Libor to SOFR (Secured Overnight Financing Rate). The demise of Libor, of course, arose from the manipulation of that […]

Interest rate swaps denominated in US dollars (an agreement between two counterparties to exchange a fixed rate of interest for a floating rate of interest for a specific period of time calculated on a notional principal amount) have been in existence since the early 1980s, and most commonly have been priced historically with a floating […]

Negative interest rates have been observed many times in various markets, but over the past few years, have occurred more often than can be explained by a mere anomaly. We have no problem imagining why a government or company would want to issue bonds at a negative interest rate, but why on earth would anyone […]

At the end of this past week, headlines on the financial news pages around the United States if not the world, alerted us all to a rare and unsettling event: “Treasury Market Calls Time on Fed Hikes as Curve Finally Inverts” (Bloomberg, 3/22/19) “Stocks, Bond Yields Fall Amid Anxiety Over World Economy” (The Wall Street […]

Introduction to Counterparty Credit Risk The evolution of counterparty credit risk started with counterparty (credit) limits, settlement limits and exposure measurements such as potential future exposure. This progressed to the use of unilateral collateral, then the bilateral exchange of collateral. To assist in the pricing for the cost of dealing with a counterparty in a […]

Central counterparty clearing houses, or more simply central counterparties (“CCPs”), have emerged from the 2008 financial crisis as lynchpins of the global derivatives markets, and therefore, a critical part of the infrastructure of the global financial system. This article addresses the following questions: What are CCPs, and what role do they play? What is a […]

If there was ever any doubt about the importance of electronic trading in today’s capital markets, surely the acquisition of the New York Stock Exchange by ICE (the Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. based in Atlanta, and one of the first electronic derivatives exchanges) would put the notion to rest. Looking at the corporate evolution of ICE […]