Archives of “January 9, 2019” day

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Greece posts bumper $2.4bn budget surplus

  
Analysis, Education
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Here’s something you don’t hear very often. Greece’s public finances are in very healthy shape.

Over the first four months of the year, the Greek treasury boasted a primary budget surplus of €2.4bn. This surplus, which does not include debt interest repayments, came in well above a forecast of just €566m, according to the Greek Ministry of Finance.

After more than 16 months in office, the Syriza government is managing to do exactly what its creditors demand – cut spending and raise taxes. The €2.4bn surplus was also better than the €2.1bn reached over the same period last year.

Athens’ coffers were boosted by better than expected tax revenues, which came in €325m above target at €14.11bn from January to April. Spending meanwhile came in at an impressive €2.28bn below target.

Squabbling over the state of Greece’s primary budget surplus has emerged as the latest sticking point between its international creditors. (more…)

PATIENCE & DISCIPLINE

  
  Education
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  god-grant-me1 A trader has to have patience & discipline to succeed.
The bottom line is – you need to work out a plan, and then stick to it…regardless.
If you decide on trading only a particular strategy, then you must wait for that setup to occur. In the meanwhile, if price makes some moves, you should not trade those, simply because they do not fit within your plan. 
Psychologically, you need a lot of discipline to stick to a plan, because you always feel you are missing out on the moves.
And if you are trading full time, then this becomes a very big issue. Since you keep waiting for a trade & if the opportunity does not occur, then you get tempted to twist your plan & get into the action…..which is the surest way to disaster.
One can make a living from trading…provided it’s done in the correct way.
It’s not an overnight-get-rich-scheme.
It has to be built up slowly & takes a lot of effort & dedication.
Once you accept this fact, it becomes somewhat easier

$673 Billion In Commercial Paper Maturing Through July 16 As CP Rates Creep Higher

  
Analysis, Economy, Education
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As an increasing number of analysts evaluate the impact of Europe’s rolling defaults and failed auctions on Europe’s liquidity and particularly its shadow liquidity system, best seen in rising European Commercial Paper rates, is it about time to take a look at our own back yard. According to the Federal Reserve there is $673 billion in Commercial Paper maturing in the next 6 weeks alone, of which the bulk, Non-ABL Tier 1 CP amounts to $328 billion, ABL CP totals $292 billion, and Non-ABL Tier 2 CP totals $34 billion. What is concerning is that just like in Europe, rates here in the US for the various tranches of Commercial Paper have started rising. And as this is arguably one of the biggest components of the US shadow liquidity system, it bears close watching, especially if spreads continue leaking wider as they have recently. One thing to keep in mind: the Fed’ CPFF emergency facility has now been retired, and any hitch in the CP market will necessitate another brand new involvement in broad liquidity provisioning by the Fed. Then again, just as in the Central Bank liquidity swap case, which was reactivated on a moment’s notice, we don’t see any problem with the Fed announcing the CPFF program going live with no notice.

The chart below shows a maturity distribution of various CP tranches over the next six weeks.

And the recent rates on the three key CP tranches can be seen in the chart below. All three are trading at their 2010 wide levels.

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