The Basis For the Treasury Basis Trade: Leverage Laundering?

November 7, 2023

The Basis For the Treasury Basis Trade: Leverage Laundering?

Filed under: Clearing,Derivatives,Economics,Regulation — cpirrong @ 3:11 pm

The Treasury basis trade continues to be in the news, with one of the biggest basis traders–Citadel’s Ken Griffin–complaining that the SEC should regulate hedge fund basis trading, but should instead make sure that banks aren’t supplying too much leverage to . . . well, hedge funds mostly. This seems like a raising rival’s costs gambit. No doubt restrictions on leverage would hit Griffin’s competitors harder, whereas SEC regulation might have a more even impact.

Regardless, one question that hasn’t been asked in all the to-ing and fro-ing about Treasury basis trades is why they exist at all, let alone why they get so big. This graph (courtesy of FTAlphaville, based on CFTC data) provides a major clue:

Note the mirror image between leveraged funds (mainly hedged funds) and asset managers (ostensibly non-leveraged funds–the reason for the “ostensibly” will become clear shortly).

To the extent that hedge funds’...