⚯ Michel de Cryptadamus ⚯<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://masto.ai/@GhostOnTheHalfShell" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>GhostOnTheHalfShell</span></a></span> the explanation i've settled on for myself about the various japanese carry trades is pretty simple:</p><p>1. ever since the 1989 crash Bank of Japan has loaned out money at insanely low rates (0% or even negative sometimes IIRC)</p><p>2. people like to borrow money from bank of japan and invest it in other stuff (like US treasuries) and pick up a small rate of return (e.g. if a japanese bank is charging 0.5% and treasuries pay 2% you can make 1.5% "for free")</p><p>3. because the rate of return is low people juice their returns by levering the fuck up and borrowing $50 for every $1 they're actually putting in</p><p>4. this amount of leverage means that even small movements in the value of the asset (e.g. US treasuries) blows people up (e.g. at 50x leverage a 2% move is death)</p><p>the specifics of each carry trade are hard to follow but BOJ has been regarded as a ticking time bomb for a long time now</p><p><a href="https://universeodon.com/tags/BondMarket" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BondMarket</span></a> <a href="https://universeodon.com/tags/economics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>economics</span></a> <a href="https://universeodon.com/tags/economy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>economy</span></a> <a href="https://universeodon.com/tags/treasuries" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>treasuries</span></a> <a href="https://universeodon.com/tags/uspol" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>uspol</span></a> <a href="https://universeodon.com/tags/Japan" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Japan</span></a> <a href="https://universeodon.com/tags/BankOfJapan" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BankOfJapan</span></a> <a href="https://universeodon.com/tags/BOJ" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BOJ</span></a> <a href="https://universeodon.com/tags/carrytrade" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>carrytrade</span></a></p>