[gooseman]

it's a vicious circle. liquidity thin so moves are huge which means people don't want to leave resting orders or expose themselves to big moves. ugly.

problem is that many people entered the market in the low vol period a few years ago and are struggling to adapt.

[clbfjc]

Surely if moves a larger and more voliatile entering a spread will lessen the risk of getting caught if the market suddenly jumps. As i am more of technical minded trader it may be worth looking at other products such as FX's, rather than spreads. Just means I would have to get used to using bigger stops and not have a way of "flipping" my trade if I have it wrong. By this I mean If I am long bobl, Short Schatz, reverse the positon by Buying Schatz then selling bunds, which will leave me short bunds long bobl.

[gooseman]

there is also the issue of the yield curve which has been very active recently. for example in June when the yield curve inverted the bund spiked and collapsed by 150 ticks as exotic desks ran for the hills and hedged their gamma. things like this can f*ck you as you just don't know why it's happening.

[arabianights]

but if you can see that it is happening you can join in, right?

[gooseman]

check out the charts for 6th June.....and then work out if you could have joined in without being carted out :-)

[arabianights]

6 June looks nice enough to me

9th on the other hand...

[gooseman]

fecking bloomberg and it's american date system...! oops. 9th is what I meant. yield curve flipped and loads of structured desks acrambled to buy futures to hedge the gamma on the inversion notes. ouch.

[Mpoufos]

no nobody bids and offers the book anymore u are right just people taking out positions, which makes it a lot more subject to manipulation like flipping etc. thats why we keep on having these exaggerating moves in the bund all the time. big boys are pushing to the extreme and in constant search for stops. clb why dont u try just the outright, who spreads anymore?