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Pricing Money: A beginner's guide to money, bonds, futures and swaps

jdawiseman.com

21–30 of 316 posts

Re: Pricing Money: A beginner's guide to money, bonds, futures and swaps

#21

This is an excellent resource and a great read, but DAMN do money markets seem stupid as all get out to me. Where is the productive output of all these arbitrage shell games? How is this more than an abysmal waste of time and resources simply to make a small handful of bankers richer?

The arbitrage game keeps the prices consistent with each other. It serves to create liquidity so that participants can get their business done without either waiting too long or paying too much.

Re: Pricing Money: A beginner's guide to money, bonds, futures and swaps

#22

This is an excellent resource and a great read, but DAMN do money markets seem stupid as all get out to me. Where is the productive output of all these arbitrage shell games? How is this more than an abysmal waste of time and resources simply to make a small handful of bankers richer?

Whilst arbitrage is certainly something which exists in the financial markets, the vast majority of what's done isn't arbitrage. Arbitrage assumes differing views on valuation of an asset today. So I can buy something from person A, which they believe to be worth value x, and sell it to person B, who believes it to be worth y, where y > x. That's arbitrage in its simplest form - the market has priced something incorrectly, and I can buy it from willing sellers, and sell it to willing buyers at different values at the same time.

The vast majority of financial transactions aren't this - they're speculative. They bank on the idea that money now is worth more than money in the future, and the future value of an asset (using the definition of an asset that it's a sequence of cashflows) is both variable and uncertain. So therefore the promise of future money is inherently tied to the concept of risk. The majority of financial markets trading is based around this concept of risk, and the management of it.

There's vastly more complexity under the hood, but that's roughly speaking, accurate.

Re: Pricing Money: A beginner's guide to money, bonds, futures and swaps

#24

This is an excellent resource and a great read, but DAMN do money markets seem stupid as all get out to me. Where is the productive output of all these arbitrage shell games? How is this more than an abysmal waste of time and resources simply to make a small handful of bankers richer?

Farmers use futures contracts to protect against price risks [0]. As do energy suppliers [1].

[0] https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/99518/eib-219....

[1] https://emp.lbl.gov/publications/primer-electricity-futures-...

Re: Pricing Money: A beginner's guide to money, bonds, futures and swaps

#25
I read a couple of pages and it looks good. I’m not a complete beginner but it’s still filling in some gaps in my knowledge. I appreciate the author’s work and giving it away for free.

That said I feel like it’s skipping some explanation for what’s supposed to be a beginner’s guide. One thing that sticks out to me is that it jumps straight into talking about interest rates without explaining the time value of money and why interest exists.

I wanted a book I could recommend and to others who knew even less than me, but I don’t think this could be it.

(And maybe interest is covered later on, but the ordering is important)

Re: Pricing Money: A beginner's guide to money, bonds, futures and swaps

#26

This is an excellent resource and a great read, but DAMN do money markets seem stupid as all get out to me. Where is the productive output of all these arbitrage shell games? How is this more than an abysmal waste of time and resources simply to make a small handful of bankers richer?

Whilst arbitrage is certainly something which exists in the financial markets, the vast majority of what's done isn't arbitrage. Arbitrage assumes differing views on valuation of an asset today . So I can buy something from person A, which they believe to be worth value x, and sell it to person B, who believes it to be worth y, where y > x. That's arbitrage in its simplest form - the market has priced something incor…

Gotcha gotcha, that makes sense, thanks for the clear explanation! So I can see how the arbitrage (thusly defined) has the risk mitigation benefits other people talk about, can the same be said about speculation?

Re: Pricing Money: A beginner's guide to money, bonds, futures and swaps

#27
post #19

This is an excellent resource and a great read, but DAMN do money markets seem stupid as all get out to me. Where is the productive output of all these arbitrage shell games? How is this more than an abysmal waste of time and resources simply to make a small handful of bankers richer?

Risk management is the product. Surely you agree that a product that reduces risk is worth something, right?

Sure I’m pro-risk management. So by arbing lending-rates which risks are mitigated?

Re: Pricing Money: A beginner's guide to money, bonds, futures and swaps

#28

This is an excellent resource and a great read, but DAMN do money markets seem stupid as all get out to me. Where is the productive output of all these arbitrage shell games? How is this more than an abysmal waste of time and resources simply to make a small handful of bankers richer?

[dead]

Re: Pricing Money: A beginner's guide to money, bonds, futures and swaps

#29

This is an excellent resource and a great read, but DAMN do money markets seem stupid as all get out to me. Where is the productive output of all these arbitrage shell games? How is this more than an abysmal waste of time and resources simply to make a small handful of bankers richer?

[deleted]

Re: Pricing Money: A beginner's guide to money, bonds, futures and swaps

#30

This is an excellent resource and a great read, but DAMN do money markets seem stupid as all get out to me. Where is the productive output of all these arbitrage shell games? How is this more than an abysmal waste of time and resources simply to make a small handful of bankers richer?

Same with the majority of tech companies. All you do is endless meetings, plannings, reviews and extremely little actual human brain is used for productive output.
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