ETF Liquidity: How Difficult is ETF Market Making?

When Goldman Sachs decided to quit as a lead market maker for ETFs, you have to ask just how liquid ETFs would be in volatile, declining market. Goldman Sachs was dissatisfied with a business that yielded fractional pennies on trades while, as a large bank, it was required to maintain strict regulatory capital requirements for liquidity.  This retreat from the ETF market maker business means that smaller, less regulated firms, which will not have strict capital requirements, will be picking up the Goldman Sachs  ETF market making business and be responsible for the liquidity of ETF trades.

In "ETF Liquidity: A Market Maker's Perspective" and "Understanding a Market Maker's Risk Can Help You Save on Transaction Costs" in this Vanguard publication, there is a discussion of the market maker process.  The articles also advise not attempting transactions at the opening or close of the

Bond Trading Weakness in U.S. Large Banks

When Goldman Sachs reported its 2nd Quarter bond trading revenue had taken a nosedive, the news caught my attention because I had been reviewing the abysmal short term 2016 investment results, which would include bonds, derivatives, currency hedges, etc., of the three largest State of Illinois pension systems and the total negative returns (one eked approximately 2/10 percent).  This is not unusual for the Illinois pension funds which either have incompetent short term investment traders or contracted investment firms.  But when you see Goldman Sachs under performing, it gets your attention.

The Goldman Sachs loss of bond trading revenue was compounded by  large losses in commodities

Central Banks Should Communicate`

In my response to Brad Setzer's post on central bank coordination, with which I have no real objection other than his citation of an article which continues the exceptionally false Target2 risks argument which is not even competent economics, I merely pointed out how difficult, and often impractical, it is to get central banks to coordinate given different situations within their country and that the ECB presents an  even more difficult problem, because it serves a monetary union without fiscal transfer processes and without a fiat currency.  With respect to Lael Brainard's speech on cross

Is Federal Reserve and ECB Monetary Policy Coordination Practical?

Brad Setzer has an interesting post on central bank monetary coordination based on Lael Brainard's recent speech.  I am not convinced the issue is so much correcting "imbalances" or the supply of high quality government bonds in the eurozone.  If eurozone banks are keeping deposits at the ECB at a negative 40 basis points charge, what does that say about the balance sheets of those banks?  The ECB does not publish excess reserve data on a monthly or weekly basis; therefore, we have no timely means to track stock and flows.  Additionally, the ECB Asset Purchase Program is providing bank liquidity, but its operation has created excess liquidity in some surplus countries where the liquidity is less needed and regulatory balance sheet problems in other countries where banks need to hold on to

Does Russia Fear Qatar's Natural Gas?

In April 2017, Qatar announced it was going to increase liquid natural gas (LNG) production despite a three year market slump, which was viewed as not likely to make its major competitor, Russia, happy. Then, in May, Qatar's state news agency website was hacked with a false flag news story attempting to portray the emir pro Iran and Hamas, a growing friend of Israel and of tensions with Trump.  All designed to inflame other members of the Gulf Coalition.  Despite U.S. Intelligence agencies quickly identifying Russian hackers, perhaps mercenaries, as the source of the false flag

Are ETFs a Potential Market Liquidity Problem?

I have previously written are about market liquidity potential problems in responding to a Noah Smith article and put forth the opinion that equity ETFs are more liquid than ETNs, although a financial crisis might cause market liquidity problems when everyone is trying to sell.  I also said they are a second choice to mutual funds holding same basket of stocks, because the transaction costs can be significantly larger for ETFs although their annual fees may be less.  Now, Bank of America is questioning whether large money flows into ETFs is distorting market price-earnings(PE) and  over

Michael Pettis on the Economics of Income Distribution

Michael Pettis has written an important article on whether cutting taxes on the wealthy leads to growth through an analysis, in different economic investment conditions, of the impacts it can have on economic growth and income inequality.  It is an important article, because the public discussion of this issue is obscured by the divisive ideological political debate of politicians

Waiting for Godot or Does Anyone Really Know What Is Going on with eurozone Banks?

I have been researching eurozone banks excess reserves and repo availability for a few weeks trying to work my way through muddled commentary and sort the reality from the assumptions and found myself questioning what I know.  In doing so, I have misstated to others what I am thinking and even the data, facts, and issues about which I am concerned.  Sometimes it is best to just stand back and look for the string that pulls the material together.

I have yet to write that article which will address whether eurozone banking rules to promote solvency of banks is creating a liquidity problem, because  the eurozone banking resolution authorities seem to have so badly mismanaged the Banco Popular resolution to the point of intensifying a bank run despite monitoring bank liquidity on a daily and hourly basis.

Banco Popular was Spain's 6th largest bank having been in existence since the early 20thCentury and one of the more profitable banks until about 2016.  In February 2017, it announced it had a 3.b billion euro loss on asset writedowns and Non Performing Loan sales while maintaining it still had more than sufficient quality assets on its balance sheet.

By the end of May and first days of June reports were circulating that Banco Popular had received only 3.5 billion euro on 40 billion euro collateral rather than the 9.5 billion euro it had expected one month previously and had applied to the Bank of Spain for liquidity support receiving only 10%

Even Bloomberg Fears Financial Advisors

I recently wrote yet another article on the institutional deception of the financial advisor services in the United States which contains links to prior articles of mine on the subject as well as testimony provided to the SEC when they studied the issue a few years ago and did nothing.  That article was linked by Abnormal Returns.


Bloomberg had an article last week on how bad financial advisers are multiplying, how they deceive investors, provide advice while having conflicts of interest, how the new Fiduciary Rule is merely a

Will ETFs Have Liquidity in a Financial Crisis?

Noah Smith has a decent column today asking if it is smart to worry about ETFs.   He appears to be concerned about the liquidity of ETFs which hold bonds, derivatives, and futures.  Personally, I think the concerns also apply to equity ETFs in a Crisis market. 

One means of avoiding liquidity risk is to avoid ETNs which not only are comprised of holdings with significant liquidity risk but also can involve default.

If a individual has an account at Fidelity, Vanguard, T. Rowe Price, etc., they will find that is significantly less expensive to buy/sell an ETF (such as a Vanguard ETF at Fidelity) than a no-load mutual fund (Vanguard fund at Fidelity) with no 12(b)-1 annual expense of another company.  If it cost $75  to buy a mutual fund and only $7.95 to buy an ETF, you are being purposefully discouraged from buying the fund.

It would be imprudent to not investigate ETFs as well as mutual funds depending on where you have your investment accounts. You will look at the bid/ask spread, because the larger the spread the less liquidity. You will look at volume, because the smaller the volume the less liquidity.  You will look at expense, because you want lower expenses.  You will look at the ETF's portfolio for questionable or potentially illiquid or risky holdings.  You would look at performance over different periods of market conditions.  You would look at risk statistics.  You would look at current and historical distributions.  And that would just be the beginning of the investment decision process and choices of investment in comparison or its role within a portfolio.

Obviously, the least expense purchase is done with a Limit Order, but do not be surprised if it fails and you have to decide whether to make a Market Order.   Investing is a methodical process.  The best portfolios are holding portfolios which have elements which go up and down in different market conditions, because most people buy and sell at the wrong times when reacting to a market and lose return over time.  A knowledgeable investor will have buy/sell rules which they rigorously follow.

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