Market practitioners often rely on experience-based wisdom to navigate currency markets, and one such widely held belief is that low dispersion in global bond yields signals weak future returns for carry trades (and high dispersion implies high future carry returns). While this intuition makes sense—when yield differentials are compressed, the incentive to exploit them diminishes—a recent academic study provides a solid theoretical foundation for this idea. The research not only confirms this observation with rigorous empirical analysis but also explains the underlying financial mechanisms that drive the relationship. By quantifying the effect and presenting clear visualizations, the study transforms an intuitive market rule of thumb into a well-grounded principle backed by data.

In this study, we explore the application of simple spread trading strategies using Bitcoin ETFs and cryptocurrency infrastructure ETFs—two highly correlated asset classes due to the broader influence of cryptocurrency market movements. Given their strong relationship, this setup provides a compelling case for implementing pair trading strategies based on mean reversion principles. Building on our previous work, How to Build Mean Reversion Strategies in Currencies, we adapt and extend these models to the cryptocurrency ETF space, demonstrating their broader applicability beyond traditional currency markets. Specifically, we test two sub-methods of mean reversion: linear and exponential. Our goal is to offer a clear and practical example of how traders can leverage these techniques across different asset classes.

Inflation is one of the key macroeconomic forces shaping financial markets, influencing asset prices across the board. In our previous analysis, we examined how gold and Treasury prices react to changes in the inflation rate, uncovering patterns that suggested inflation dynamics also impact the US dollar. In this follow-up, we shift our focus entirely to the dollar, analyzing how it responds to both accelerating and decelerating inflation. As the world’s reserve currency, the dollar’s movements have far-reaching implications, affecting global trade, monetary policy, and asset allocation. Our goal is to determine whether inflation serves as a clear driver of dollar performance and, if so, in what ways.

Hello all,

– An upgraded ETF Replication and Closest Neighbours reports
– A reminder for Quantpedia Awards 2025 competition with a $25.000 prize pool
– MesoSim discount announcement
– 11 new Quantpedia Premium strategies have been added to our database
– 11 new related research papers have been included in existing Premium strategies during the last month
– Additionally, we have produced 7 new backtests written in QuantConnect code
– 4 new blog posts that you may find interesting have been published on our Quantpedia blog in the previous month

Navigating the financial markets requires a keen understanding of risk sentiment, and one often-overlooked dataset that provides valuable insights is FINRA’s margin debt statistics. Reported monthly, these figures track the total debit balances in customers’ securities margin accounts—a key proxy for speculative activity in the market. Since margin accounts are heavily used for leveraged trades, shifts in margin debt levels can signal changes in overall risk appetite. Our research explores how this dataset can be leveraged as a market timing tool for US stock indexes, enhancing traditional trend-following strategies that rely solely on price action. Given the current uncertainty surrounding Trump’s presidency, margin debt data could serve as a warning system, helping investors distinguish between market corrections and deeper bear markets.

Inflation significantly impacts the prices of gold and treasury bonds through various mechanisms. Gold is often viewed as a hedge against inflation, while treasury bonds exhibit a more complex relationship influenced by interest rates and investor behavior. This relationship between inflation, gold, and treasuries is well understood, but the real question is whether we can systematically capitalize on it. In this article, we explore how inflation data can be used to build trading strategies—and as our findings suggest, the answer is a definite yes.