Macroeconomic Information and Financial Trading

The reaction of bond prices to the arrival of macroeconomic information provides a glimpse into the macroeconomic beliefs of traders and the way in which new information is incorporated into prices. This book challenges the presumption that these reactions represent rational responses to the arrival of relevant information in an informationally efficient capital market. Rather, it suggests that the often anomolous behaviour of speculative prices following the release of economic reports is more indicative of a reaction to "noise" (non-informational factors) than information. At first glance, the quick reaction of speculative prices to the release of economic reports is exactly what one would expect. Upon closer inspection, however, anomalies appear and questions arise, such as: why do long-term bond prices often react sharply to high-frequency preliminary economic data?; why are the once market-moving weekly money-supply announcements no longer closely watched by bond traders?; why does the interpretation traders assign to a given piece of information sometimes change radically over time? The book addresses these and similar questions.
It is written in a manner accessible to both traders and economists alike, and presents a blend of theory and practical applications that reflect the author's experience, both as a trader and as an academic in finance and economics. "Macroeconomic Information and Financial Trading" should be of interest to traders, academics, economic policy-makers and students of financial economics and macroeconomics.