Jamie Dimon & co. may have done a great national service by making the Fed’s discount window socially acceptable again just in the nick of time. That mitzvah, however, does not give the bank carte blanche to spoof that most sacred of securities, U.S. Treasuries. I mean, if the Fed aren’t gonna give you a pass on spoofing the spoofiest thing out there, precious metals, they certainly can’t look the other way here, whatever else may be going on.
The bank disclosed in a Feb. 25 regulatory filing that it is dealing with “related requests concerning similar trading-practices issues in markets for other financial instruments, such as U.S. Treasurys.” According to people familiar with the matter, the investigation also is probing the bank’s trading in futures…. A move to examine trading practices in Treasury securities would be a big step in a market that has historically had little transparency… “It is going to be a lot harder for the government to catch spoofers in the cash Treasury market than in the futures market,” Mr. Angel said.
Of course, the Feds already have a hard enough time with that, so this is perhaps more of a warning to banks to cut that shit out than it is an actual effort to find and apprehend the “Legend” of Treasurys spoofing.
Government Is Broadening Investigations of Spoofing-Like Practices [WSJ]
Shedding 2008 Stigma, Biggest U.S. Banks Borrow Straight From the Fed [WSJ]