This month, we wanted to explore the topic of interest rates; what they are, why they are important, and how you can use interest rate information in your trading. This is a topic that new traders typically gloss over when starting out, so we hope this is a helpful and actionable series for new people looking to learn more about macroeconomics and fundamental analysis!
The first question when dealing with interest rates is how to see the information on TradingView. While you can always click the "Bonds" tab under "Markets" and navigate to the "Rates" table, an even easier way to view interest rates across the globe is by using the 'search' terminal and typing in "10Y". Then, click "Economy", and you should be able to see all of the global 10 year interest rates markets:
This configuration will get you "10 year" rates, but you can get different maturity bonds by using other tickers. For example, you can see United States 3 month rates by typing "US03M", or Brazilian 10 year rates by typing "BR10Y". All of the rates markets in our system follow this ticker standard. Try one! It's easy.
For people who aren't familiar, here's the lowdown on how interest rates work.
Interest rates fluctuate in the open market just like stocks or cryptocurrency; they move inversely to government bond prices. In this way, you can simply look at government bond prices to get a sense of how interest rates are doing -> they will be moving in the opposite direction.
The reason behind this is that when bonds are issued, they are issued with a "par value" and a "coupon rate". Let's say that the par value for a government bond is $1,000, and the coupon rate is 2%. This means that every year, the bond issuer will pay the bond owner $20.
The thing is, after bonds are issued, they can be traded freely in the open market. Let's say that the $1,000 bond increases in value and begins trading at $1,030 because there is significant demand for some reason. Because the $20 paid to the bondholder is fixed, the actual "interest rate" that buyers get when they pay $1,030 for the bond a bit lower than 2% -> 1.94% to be exact.
Thus, changes in bond prices change the real time "interest rates" in the market!
One thing to note: Government bond rates are different than the Government-set "funds" rate, which is decided on by a country's central bank.
Next week in part 2, we'll take a look what drives supply and demand for government bonds / interest rates, and how monetary policy influences all the assets you trade. Plus, how you can use this information to your advantage!
See you next week!
- Team TradingView ❤️❤️
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Want to see all the yields / bond prices? Check out this list!