It all starts with keeping an eye on the money markets. This has been true ever since I spent time on a money markets trading floor as a rookie right through my more sophisticated days managing a fund and working on the investment committee for an endowment. Strains in the financial system show up in the most liquid  markets.
The U.S. Money markets are deep, and represent funding sources and uses from overnight money to up to a year in maturity. Treasury bills, Bank CDs Fed Funds and Sway Futures all normally portray expectations of future short term interest rates. When something cracks, things lose their normal pattern and act as a reliable signal of change ahead.
We will look further into this arena and its current juxtaposition as well as some historic times. There are less well established money markets in other developed and less developed countries that are fascinating studies as well. WE look forward to looking at today’s environment as well as learning lessons from the past.

Tom Kutzen has more than thirty years experience in the financial markets working across many markets working with all types of participant investors and many luminaries of the financial world. Tom is now sharing his years of experience in the capital markets with individuals and organizations outside the financial services industry in order to help them develop the skills necessary to further their own financial education, financial literacy and economic success. The information in TKSmartworth will cover categories ranging from Volatility; Economic Growth, Trade & Inflation; Equities; Bonds; Currencies; Derivatives; Participants; Central Bank Policy; and more.