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QE Auctions of Treasury Bonds

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  • Zhaogang Song
  • Haoxiang Zhu

Abstract

The Federal Reserve (Fed) uses a unique auction mechanism to purchase U.S. Treasury securities in implementing its quantitative easing (QE) policy. In this paper, we study the outcomes of QE auctions and participating dealers' bidding behaviors from November 2010 to September 2011, during which the Fed purchased $780 billion Treasury securities. Our data include the transaction prices and quantities of each traded bond in each auction, as well as dealers' identities. We find that: (1) In QE auctions the Fed tends to exclude bonds that are liquid and on special, but among included bonds, purchase volumes gravitate toward more liquid bonds; (2) The auction costs are low on average: the Fed pays around 0.7 cents per $100 par value above the secondary market ask price on auction dates; (3) The heterogeneity of Fed's costs across bonds relates to their liquidity and specialness, suggesting that dealers respond to both valuation and information uncertainties; (4) Dealers exhibit strong heterogeneity in their participation, trading volumes, and profits in QE auctions; (5) Auction bidding variables forecast bond returns only one day after the auction, suggesting that dealers have price-relevant information but the information decays quickly.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhaogang Song & Haoxiang Zhu, 2014. "QE Auctions of Treasury Bonds," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2014-48, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2014-48
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    2. Todorov, Karamfil, 2020. "Quantify the quantitative easing: Impact on bonds and corporate debt issuance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(2), pages 340-358.
    3. Schlepper, Kathi & Riordan, Ryan & Hofer, Heiko & Schrimpf, Andreas, 2017. "Scarcity effects of QE: A transaction-level analysis in the Bund market," Discussion Papers 06/2017, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    4. Esteban Pérez Caldentey, 2017. "Quantitative Easing (QE), Changes in Global Liquidity, and Financial Instability," International Journal of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2-3), pages 91-112, July.
    5. Breedon, Francis, 2018. "On the transactions costs of UK quantitative easing," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 347-356.
    6. Pelizzon, Loriana & Subrahmanyam, Marti G. & Tomio, Davide & Uno, Jun, 2018. "Central bank-driven mispricing," SAFE Working Paper Series 226, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, revised 2018.
    7. Nina Boyarchenko & David O. Lucca & Laura Veldkamp, 2015. "Taking orders and taking notes: dealer information sharing in financial markets," Staff Reports 726, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    8. Nina Boyarchenko & David O. Lucca & Laura Veldkamp, 2016. "Taking Orders and Taking Notes: Dealer Information Sharing in Treasury Markets," NBER Working Papers 22461, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Kastl, Jakub, 2020. "Auctions in financial markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    10. Zhiguo He & Paymon Khorrami & Zhaogang Song, 2022. "Commonality in Credit Spread Changes: Dealer Inventory and Intermediary Distress," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(10), pages 4630-4673.
    11. Lena Boneva & David Elliott & Iryna Kaminska & Oliver Linton & Nick McLaren & Ben Morley, 2022. "The Impact of Corporate QE on Liquidity: Evidence from the UK," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(648), pages 2615-2643.
    12. Erasmo Giambona & Rafael Matta & José-Luis Peydró & Ye Wang, 2020. "Quantitative easing, investment, and safe assets: the corporate-bond lending channel," Economics Working Papers 1722, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Oct 2020.
    13. Saki Bigio & Galo Nuño & Juan Passadore, 2023. "Debt-Maturity Management with Liquidity Costs," Journal of Political Economy Macroeconomics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 119-190.
    14. Cafiso, Gianluca, 2019. "Sovereign bond markets when auctions take place: Evidence from Italy," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 406-430.
    15. Inaba, Kei-Ichiro, 2019. "The behaviour of bidders in quantitative-easing auctions of sovereign bonds in Japan: Determinants of the popularity of the 9 to 10-year maturity segment," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 206-214.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Auction; quantitative easing; Federal Reserve; treasury bonds; specialness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G13 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Contingent Pricing; Futures Pricing

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