Implied Repo Rate

Categories: Bonds, Credit

No, it doesn't have to do with some burly guy going after your car when you fall behind on your payments. Instead, it has to do with arbitrage in the bond market.

Take the following transaction: you borrow money to buy a bond in the current cash market, while simultaneously selling a futures contract for that same bond. Eventually, you deliver the bond to the buyer of the futures contract, paying back the loan you used to purchase the bond.

The implied repo rate is the rate of return that can be earned by going through this rigmarole. You earn money by selling the futures contract and eventually selling the bond when the futures deal expires. From that total, you also have to pay out some expenses, such as the interest cost to borrow the money needed to purchase the bond in the first place.

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