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To be sure, we're talking about German bonds here... Germany's social expenditure as %age of GDP has been going down steadily since the crisis, in contrast to the majority of other countries across the world.

Aye, there have been all sorts of shenanigans in the roll and, more generally, in that area of the curve.

Well, basically, it's a little bit of all of those things. With bonds, yes, you might buy a zero-coupon bond at 110 and get 100 at redemption (doesn't necessarily mean you lose money, since, in the meantime, you might be able to fund the bond at an even more negative rate or you might have...

Make sure you buy the quanto version...

Of course... My "anonymous internet people" strategy has been delivering stupendous returns for investors for 20 years. And no, don't believe you about laughing at CNBC fans. Maybe a while back, when you still had your sense of humour, but clearly not now.

Hmmmm, there appears to be very scant understanding of bonds here...

Thanks to your inspiration, mate, I am now making money hand over fist on this ongoing bund squeeze... German yield now negative all the way to 7y. Yeeehaw!

Hell, no, bruv... I iz innit to winnit!

Yeah, you've inspired me now...

Whoa!!! And here I thought this was a trading forum... Was I mistaken?

Yes, agreed and I don't have the answers either... I do think, though, that there comes a point where integration through "perma-crisis", a la Jean Monnet, starts to become more costly than having the union in the first place. Oh, good lord, I couldn't possibly disagree more with a statement...

Yes, and I am not referring to Greece here... The Eurozone has suffered through one sh1tstorm after another. Isn't it rather telling that, since the original Eurogeddon crisis, we've had pretty much ongoing mini-crises continuously in Europe and relative stability elsewhere? Isn't there a...

I thought there's all sorts of evidence that active managers are generally quite sh1t. Good riddance, then, no?

Yes, my point is precisely that, for Europe, it's an unfortunate combination of: a) not being prepared for the sh1tstorm properly when/if it happens; and b) the sh1tstorm being more likely because of loose integration. And yes, that's how the Europeans go about doing things, but I think it's...

To imagine that you can implement any "cash-and-carry"-style strategies when your broker's market for financing is 300bps wide is rather, how to say, misguided?

Well, you could do some fancy schmancy stuff to, effectively, take some money off the table. But, ultimately, in case of a call spread, selling at least some of the position is the only proper way to do it. There is one thing I occasionally like to do, which lets me feel good about the position...

Yeah, so let's put it this way... The value of this call spread will "asymptotically" approach 15 as it gets closer to expiry and/or the underlying goes unequivocally and irreversibly through the upper strike. Yeah, precisely, with the risk, obviously, that the stock in question could fall...

The sign does make a difference. You've sold the index for cash. You're lending cash at the rate given on the right-hand side, which means you're receiving a rate of -2.4% on your cash (that's a function of Swiss money mkt rates being negative, as well as the ridiculously wide mkt from your...

Well, the time value of the short call is going to go down, but so will the time value of the long call. To illustrate, lemme ask you a simple question Let's say the stock is at $132 a week before expiry... I offer you the call spread for 15. Would you buy? What about 1 day before? Where...

Sure, let's assume zero for the futures. On the index, I think you're a wee little bit off. Firstly, the interest is not 2.40%, it's -2.40%. Secondly, as I am sure you're aware, there's a small matter of a dividend, which is projected to be worth arnd 108.5 index points in March (index goes...