Interest rates play a pivotal role in all financial markets. No matter what market you trade whether it is stocks, forex, futures, options, ETFs, commodities, bonds etc, you need to keep an eye on the interest rates. A yield curve is a representation on the graph that compares the entire spectrum on interest rates available to investors.

You will come across three types of shapes on the yield curve. The normal curve rises to the right and the short term interests are lower than the longer term interests. A normal yield curve represents normal economic activity where investors are being rewarded more for investing in longer term securities with a premium on longer term interest rates.

When you find the Yield Curve to be Flat, it means that all the interest rates in the economy are equal. What this indicates is that economic activity is slowing down. Now, most of the time you will come accross the Normal Yield Curve. But sometimes, you will find the Yield Curve to be Flat.

However, when the economy starts to go into a recession, you will suddenly find an Inverted Yield Curve. On an Inverted Yield Curve, the longer term interest rates are lower than the short term interest rates.What this mean is that the economy is slowing down and investors are reluctant to invest long term thinking it to be risky. An Inverted Yield Curve is a leading indicator of an economy doing down into a recession. When there is a financial crisis like that happened in the early part of 2008, you will find the Yield Curve to be Inverted. Investors are shying away from investing in long term projects in the economy.

Many investors and traders trade interest rates by investing in Eurodollars. Eurodollars are short term futures contracts that have a low margin requirement meaning retail traders and investors can also trade Eurodollars. Eurodollars have a highly liquid market meaning you can get in and get out without paying a large spread due to the large market in them. They also have less volatility. However, you can also trade the 10 year Treasury Notes (T Notes) and the Treasury Bonds (T Bond) that have a maturity period of higher than 10 years. However, T Notes and T Bonds have a much higher volatility as compared to Eurodollars.You can also trade options on these interest rate futures contracts. Some people trade the volatility. So, you have to know what you want before you trade these instruments!

Now, when you trade these interest rate futures contracts, you need to keep an eye on the market constantly. Futures trading can be risky and in a matter of few minutes you might get wiped out in the market and get a margin call from your broker. Trading interest rate futures is no different than trading anyother futures contract. If you haven’t traded futures before, a good idea would be to first paper trade these contracts for at least two months so that you get a feel of how these futures contracts gets traded and how the market behaves!

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