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Capital flows explained
Short explainers on the data used on this site, and a glossary of the terms.
Explainers
What TIC data shows, and what it does notTIC, short for Treasury International Capital, is the US Treasury's system for recording cross-border investme…Why Belgium, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands hold so many TreasuriesBelgium is home to Euroclear and Luxembourg to Clearstream, two of the world's largest securities depositories…How capital flows relate to currencies and bond yieldsTo buy US assets, a foreign investor usually needs dollars, so strong inflows tend to coincide with demand for…Reading the reserve currency figuresThe IMF's COFER survey shows which currencies central banks hold. The dollar's share has drifted down from abo…Reading the Commitments of Traders figuresEvery week the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) publishes the positions held in US futures marke…Who buys US shares, and how we knowThe Federal Reserve's Financial Accounts of the United States record each quarter how much each part of the ec…Reading Japan's weekly figuresJapan's Ministry of Finance reports cross-border securities trades by major investors every week, in units of …GlossaryPlain-English definitions of the terms used on this site.
The monthly read
A short email after each TIC release: where money moved, what changed among the big holders, and the charts that matter.