Tourists have turned high yield into a sketchier neighbourhood… IG credit could be the answer
Using CDS to exploit roll-down in IG credit can generate good returns even in a low-rate environment

CLOs are pricing with an acronym premium rather than an illiquidity premium

John Popp of Credit Suisse Asset Management takes our credit quiz

PE hold periods have shrunk but fast acquisitions can lead to botched integrations
Buyout multiples are likely to stay high – but moving fast and specialising can help firms make money

Being fully invested can have a greater impact on IRRs than avoiding 2% defaults annually
The IRR differential can be as much as 3.3% for a fully invested CLO versus one that maintains a 5% cash balance

Superficial analysis in the press fails to account for critical differences between CLOs and CDOs
Credit risk is rising, but any failures among CLOs will not impact the financial system as a whole

Just because there have always been loan fees doesn’t mean they are the right way of doing things
Scrapping loan transfer costs of up to €3,500 per transaction is a bridge Europe should cross for the sake of liquidity

You can’t time everything 100% correctly, but being too early can be a mistake
ArrowMark's Kaelyn Abrell takes our credit quiz

Q4 2018, which had loan price volatility without defaults, was close to nirvana for CLO investors
The current vintage of CLOs could be the best ever if the volatility in Q4, when retail funds dumped loans, repeats itself, says our columnist Thomas Majewski

Past returns: Columbia wins at long game
Ten years ago in Creditflux we reported on loan and bond holders squabbling as they sought to extract maximum value from LyondellBasell debt after the company filed for bankruptcy in January 2009

They said it: "I enjoy problem-solving and puzzles"
CQS founder Sir Michael Hintze on his role as senior investment officer at the London-based credit fund manager

I liked it when banks could hold risk and actually had inventory to shift
Louis Gargour, CIO of LNG Capital, takes our credit quiz

Loans have changed. Leverage and docs are different. So what does this mean for recoveries?
With Fed chiefs past and present signalling rising financial risk, managers need to check their metrics, writes our columnist and Churchill Asset Management's head of capital markets and origination 

You don’t need a 15% default rate to make money in credit
Jeanne Manischewitz, head of North American credit at York Capital Management, takes our credit quiz

Selling at the time of the default or downgrade can often be the worst value decision for the CLO
CLOs don’t have to be forced sellers during distress cycles: skilled CLO managers and well-structured indentures can give optimal recoveries, says our columnist Thomas Majewski

They said it: ebit-don't or ebitdaaa
Two direct lenders take turns complaining about ebitda adjustments

Points up front: Creditflux makes significant SRT call
They were once referred to as regulatory capital relief trades (or reg-cap trades), but now no one can agree on what to call them

Without a single dollar being raised, future loan supply dwarfs current demand by as much as 10 to one
There’s plenty to be spent on mid market loans, but it’s still not enough to cover the $1 trillion of financing likely to be required, says our columnist Randy Schwimmer

Loan managers need an equity-like mindset instead of relying on docs
Octagon's Lauren Basmadjian takes our credit quiz and talks about buying CLO equity in 2009, the impact of technology on the retail sector and Eddie Murphy's 1980s heyday

If the loan was not cov-lite, it is likely that Weight Watchers would have defaulted
Cov-lite loans have negative connotations, but they will enable some companies to trade through a bad patch and return to health  

The perception of liquidity is often not the same as the reality
Investec Asset Management's Jeff Boswell takes our credit quiz and discusses liquidity in Europe, the former "darling of the European debt market" Vivarte and the Matrix

They said it: My friend (not a fan of the president) said she would erect a statue of Trump if there was any further Volcker rule rollback
A US lawyer tells us that President Donald Trump is gaining admirers in the credit industry.

Points up front: Cooperman takes advice from Kenny Rogers
Last month news emerged that Omega Advisors founder Leon Cooperman was converting his multi-billion dollar hedge fund into a family office.It wasn’t fatigue or performance issues driving the 75-year-old to retirement (Omega’s flagship fund is said to have delivered double-digit returns in 2017), but rather American country singer Kenny Rogers.  

Borrowers who made the one-month Libor election at the beginning of the year saved only a bit of money
The spread between one-month Libor and three-month Libor has garnered a significant amount of attention in the CLO market this year. Indeed, some market prognosticators suggested that the difference between the two rates could have such an impact that it would shut down the primary CLO market. 

They said it: "If the loan has a covenant, there’s probably something wrong with it"
Fully covenanted loans are a rarity, which would bring one to think that these are prized possesions. A US loan manager disagrees

Points up front: World Cup simulation shows models don’t work
England as fourth favourites? Pull the other one