Credit hedge funds (November 2021)
Credit hedge fund returns

Dispersion trades in play as transatlantic rift opens
The return of idiosyncratic risk at the wide end of US and European high yield markets has put index equity tranches for the two jurisdictions on noticeably divergent paths, say correlation traders

Zais and BNP Paribas strike ESG breakthrough with climate change CSO
The growing theme of environmental, social and governance standards helping to revitalise the market for collateralised synthetic obligations appears to have taken a big step forward, with Zais Group and BNP Paribas partnering on a first-of-its-kind deal that could lay a template for future transactions

Ashurst boosts structured finance and derivatives practice as it brings in partner
Law firm Ashurst has hired a structured finance and derivatives specialist as a partner in its global markets practice

Credit hedge funds (October 2021)
Credit hedge fund returns

Credit hedge funds (September 2021)
Credit hedge fund returns

Millennium senior tranche trader jumps to Verition
An experienced synthetic structured credit trader has left Millennium Management in New York to join Greenwich headquartered Verition Fund Management

Goldman builds out exotics strategy amid tranche market high
The index tranche market is gaining support, with Goldman Sachs adding to those building up their presence, officials at the bank confirm

Broadening SRT market defies spread compression
Credit spreads are close to all time tights — high yield, courtesy of CDX HY, recently hit its tightest level since January 2007 — but the significant risk transfer (SRT) market is one of the few pockets of credit where pricing is wide of pre-covid levels

Credit hedge funds (August 2021)
Credit hedge fund returns

Credit Rendezvous: And breathe...
The unanimous verdict is that credit spreads will be moving wider – they have to. But the difficulty credit fund managers face is predicting when the next sell-off comes and how sharp it will be. In the Q3 instalment of Creditflux’s Credit Rendezvous, the over-riding message from portfolio managers is that there’s little point in taking on too much risk. The report features the views of prominent credit figures including Paul Horvath (Orchard), Himani Trivedi (Nuveen), Ronnie Jaber (Onex), Graham Rainbow (Alcentra) and Michelle Russell-Dowe (Schroders). The report looks at 14 segments of the market including CLOs, direct lending, leveraged loans, distressed debt and credit derivatives.  

Squarepoint draws big name options market maker to buy side
An experienced credit options trader has decided to join the systematic and quant strategies manager in a change of career from working on the sell side

Ashurst hires senior structured credit and derivatives lawyer
Law firm Ashurst has added a partner to its global markets practice in New York

CSO pipeline strengthens following ESG breakthrough
ESG criteria and longer investment horizons are driving new business in a resurgent bespoke tranche market, say dealers. And while this is unlikely to get 2021 near to a 2019-like haul of deals by year end, hopes are high that volume is firmly back on an upwards traject

Fund performance: Déjà vu as April leaders dominate
CLO funds stayed in the top flight for another month as they took over the top 10 credit hedge fund return table in May, when 87% of all funds listed made positive returns

Credit index tranche trading on the rise amid low dispersion
At its halfway point, 2021 is shaping up as another big year for credit index tranche trading, with new investors having entered the market and dealers projecting full-year volume could vie with 2020’s record of recent times.

Tranche trader leaves Apollo for sell side
BNP Paribas has filled a gap in its structured credit trading group with the hire of an index tranche market maker

Axa IM extends palm oil policy to cover ecosystem protection and deforestation
Axa Investment Managers says it is expanding its 2014 policy of excluding investments in companies which do not have sustainable palm oil production certificates by factoring in deforestation and ecosystem protection

Ex-NatWest Markets CLO structuring head lands on buy side
A European credit manager has hired Luca Giancola for the "repositioning of its private structured credit business"

Novicap tech platform targets credit investors with fundraising drive
Novicap, a fintech company offering working capital optimisation solutions to SMEs and mid-market corporates, is looking to debt capital markets participants such as credit and structured credit funds, asset managers, pension companies and insurers as it seeks to raise third-party funding for its credit platform

"In the afternoon I awoke from a pile of willow leaves to discover we had created a Welsh ether-based token"
A localised crypto-currency boom and bust cycle teaches Welshcake (again) that everything becomes correlated in a downturn  

Past returns: Having a whale of a time in tranches
In Creditflux 10 years ago we reported on JP Morgan’s “little known prop book” making waves in index tranches

Equity tranche longs fall out of favour as spreads tighten and dispersion picks up after uniform moves
Dispersion is picking up after relatively uniform moves in credit in the early part of 2021. CDS index equity tranches had outperformed for much of this year but spreads have gapped out a touch in the past few weeks