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

We say it: Creditflux salutes women in credit
The credit industry is blessed with many strong women and for this issue of Creditflux we’re exclusively hearing their voices across our news, analysis and columns

"Watch the IG credit curve — we may see steepening of IG 5s10s and flattening of 10s30s"
Stimulus measures are supporting short tenors, and pension demand for 30-year paper is strong, so 10-year IG credit may have few buyers

CLO guys shouldn't feel quite as self-important as us Welsh... But you are in a pretty amazing spot
CLO portfolio managers should be emboldened by recent events to push for ESG strategies 

I'm a nosy neighbour... get CSO deals public and embrace the age of information
A year of staying under the radar has not helped the CSO market

Virus-impacted sectors may suffer greater distress in Europe than in the US
Investors may take different paths to capture positive convexity in US and European credit markets in 2021

Speculative protection buying censures managements that seek only to enhance their own wealth
The Catholic church misses the mark when referring to CDS as ‘finance of chance’

Cessation of activity mid-December is an opportunity to switch off… and let the mind wander
Welshcake is grateful for a lull in credit markets. The downtime has inspired him to dream up a CLO play

I foresee various spooky spectacles hitting our screens - and your long portfolios
Welshcake is settling in for a horror movie marathon. But in the previews he sees monsters lurking behind tight credit spreads

Past returns: Bravo! Citi takes applause with CSO portfolios
Five years ago in Creditflux we reported that Citi was planning a follow up to its Bravo portfolio — a CSO reference entity in which the bank made two-way markets

They said it: "Clearing houses have proposed they will clear index tranches next year"
More liquidity for the index tranche market

Gaining exposure to US IG credit through the index means giving up about 10% of potential value
A bespoke portfolio of IG credits can take advantage of the skew between indices and single names

They said it: "We’re going to change the world of finance"
Big ambitions in blockchain

The surge in index tranche trading has resulted in a deep, liquid and nuanced set of market dynamics
Welshcake emerges from his bunker to find CLOs still standing and the CSO market getting back to business

They said it: "Imagine a garden party and all of a sudden a big wasp shows up"
On Creditflux’s US CLO webinar last month, Napier Park’s head of US CLO investments Serhan Secmen described the March sell-off as a garden party

Points up front: Channelling Twain, Agent Smith and Mike Tyson
Lockdown can adversely affect one’s grasp of reality, and for credit portfolio managers this has manifested itself in a penchant for quoting famous (sometimes fictional) figures

There will surely be jewels in the high yield dung heap, but the risk-reward is more compelling in IG
Whatever the long-term effects of the pandemic, one thing stays the same: IG looks attractive

Where are the gloating I-told-you-so columnists who claimed CLOs would bring global destruction?
We have seen a measured response to the coronavirus crisis: fund managers aren’t collapsing and investors are not shunning CLOs

Points up front: Blame it on capitalism
You know it’s a tough month for returns when a hedge fund manager quotes Lenin and laments that capitalism and globalisation have failed to distribute wealth efficiently

Miscast as the villains of the 2008 crisis, CDS may prove to be the heroes of 2020
Credit default swaps provide investors with valuable signals on the depth of the coronavirus crisis

Investors need to ask: can my asset manager survive the crisis?

Past returns: the genesis of managed CSOs
Five years ago, we reported that managed CSOs were being discussed for the first time since the financial crisis.

2020 will be about relative value, watching for idiosyncratic risk and a good deal of running away
Investors must embrace change — it’s time for structured credit investors to look beyond vanilla CLOs

You need a balanced portfolio that’s ready for calculated risk taking — so consider a barbell approach
Investors can’t afford to be too conservative as they prepare for the end of the cycle