Credit hedge funds (January 2021)
Monthly credit hedge fund tables

Signs of new dawn as tranche volumes smash past $250bn
Last year, people formed fresh habits as they adapted to the coronavirus pandemic. Similarly, in credit, a breakthrough year for the CDS tranche market is leading participants to believe that elevated tranche volumes are here to stay

Convexity pushes high yield bond basis to the forefront
Compression had become the watchword of the market as Creditflux went to press, providing justification for high yield versus investment grade macro plays, wide-end long positioning and selective tight-end shorts. But the more important driver, say some relative value investors, was convexity

Zombies demand brain work from tranche traders
Outperformance of junior tranches and underperformance of senior was the big theme in CDS index tranches going into December. But the picture began to change as Creditflux went to press

Little room to move in IG’s vice-like grip
The absolute tightness of credit has left investment grade specialists a tough challenge to find value in the coming year, with neither scope for spread improvement nor encouragement to go short

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

It's all relative: Euro CLO mezz rallies to follow month-long IG/HY compression
European credit suffered this week with Brexit talks between the UK and the EU dragging on and both sides conceding that a trade deal is unlikely to be reached by Sunday’s deadline. But European CLO tranches have held up reasonably well with mezzanine spreads tightening by almost 13% in December

Credit sell off gathers pace ahead of Brexit crunch day
With both sides in the EU-UK negotiations conceding that trade talks are most likely to conclude on Sunday without an agreement, credit is again a big underperformer today as more longs cut and run while hedging picks up

Big push wider in high yield as traders cut their longs
Europe's iTraxx Crossover CDS index has given up a big part of its recent rally today, underperforming other indices amid signs traders are closing up books early for the end of the year

BlueCrest settles SEC charges of favouring internal fund over client capital
BlueCrest Capital Management has agreed to pay $170 million to settle charges related to a fund that managed internal capital

Index sell off hits at start of busy week for primary
Credit is stumbling into the week, with a widening of index spreads that noticeably underperforms stock markets

LCH starts clearing US credit index options
LCH, the central clearing house of the London Stock Exchange Group, has expanded its CDSClear service to clear US credit index options

Europe leads corporate credit rally, but US outperforms in CLOs
iTraxx Crossover has been the CDS market's outperformer this week, tightening over 30 basis points, or 11.4%, to trade at 235bp today. But in the CLO market, US deals have come out on top thanks to a BlackRock CLO that priced its double Bs at some of the tightest levels this year

ECB stimulus hopes bolster high yield outperformance
Spread compression has picked up again, with European high yield taking the lead as expectations mount for another round of European Central Bank stimulus at its meeting next week

High yield resumes compression as IG seeks direction
High yield companies are once again among the best performers today as compression resumes with the investment grade credit market, despite an absence of compelling signals from stock indices or oil prices

Wide-end names gain ground as market hits impasse
Financial markets appear to have a hit resistance points in several asset classes today, with credit, stocks and oil prices struggling to find traction despite encouraging signals from the UK on rolling out the Pfizer/BioNTech covid vaccine

Spread compression resumes with US passing key milestones
Credit markets have resumed their crunch tighter today, with an absence of any obviously negative brakes to offset strengthening Asian industrial numbers and applications by vaccine makers for emergency approval in the US and Europe

Blackstone buys $7.5 billion quantitative credit manager
Blackstone has bought DCI, a $7.5 billion technology-driven quantitative credit manager

Bulls give up some gains as IG banks and energy lead market wider
In a cautious opening to the week, credit spreads are edging wider against a backdrop of faltering oil prices but marginally strengthened stocks

Compression plays out as HY and European CLO double Bs outperform
Investment grade and high yield credit spreads have tightened in sync with each other this week, but CDS and CLOs alike underline that the big theme over the past month has been compression between investment grade and high yield

Europe keeps to the grind with wide-end driving improvement
Credit exhibits a firm tone as the week draws to a close, with index spreads grinding back towards their tights despite a mixed picture for oil prices and much of the US market away after the thanksgiving holiday

Europcar bonds hit full throttle on restructuring agreement
Europcar bonds are among the best performing in a flattish market today, after the French vehicle hire firm obtained an agreement with its main creditors on a financial restructuring

Stressed credits push tighter even as index bulls take profit
A cautious tone has returned to financial markets ahead of the US thanksgiving holiday, with the strong push tighter of credit spreads in recent sessions giving way to a widening move

Investment grade rallies hard on hopes of end to US deadlock
In a change from the recent trend investment grade credit is the front mover today, playing catch up on high yield as the market-wide rally gathers pace