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

Some banks offer limited transparency, which makes cocos risky
Assenagon's Michael Huenseler takes our credit quiz

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

Past returns: Trying a different route to Balliol
Five years ago in Creditflux we reported on Numen Capital absorbing credit hedge fund manager Balliol Capital

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

Points up front: We knew it, Jon Snow
When Tripp Smith, the co-founder of GSO Capital Partners, launched asset manager Iron Park Capital Partners a year ago we guessed he might like TV series Game of Thrones

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

CLO investors should be able to see live secondary trading levels
Olga Chernova of Sancus Capital takes our credit quiz

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

It's imperative to remain in liquid assets and this makes CDS indices attractive

Don’t get too comfortable. The truth is there are hundreds of things that could be catalysts for a sell-off
Just because there’s no obvious sign of a sell-off, doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen. Often, market moves defy logic

Farewell Mike
After two decades, Mike Peterson, the founder and long-time editor of Creditflux, is moving on.

Points up front: There are lies, damn lies and awards pitches
We’re hearing empty boasts, trash talking of their rivals and no shortage of promises that will absolutely be delivered.

Points up front: Talking his book (which is available on Amazon)
For listed asset managers, an earnings call is generally not the right forum to market or advertise upcoming funds. But it might be exactly the right place to try and sell your book.

For a while, it seemed like every private equity fund was launching a credit fund