Sebastian Werner examines aggregate short sales and convertible bond arbitrage, which is a typical hedge fund strategy that involves a significant short position in the underlying stock of a long convertible bond position for hedging purposes. He provides insightful and new observations of the significant difference in the trading pattern, information content and resulting impact on stock returns of arbitrage- versus valuation-based short selling activities.

Minimize risk and maximize profits with convertible arbitrage Convertible arbitrage involves purchasing a portfolio of convertible securities-generally convertible bonds-and hedging a portion of the equity risk by selling short the underlying common stock. This increasingly popular strategy, which is especially useful during times of market volatility, allows individuals to increase their returns while decreasing their risks. Convertible Arbitrage offers a thorough explanation of this unique investment strategy. Filled with in-depth insights from an expert in the field, this comprehensive guide explores a wide range of convertible topics. Readers will be introduced to a variety of models for convertible analysis, "the Greeks," as well as the full range of hedges, including titled and leveraged hedges, as well as swaps, nontraditional hedges, and option hedging. They will also gain a firm understanding of alternative convertible structures, the use of foreign convertibles in hedging, risk management at the portfolio level, and trading and hedging risks. Convertible Arbitrage eliminates any confusion by clearly differentiating convertible arbitrage strategy from other hedging techniques such as long-short equity, merger and acquisition arbitrage, and fixed-income arbitrage. Nick Calamos (Naperville, IL) oversees research and portfolio management for Calamos Asset Management, Inc. Since 1983 his experience has centered on convertible securities investment. He received his undergraduate degree in economics from Southern Illinois University and an MS in finance from Northern Illinois University.

In the context of convertible bond issuance, we examine the impact of arbitrage activity on underlying equity markets. In particular, we use changes in equity short interest following convertible bond issuance to identify convertible bond arbitrage activity and analyze its impact on stock market liquidity and prices for the period 1993 to 2006. There is considerable evidence of arbitrage-induced short selling resulting from issuance. Moreover, we find strong evidence that this activity is systematically related to liquidity improvements in the stock. These results are robust to controlling for the potential endogeneity of arbitrage activity.

Prior literature examines the effect of either informed or arbitrage short selling on equity markets. We test the relative importance of informed and uninformed short selling around convertible bond issues and earnings announcements for the same firms over the same time period. Convertible arbitrage short selling is associated with temporary price pressure, consistent with downward sloping demand curves. Earnings announcement short selling is consistent with informed traders who anticipate future returns. Firm-specific characteristics related to the cost of short selling similarly affect both informed and arbitrage short selling. Deal-specific characteristics capturing hedging demand also strongly determine convertible arbitrage short selling.

We bring together two streams of research: one on earnings management and the other on convertible bond arbitrage. In doing so, we bring new insights on why convertible bond hedge funds benefit from convertible bond arbitrage. Specifically, we find that firms managing their earnings prior to their convertible bond issuance have: (1) poorer stock market and earnings performance after their issuance of convertible debt, (2) higher idiosyncratic volatility prior to issuance, (3) more equity like convertible bonds, and (4) an abnormal increase in the short selling of their stocks after issuance of convertible bond. Consequently, we provide evidence consistent with the notion that earnings management prior to the issuance of convertible bonds is a source of profits for convertible bond hedge funds that pursue convertible bond arbitrage.

Consistent with hedge funds trading on privileged information during the wall-crossing period, we document negative abnormal returns and abnormally high short selling in the trading days just prior to the private placements of U.S. convertible bonds, no pre-placement negative abnormal returns and less pre-placement abnormal short selling volume for convert issuers who engage in related stock buybacks, and more pre-placement short selling for convert issues subject to more intense post-issue short selling. Alternative explanations for our results are rejected because pre-placement anomalies are related to specific terms of the converts and related buybacks. Short interest disclosure needs to be more transparent and Regulation Fair Disclosure better enforced.

"Convertible Arbitrage" ist ein praxisorientierter und umfassender Ratgeber, der sich mit einer interessanten Investmentstrategie auseinandersetzt - der 'Convertible Arbitrage'. Bei dieser Strategie geht es darum, ein Portfolio aus wandelbaren Wertpapieren anzulegen - in der Regel Wandelanleihen -, wobei das Risiko teilweise dadurch abgesichert wird, dass die zugrundeliegende Stammaktie leerverkauft wird. Diese Strategie erfreut sich wachsender Beliebtheit und ist insbesondere in Zeiten hoher Marktvolatilität von Nutzen, denn sie ermöglicht Finanzexperten eine Steigerung der Rendite bei einer Verringerung des Risikos. "Convertible Arbitrage" erläutert diese einzigartige Investmentstrategie fundiert und detailliert. Mit einer Fülle von Experten-Informationen. Autor Nick Calamos ist ein anerkannter Fachmann auf diesem Gebiet. Er ist regelmäßig auf CNBC zu sehen und wird häufig von Fachzeitschriften interviewt.