This paper quantifies and explains valuation differences between credit default swaps and corporate bonds from a sample of European investment-grade firms. Based on all information gained through the calibration of a stochastic intensity credit model to the time series of the issuer's CDS curve, we define a new corporate bond-specific measure for the valuation difference. Our results show that, on average, risk premia implied in corporate bonds exceed those in CDS markets by a much smaller extent than found in previous studies. Using panel data analysis we detect among others a cross-sectional influence of bond liquidity measures and find a significant impact of the general level of credit risk on the time series variation of the valuation difference.

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 67%, University of Westminster (Westminster Business School), course: Financial Derivatives, language: English, abstract: "A credit default swap (CDS) is a bilateral agreement designed explicitly to shift credit risk between two parties. In a CDS, one party (protection buyer) pays a periodic fee to another party (protection seller) in return for compensation for default (or similar credit event) by a reference entity". Credit Default Swaps (CDS) are by far the most popular credit derivatives and have proven to be the most successful financial innovation. The structure of CDS is somewhat similar to the insurance policy. The market of CDS has heavily expanded and is traded in Over-The-Counter (OTC) market. This essay will briefly address the structure and the market of CDS, outlining its common products usage by some large institutions. Following the review of financial structure and pricing of CDS. And finally, this essay will also evaluate the risk management and investment applications of such products.

Master's Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Economics - Finance, grade: 5.0 (Schweiz), University of Zurich (Wirtschaftswissenschaften), language: English, abstract: The current developments in the credit or bond markets, influenced by the financial crisis and the economic downturn, revive a discussion about credit derivatives as an instrument of speculation and one cause or determinant of the financial crisis. Currently, CDS are used to speculate against the solvency of the different governments. Critics look at CDS contracts as Overthecounter (OTC) instruments that are not regulated and as bilateral contracts which can have a big influence on the financial position of market participants and on the real credit markets. CDS contracts are mainly instruments for investors to insure against a default of the debtor. For the seller of the CDS they are a possibility to participate in risks he perhaps could not have taken on the bond markets otherwise. These contracts separate the default risk of the debtor from the market conditions, e.g. the market interest rates. They make it possible to only trade the credit risk of a company or a country. Therefore, they can be instruments to proof the bond values and indicators for the real credit risk of the underlying. The discussion about CDS contracts is mostly a discussion including many prejudices and it deals with aspects from different topics which cannot be mixed. Therefore, a clear picture of advantages and disadvantages and especially values and risks of CDS is difficult to be found in the current public discussion and economic newspaper articles. A further phenomenon is that bond markets and CDS markets have lost their connection in the financial crisis. So the credit risk on both markets is valued differently: the prices on the two markets differed so much that market participants used these arbitrage possibilities to earn credit riskfree money for themselves and their customers It can be traded with a simple combination of the underlying bond and the fitting CDS contract. One of the causes of the basis can be the different liquidity level in the two separated markets. For the development of the basis during the crisis it is important to ask how big the changes are compared to the situation before the financial crisis and also how important the credit rating or the industry of the reference entity is.. The price difference, if the CDS price is lower than the credit risk priced by the bond of the same reference entity, is negative basiscalled

Credit default swaps (CDS) provide the buyer with insurance against certain types of credit events by entitling him to exchange any of the bonds permitted as deliverable against their par value. Unlike bonds, whose risk spreads are assumed to be the product of default risk and loss rate, CDS are par instruments, and their spreads reflect the partial recovery of the delivered bond's face value. This paper addresses the implications of the difference between bond and CDS spreads and shows the extent to which the recovery assumption matters for determining CDS spreads. A no-arbitrage argument is applied to extract recovery rates from CDS and bond markets, using data from Brazil's distress in 2002-03. Results are related to the observation that preemptive restructurings are now more common than straight defaults in sovereign bond markets and that this leads to a decoupling of CDS and bond spreads.

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 67%, University of Westminster (Westminster Business School), course: Financial Derivatives, language: English, abstract: “A credit default swap (CDS) is a bilateral agreement designed explicitly to shift credit risk between two parties. In a CDS, one party (protection buyer) pays a periodic fee to another party (protection seller) in return for compensation for default (or similar credit event) by a reference entity”. Credit Default Swaps (CDS) are by far the most popular credit derivatives and have proven to be the most successful financial innovation. The structure of CDS is somewhat similar to the insurance policy. The market of CDS has heavily expanded and is traded in Over-The-Counter (OTC) market. This essay will briefly address the structure and the market of CDS, outlining its common products usage by some large institutions. Following the review of financial structure and pricing of CDS. And finally, this essay will also evaluate the risk management and investment applications of such products.

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Credit Default Swaps (CDS) influence how bonds and loans trade and the relative value between bonds and loans. CDS can be the best way to hedge the risk of a corporate debt position and can also be a valuable investment tool in its own right. CDS has a multitude of nuances to it, from how its structured to how it is priced to how it is traded. If you are going to do analysis of corporate debt, especially in the leveraged finance market, you need to understand CDS. This booklet walks you through the basics of how CDS works, gives some perspective on how it has changed since the 2008 crisis and gives practical examples of how CDS is used and analyzed for corporate issuers. It is a valuable summary for anyone looking to do corporate credit analysis.

Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: Credit default swaps are by far the most often traded credit derivatives and the credit default swap markets have seen tremendous growth over the past two decades. Put simply, a credit default swap is a tradeable contract that provides insurance against the default of a certain debtor. Initially, when the first form of a credit default swap (CDS) was traded in 1991, they were mainly used by commercial banks in order to lay off credit risk to insurance companies. However, focus shifted in the subsequent years as new players entered the market. Hedge funds became big players, money managers and reinsurers entered, and banks started to not only buy protection on their assets but also sell protection in order to diversify their portfolios. All this led to today s CDS market being dominated by investors rather than banks and, as a consequence, CDSs are now structured to meet investors needs instead of those of the banks. Over the same time as this shift to an investor orientated market took place, CDS markets grew at an astonishing rate with notional amount outstanding pretty much doubling every year until peaking in the second half of 2007 at USD 62,173.20 billions. The need to effciently transfer credit risk as well as the increasing standardization of CDS contracts by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association propelled this development. Only in 2008 did the notional amount outstanding in CDSs retract for the first time and come down to USD 31,223.10 billion in the first half of 2009. A partial reason was the full blown financial crisis in which CDSs also played a prominent role. The demise of Lehman Brothers, for example, triggered roughly USD 400 billion in protection payments and American International Group needed to be bailed out in 2008 because it had sold too much CDS protection. Amongst other concerns, these incidents highlight the systemic importance of CDSs. Combined with the phenomenal growth of CDS markets, this makes CDSs a highly relevant component of the current ?nancial environment and a fruitful subject for academic research. Today, just like most other financial instruments, CDSs serve a multitude of purposes spanning hedging, speculation, and arbitrage. The aim of this thesis is to explore these uses further and answer the following research questions: What CDS trading strategies are commonly used and how does a selection of these strategies CDS curve trades including forward CDSs, [...]