Customer Reviews

High Yield Bonds: Market Structure, Valuation, and Portfolio Strategies

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have had the privilege of reading the galley proofs of this book and find it to be THE definitive word on High Yield Investing. This book develops the blueprint for how to navigate, understand, and analyze High Yield Bonds. A must for MBA students, a requirement for anyone in the field already, and a vital tool for investors.

The book's three authors (The George Washington University Business School, Georgetown Business School, and 20+ years High Yield Experience) have used their knowledge and connections to get the best information available

This is an excellent book that is now showing its age and needs an update. It also lacks a CDROM with data sets which would make more explicit many of the points authors make. In addition, Drexel Burnham Lambert, like Banquo's ghost, is alluded to on nearly every other page, yet the authors here are hesitant to differentiating between high yield bonds (non-investment grade debt) and junk (anything issued by Michael Milken).

This work also glaringly lacks some crucial work by Paul Asquith on seasoned high yield bond defaults. Don't stop here.

High Yield Bonds - High Quality Book from 1998. This great book gives empirical evidence to answer many questions. Quite thoroughly. Subjects covered include:
Who buys high yield bonds? Insurance companies and mutual funds are the biggest buyers....
How big are default rates? Average about 3.5% a year....
How stable are bond ratings? About 5% go up or down in ratings every year. Most stay the same....
Many more subjects covered well....
The main problem that I had with the book is that it is not up to date; it was written in 1998.
Bernard E. Scoville

I can't say enough about this book. The book is suprisingly easy to read, and uncovers insights from some of the most prominent names in HY research. A must for HY analysts, MBAs, and CFOs.

Now, im not a quant, but it seems like many of the studies are misleading. There were/are several studies where they run econometric tests using 1-3 variables... ommitted variables anyone? I cant see how anyone can jump to conclusions on such brief analysis. Whats more, there are several parts in the book where text is copy/pasted verbatim from an earlier section! What the hell?