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I guess this partly depends on HY or IG coverage. I would recommend HY as you probably develop better credit analysis skills and it’s a more marketable skillset. I think some of the more tangible product industries are interesting such as lodging, leisure, and gaming. If you can get something with a tech focus that would probably be good as I’m sure those areas will continue to grow. I have never covered it, but think media or communications could be interesting. A lot of times you don’t really have a choice of what industries you will cover though.
Since I have you here, do you also have any resources on where I can get HY research (free)? Doesn't have to be recent, just looking to get a feel on what to expect.
Thanks, great info!
Probably won’t be able to get any legit HY reports for free. What you could do is look at some of the big asset managers and see if they post stuff on their sites that their analysts write about. Won’t be the same but can give you a sense of indicators, metrics, etc. they follow for certain industries. Also, not sure if they have any free content but some of the rating agencies (Moodys and S&P) may have some content for free. Never have tried though so can’t guarantee that.
As mentioned above you likely won’t have a choice starting out. If it’s HY, you have a lot of options with varying degrees of “hair” on them. There’s deep cyclicals (metals, mining, energy). There’s more steady but often more regulatory-dependent and more highly levered industries (healthcare, utilities, maybe I’d throw in cable / wireless). There’s a bunch of consumer oriented industries (gaming, leisure, lodging, theaters, consumer products, etc.), which have been interesting during the last 16 months, to say the least. Plus a bunch of formerly IG cap structures that fell to HY last year, a gazillion “one off” names that you’ll have never heard of and have no comps, and a bunch of “mini industries” that have 2-4 names in them. If you’re just starting out, I don’t really think it matters which sector you get. Your goal early on is to figure out how to do thorough fundamental analysis, learn the lingo and techniques (bond math, reading indentures, capital structure 101, etc). FWIW, I started covering some of the trashiest trash in the HY index (that’s what they gave me as the junior person) and I think it has helped me as I know how quick things can go sideways when you put leverage on the wrong business!
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