Q&A: I'm a London-based Distressed Debt Analyst

Well I can't really comment on what it's like to work for a fund like CQS. I will say that having a fund with locked up capital makes life a lot easier because you don't have to worry about redemptions and therefore can take a much longer view with regards to your investments. I'm guessing that at more hedgie type funds you're spending a lot of time on next quarter's EBITDA will be above or below guidance and to me that sounds horribly boring/pointless. locked up capital also lets us exploit special opportunities, e.g. when Vivarte went into freefall you saw a ripple effect throughout the European leveraged loan space because CLOs had to indiscriminately sell off assets for no fundamental reasons. we had the capital to step in. distressed investing is all about benefitting from forced sellers and I'm not sure to what extent multi-strat funds can exploit that.

with regards to the second question, I have no idea to be honest. my only guess is that to be a desk analyst they want you to be uptospeed on the market and the lingo. i.e. when I speak to a desk analyst and ask him whether he thinks this credit will have a Phones4U-style outcome I expect him to understand what I'm referring to. for someone who has not been exposed to the HY/distressed scene that might be an issue. again, though, it's difficult for me to understand your position and as a result give you advice.