Potential Interview for Distressed/High yield Analyst

How would you have handled these two interview questions from a high yield fund? (Originally Posted: 12/29/2016)

I interviewed yesterday with a large high yield fund. There were two questions I got which I was thinking about afterwards. I don't think there are any right or wrong answers for these per se, but I do think that they are sneakily "loaded" questions, so I'm curious as to what the group thinks:

1) How many companies do you think an analyst can know well?

• My answer on this one was - "I think that an analyst can be one of the smartest on the street for around 50-60 names. However you can do quick dives and comp sheets for many more than this, several hundred, that can be a first pass for relative value. " I think the trick here like Goldilocks is that you can't say too many or too few.

2) What do you think about analysts doing IG as well as HY?

• My answer on this one was - "The credit work is very similar and certainly sector knowledge helps in knowing both. That said, my brain has been tuned to knowing when names are BB credits trading like B credits and therefore 150-200 bp cheap - I'm not as attuned to IG stats and finding names that are 20-40 bp cheap. Therefore, I'd prefer to just focus on HY".

Love any perspective...