Best LevFin/DCM News Sources?
Hey Monkeys, I have a LevFin interview coming up and want to be able to speak intelligently about market conditions while I'm there.
For those of you who work in Leveraged Finance or DCM, what are your go-to sources of news to gauge the temperature of the leveraged loan market? I'm mainly looking for specific articles/charts/newsletters/podcasts, etc. I know places like LCD and the Lead Left are awesome but there's so much content that I feel like I could spend a ton of time reading and miss the key topics/trends. If these are your go-to's, what specific sections or articles do you pay the most attention to?
Any and all suggestions are appreciated - thanks!
LCD sends a weekly review email (Fri/Mon - can't rmb) so that's always a good one to check. Bloomberg - if you have access usually also has a lev fin roundup and a daily list of pipeline deals. If you can get a bank's weekly publication / lev fin fund's quarterly roundup that should give you some flavour
Key things to watch out for are spreads, pipeline, where have previous issuances landed (tighter, wider, etc.). Liquidity (volume of monies in HY funds and CLO issuances) are also important. The weekly review mentioned should also cover up trends on terms (whether there's investor pushback on some terms, etc.)
That being said, if this is an entry level role I would expect more of a coverage of the wider market (like the sh*tshow we're in atm) and some idea about where lev fin has been heading (cov-lite, etc.)
Just a couple of cents for thought. All this assumming you're in the large-cap syndicated loan space - varies a bit for MM side of things.
Thanks very much for the insight - cheers!
LevFin Insights is LCD on steroids. read the weekly wraps there, as well the 4Q19. the best way I prep on the market is to do comps. take the excel pipeline of all the deals, filter by date, and summarize certain deals u choose that tell a story - like recent LBOs.
Where can I find the excel pipeline of deals? LevFin insights as well or another source?
yes. LCD & Lev Fin Insights are best for TLB. I can send to you if u want it. here’s the full list of options below, some are more creative than others
pipeline - loan deals - filter or find comps
LCD - All Loans Pipeline Excel - TLB LFI - In Market excel file - TLB Loanconnector / LPC - Dealscan excel - IG N LEV email chain of S&P - Pro Rata Deals Pipeline - IG N LEV - with link to EDGAR filing of credit agreement
creative - not as clear League Tables - Thomson Reuters aka Refinitiv - excel file - sent to ppl that do league tables
CapIQ - altho a pain in the ass and not that helpful yet and labor intensive (I’m in talks / 2/3 email chains w ppl at CapIQ and LCD on ways to improve - and this is a key one- for comps)
Much appreciated. PM'd you.
Are any of those sources free? I have access to CapIQ/Market Intelligence because of school but it unfortunately doesn't extend to LCD
hey @random2021 - your school has CapIQ MI? that’s gamechanging (and expensive). do you know how to use it for this arena / for this purpose? I’d be happy to walk u through.
1st of all - if you have CapIQ, and you have someone send you that excel pipeline like 1/month or even from 2-3 months ago - if your goal is primarily to learn, you can basically do a market update yourself. and get someone to FWD you the weekly market update every once in a while.
you can still “DO” comps and “find” comps and basically get an update of the market in - honestly - probably in a more “active” way where you’d gain a better understanding (w/ specific examples vs a market update that basically talks in broad strokes).. why else do u ask - what are you looking to gain from this? PM me and we’ll get the convo going if that’s what you are interested in.
If you really want market knowledge, LCD is going to be your best bet. What you'll want to know are high yield spreads compared to the regular historic rates (higher than normal now, spiked like crazy about a month ago). You'll want to know what that means for new issuers with upcoming debt maturities.
If you really want to ace the interview, check out lifeandlev fin. Professionals coming from the world of Leveraged Finance. No need for crazy amounts of studying or understanding of the markets.
Best of luck
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