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Usually loan traders are more than hesitant to disclose the strategies and tactics they use to close a deal. Last week, however, one starry-eyed loan trader could not boast enough about how a trip to Italy and a moonlit walk helped him win out the competition for one lucky lady. Who is this Don Juan of the syndicated loan world? He may be sitting next to you.

QCI Asset Management will swap 10% of its portfolio, or $35 million, out of corporates into Treasuries when corporate spreads tighten by 50 basis points, which should happen toward the third quarter, says Paul Roland, portfolio manager. Roland notes that corporate single-A industrials, as of last Monday, yielded 100 to 135 basis points over the curve. Roland wants to see those spreads decrease to 50 to 85 basis points over Treasuries in order to trigger the move. He declined to specify any credits that would be sold.

Edinburgh Fund Managers is reducing the duration of its $450 million fixed-income portfolio from roughly eight years to about six. Edinburgh, Scotland-based Michael Turner, head of fixed interest, says the move was prompted by the firm turning negative on the bond market, because an economic recovery, no matter how strong or weak, will push yields higher once central banks begin to raise rates. The firm uses a variety of benchmarks.

This chart, provided by Citibank/Salomon Smith Barney Inc., tracks bid-ask prices for par credit facilities that trade in the secondary market. It also tracks facility amounts, ratings, pricing and maturities.

TD Securities is in the first stages of structuring a USD1 billion managed synthetic collateralized debt obligation. "Only a few of these deals have been done," said a market official. TD will actively manage the portfolio of credit-default swaps through the asset management arm of the bank, TD Waterhouse, according to the official. The deal is expected to hit the market in the next three months.

Bulge bracket investment firms, including Salomon Smith Barney and JPMorgan, caused credit protection on WorldCom to widen as they sought to buy protection on the telecom giant in the wake of the Securities and Exchange Commission's probe of the firm's accounting practices. "I wouldn't call it frantic buying, but the usual investment firm suspects were very active," said one trader in New York. Officials at the firm's declined comment.

Cantor Fitzgerald has hired Christina Hansen, an equity derivatives trader and structurer at Goldman Sachs in New York, to join its growing New York credit derivatives brokerage team, according to Dan LaVecchia, executive managing director and director of U.S. operations. Hansen, who worked at Goldman Sachs for eight years before recently being laid off, joined Cantor about two weeks ago.

UBS Warburg has hired Min G. Lee, associate of collateralized debt obligation trading at Lehman Brothers in Tokyo, as a director handling credit derivatives structuring, according to Lee Knight, Asia-Pacific head of credit derivatives trading at UBS in Tokyo. "This is an expansion of our structured products team," noted Knight, adding that Lee will report to him, declining further comment.

Credit Lyonnais is bringing aboard Takeshi Kondo, v.p. of yen exotics trading at JPMorgan in Tokyo, as the manager of exotic derivatives in Tokyo, according to Yves Ringler, head of fixed-income at Credit Lyonnais in Tokyo. "The business is expanding," said Ringler, noting that low yields in Japan are continuing to fuel interest in exotic interest-rate derivatives. Kondo, who starts Friday, is on gardening leave and could not be reached for comment.

Deutsche Bank has reorganized its foreign exchange sales division as the department has continued to grow. Ken Reich, head of fx sales for North and South America, has been promoted to global head of sales. He will continue to report to Colin Grassie, regional head of the institutional client group for the Americas. Rashid Hoosenally, European head of fx sales and a member of the global fx management committee, is now head of fx client strategy and remains a member of the committee. He previously reported to Grassie and now reports to Jim Turley, global head of fx.

ABN AMRO has hired Matt Chauvel, credit-default swaps trader at Gen Re Securities, in a similar position. He will report to Arne Groes, head of credit derivatives in London. Groes confirmed the move but declined further comment.