In an effort to respond to an increasingly competitive CDO equity market, J.P. Morgan is unveiling its High Yield Debt Index 100 to serve as a tool for CDO equity investors to hedge CDO equity positions. Christopher Flanagan, head of CDO research at J.P. Morgan, said the product has been developed out of the firm's high yield trading desk as a way to give CDO investors a way to index and reference the performance of equity on their deals. According to Flanagan, J.P. Morgan is the first bank to present such an index for the market.
Flanagan said the firm believes this index will be more appropriate in hedging risk on the equity than other hedging tools like the total return swaps used on synthetic deals. The aim is that the pool of referenced credit risk will match default rates on CDO portfolios more closely than total return swaps. Total return swaps are highly interest rate sensistive, whereas, this index is focused on a basket of 100 credit default swaps referencing a diversified pool of high-yield credits. The structure of the new index, both in terms of diversity and credit rating, tends to look more like the collateral backing CDO equity than broader market indices.