Now that everyone is finally looking at junk bonds with hopes to buy, sell or short as one's inclination may be, everyone is realizing something we have been warning about since 2012: when times of stress emerge, either the Bid/Ask spread is gargantuan (good luck with those "subject" quotes from dealers who have no inventory), or there is simply no market as the first hint of a buyer or seller make bond traders the carbon-based equivalent of an HFT algo, and pull their quotes. In short: there is no liquidity.
Luckily, there are some very distressed bonds (spread over 1,000 bps) which still trade in volume. The table below, courtesy of Bloomberg, lists the bonds with the largest one-day volume among those that traded yesterday on TRACE at a spread of 1,000 basis points or more than their government benchmark.
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For those who want to join the junk bond fray, on either side of the trade, but don't want to be locked out in an illiquid market, these may be your best bets.
Source: BBG Brief
