Dear credit derivative forum
I have a specific question about credit derivatives, and the optimisation methods used to diversify credit risk in a portfolio of such instruments. I suspect the question is trivial to someone who is informed about such things, but surprisingly I have had trouble locating the answer in the rudimentary texts and on the internet. My background and interest is not in credit derivatives, obviously.
The problem specifically: if I have several credit contracts (all of the same rating, say AAA) in the same portfolio, there must be a diversification benefit in terms of the behaviour of the underlying equity. Typically, we can apportion the weightings of the instruments in the portfolio as a function of the estimated variance-covariance properties of the underlying stocks. The same approach leads to the Markowitz risk-return space, if one uses expected return as opposed to estimated probability of default. I am wondering whether this approach using the VC matrix is often applied to understanding the diversification benefits in credit markets, or whether there is more specific theory that has been developed in this regard.
Thank you kindly
Cellouin
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