Yоu’ve just rоtаted оnto the credit trаding desk аt a global investment bank. Overnight, the market got choppy after a surprise downgrade watch on a well-known industrial name. Your desk head pings you on chat: “We’re getting a lot of inbound on basis trades. An investor wants to be long the company’s credit risk. The bond screens at [bondyield]% to maturity over five years. The comparable five-year CDS is quoted at [cdsspread]%. Funding is available at the risk-free rate of [rf]%. If there’s an arbitrage here by buying the bond and buying CDS protection (financing the bond at the risk-free rate), what’s the profit? If not, tell me there’s no arb.” Recall the trade mechanics: Buy the bond (earn the bond yield). Borrow at the risk-free rate to finance the bond. Buy CDS protection and pay the CDS spread. The carry (in bps per year) is the bond yield minus funding cost minus the CDS spread. If the carry is positive, the trade looks like a “negative basis” arbitrage; if not, markets are effectively at equilibrium for this setup. Task Type 0 if such an arbitrage opportunity does not exist (or markets are at equilibrium).Otherwise, type the profit in basis points (bps) from the trade.
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