High Yield Harry on Memeing the Craziness in Credit Markets

The past few years have been pretty wild for anyone working in credit, the business of selling and trading corporate debt. First, you had the pandemic, which changed working patterns across Wall Street. Then you had a surge in deal activity that had everyone working overtime to meet demand. Meanwhile, private credit has been booming and is now competing with banks' cash cow businesses of selling bonds and leveraged loans. And finally, everyone is wondering how long the credit space can withstand higher interest rates, and how frothy the underlying deals actually all. High Yield Harry, an anonymous social media account, has been chronicling it all -- making memes out of junk bond offerings, and cracking jokes about conversations with investment committees. In this episode, he talks about his experience working in both private and public credit, what it's like to run an anonymous FinTwit account, and the outlook for bonuses this year. High Yield Harry's voice is concealed in this episode to preserve anonymity. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Key insight from the pod:
Who is High Yield Harry and what does he do?— 3:21
Why did he start an anonymous meme account? — 4:21
The difference between working in private and public credit — 8:43
What attracts investors to private credit? — 13:47
How a private credit deal actually comes into being — 15:22
Why investment banks getting into private credit — 20:29
Why analysts are moving to private credit — 22:23
Bank bonuses and pay transparency — 24:23
The jump in post-pandemic deal flow — 27:32
Work-life balance on Wall Street and return to office — 31:26