 Subject: Penney’s Bonds, Again Date: 11/19/2012 3:39 PM
Recommendations: 0 Below is a table of Penney’s yield-curve as
of 12:40 Eastern today, based on buying a single through
E*Trade.  Comments on tactics: Their Ba3/B- rating isn’t as bad
as I was remembering, as isn’t their balance-sheet, though the
short-ratio (a whopping 39.8%) certainly is. The stock guys are
hammering JCP hard. But, at some price, it might be worth the
risk of taking a position in their debt, and in my IB account
just now, I grabbed a single of the 6.375's of ’36 that had come
onto the market at 73.  Ideally, when you're buying any issuer's
debt, you want the maturity that gets you out the soonest with
the mostest total-yield, so you can turn over your capital as
fast as possible. This doesn't mean you're 'trading'. It only
means you're being very efficient about your 'investing'.  But
if you're faced with a highly probable, Chapter 11 filing (and I
estimate the odds at 1:4 to 1:3 for Penneys), you want to get in
--if at all-- at the l