What Are Credit Trade Indicators?
A credit trade indicator is a single, repeatable verdict on one issuer: relative to its own history and to comparable names, is its credit currently rich, cheap or at fair value. The same measurement is applied to every issuer, every trading day.
The three readings
Cheap means the spread is wider than the model's fair value for that name — an investor is being paid more than the history suggests the risk warrants. Rich is the reverse: the spread has compressed past fair value, so there is less cushion for bad news. Fair value means the market and the model agree, which is the most common reading in a calm market and is information in its own right.
Why credit and equity are marked together
G-255 marks the same issuer on both sides. When credit reads at fair value while the equity reads rich, the two markets are pricing different futures for the same balance sheet. Those disagreements are usually where the work is, and they are visible only when both are measured on one scale.
What an indicator is not
It is not a price target, a recommendation or a forecast of the next move. It is a valuation reading. A cheap name can stay cheap, and a rich name can richen further — the indicator tells you what you are being paid today, not what happens next week.
How to use the daily reports
Start with the daily indicator report for the trading day, then follow the issuer into its earnings review or its most recent new issue. Because the archive keeps every report as published, you can see how a name's reading changed through a quarter rather than only where it stands now.