"The objective of this junk bond ETF is to target higher-quality issues with less beta relative to the broad high-yield corporate bond market.

Department management was aware of an insurer's deteriorating financial condition and increasing junk bond assets as early as 1981, yet took little action concerning the problem.

The international rating agency, noting that the Indian bond covenants are strong, said the recent junk bond sales by Indiabulls Real Estate's USD 175 million (B1 stable), Delhi International Airport's USD 288 million (Ba1 stable), Lodha Developers' USD 200 million (Ba3 stable) and Reliance Communications' USD 300 million (Ba3 stable) provide stronger protection for investors than bonds issued by other rated high-yield companies globally.

Junk bond issuance in the fourth quarter fell to $13 billion from $30 billion in the third quarter and around $18 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, making it the weakest quarterly performance since 2011, said Firth.

At the same time, businesses rated below investment-grade level have issued the largest amount of junk bonds of any year in history.

Peter Toal, head of Americas leveraged finance syndicate at Barclays Capital (LSE: BARC), has opined that junk bond sales would increase this year.

The Junk Bond Junkies won the last competition after turning pounds 15,000 of Bank of Stockland fantasy money into pounds 666,600 worth of stocks and shares.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services Monday pulled its investment-grade credit rating for Gannett Co., the second ratings agency to assign "junk bond" ratings to the nation's biggest newspaper publisher.

"With the junk bond market gone, those deals are going to be much more expensive," he says.

The new measures assign the scope of junk bond funds and require stipulations and disclosures to be made in the investment contract and prospectus for junk bond funds.

He was also one of the chief busters of the junk bond frauds of the 1980s.

The rating was lowered for the second time since May last year, when it slid from the lowest rank of the investment grade to the speculative BB level comparable to the ratings of junk bond issuers.

THE JUNK BOND MARKET IS TRAUMATIZED, HEDGE FUNDS ARE HURTING.

He teamed up with Michael Milken, the junk bond impresario and senior executive of the now-defunct investment bank of Drexel Burnham Lambert, to acquire Beatrice International Foods (later renamed TLC Beatrice).