October 13th, 2005, 3:44 pm
a stripped convertible probably refers to an ancient practise, last seen in the previous millennium.back then, a convertible bond price would be relatively cheap compared to the equivalent hedging basket of derivatives.for example, if a convertible was cheap, you might buy the CB and sell a call option that closely mimics the embedded optionality in the CB, you might buy a CDS contract to hedge the default risk of the issuer, and you would of course overall neutralise your total position with respect to stock price and interest rate moves.another possibility is to sell on the "convertible bond asset swap" in which you sell the bond to someone else and add in an interest rate swap, effectively swapping the bond over to LIBOR + spread, but retain the right to call back the structure at a spread over LIBOR. In this way you retain the equity optionality, and the other guy has a callable floating rate note and ets paid for the CB credit risk he is taking.As applied to CBs the term is unlikely to mean anything like the "strip" in "treasury strips" I would think, which is what ppauper was referring to.