Extreme Risks During the U. S. Financial Crisis: An Empirical Study of the Credit Default Swap Market
In this paper we focus on the many extreme credit default swap spread movements observed during the recent credit crisis. We find that the tails of the spread (and price) change distribution differ significantly from those of the normal distribution even for diversified credit derivatives portfolios. Particular focus is put on the sudden shift in the behavior of the credit default swap market in t