Franklin brings a distinctive perspective shaped by two decades in capital structure and convertible bond arbitrage. His career spans the Russian debt restructuring of 1998—where he witnessed firsthand how broken correlations can unwind hedges—through the convertible market collapse of 2008, when leverage amplified systemic stress and "the machine broke."

Our conversation explores how convertibles sit at the nexus of multiple asset classes: rates, rate volatility, credit, credit volatility, equities, and stock lending. When any of these inputs malfunctions, arbitrage breaks down. Franklin's experience navigating the GFC reinforced a critical lesson: sometimes the bravest move is admitting losses and right-sizing risk, a discipline that positioned his team to prosper during 2009's rebound.

Franklin articulates a central insight: markets are generally good at identifying undervalued companies but less efficient at allocating value across the capital structure. The key tension he navigates is credit spreads versus equity volatility. When spreads are wide and implied vol is low, convertibles offer clean arbitrage: the rich credit premium can fund put protection at cheap vol levels. Today's environment inverts this relationship: spreads remain tight while vol sits elevated, forcing arbitrageurs to continuously realize vega rather than harvest it passively.

We close by examining whether elevated implied volatilities represent a permanent regime shift or cyclical peak. Rather than making a binary call, Franklin describes the process he uses to identify asymmetric opportunities across plausible scenarios.

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Alpha Exchange, my conversation with Franklin Parlamis.