The problem with Edward Altman books is the focus on statistical information about bankruptcy and default, and the paucity of information about investing and trading. That is probably because Altman is an academic, not a practitioner, and Moyer fixes that problem. Moyer's book is rich with detailed instructions about how to approach and analyze distressed investing situations.

I would like to see Moyer write an entire book of distressed situation case studies. He should group it around themes - capital structure arbitrage, straight-up debt purchases - and present the contemporaneous resarch reports as well as retrospective analysis.

Did you know that an “important determinant of ultimate recovery rates is the amount of junior liabilities that a given seniority has below its level”? And you may know that default rates and recovery rates are inversely related, but “simply estimating the level or change in GDP does not come close to matching the explanatory power of the default rate, at least for explaining bond recovery rates.” Also amazing: “in 68 percent of the Chapter 7 cases [in a study by Bris, Welch, and Zhu (2004)] the bankruptcy fees “ate” the entire estate.”

Discussion of investing strategies has 5 pages on capital structure arbitrage. Altman's works on distressed debt are more theoretical – for practical trading and investing ideas, turn to Moyer's Distressed Debt Analysis.

The book starts with a paper revisiting his famous Z-Score bankruptcy prediction model from 1968. The Type II error of the Z-Score model (classifying a firm as failing when it does NOT fail) is surprisingly high, until you understand that the model was created to minimize Type I error. Short sellers beware as this means you cannot rely on the Z-Score as a good candidate.

Chapter 6 is “Managing a Return to Financial Health” by Altman and James La Fleur, who used the Z-score model to create a recovery strategy for GTI Corporation during the 1970s.