Investors Prepare for ECB by Underweighting Credit After 6 Years

  • Positioning turns as central bank prepares to pare stimulus
  • Financial exposure ‘massively down’ before Thursday meeting

The euro sign sculpture stands near the former European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt.

Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
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Money managers have turned underweight on European credit for the first time since September 2011 as they position for the shifting tide of ECB money.

A Bank of America Corp. survey this month showed investors had fully unwound long positions, as the so-called Draghi Put eases. On Thursday, European Central Bank policy makers look poised to hold the first formal talks on the end of a bond-buying program that has been mopping up corporate debt for two years.