Financial entertainment got a holiday gift with the fiasco surrounding the Third Avenue Focused Credit Fund.  The fund halted withdrawals amid investor outflows which was “shocking” according to Barron’s.  The sharks are circling as the media has had easy filler content – “Worried About Your High-Yield Bond Fund?” and so on.  The thing is, the Third Avenue Focused Credit Fund was not a high yield bond fund and even cursory due diligence would have revealed this.  That anyone was caught off-guard by this development should be the real story here. I still have my notes from my due diligence on the fund in January of 2013.  The number one thing that stands out is that it is/was a DISTRESSED CREDIT fund.  This means that it invested in illiquid and sometimes non-performing stuff.  I say stuff because they didn’t hold just bonds.  The fund also held equities and other securities from restructuring…