The Debts of the Spenders: Bear Market Rally a Result of Frontrunning the CDS Trade?

After reading many knowledgeable posts from Zerohedge, Accrued Interest, Nakedcapitalism, and Urbandigs (kudos to all the commenters as well), I have come to the conclusion that the bear market rally in equities is the result of an extended short squeeze by quants and other institutional traders trying to do massive arbitrage trades in the most fundamentally weak sectors.

There are many variations of the arbitrage trade but the basic principle seems to consist of a) buying bonds on the company in question (at a substantial discount to par) w/CDS insurance; b) shorting the common equity; and/or c) buying the preferred issue*. The possibility of a big CDS payout is a longer term horizon play. But in the meantime the quants are also periodically short covering to (hopefully) make a profit. *The preferred issue is extra gravy sauce for those funds that want to generate less risky returns since they have historically (as of last September) been viewed as the default safety valve for govt bailouts.

But the best laid plans fell to pieces due to the unforseen extent of the invisible hand. Note that the equity rally has been led by the companies w/the WEAKEST fundamentals - casinos, financials, commercial real estate, luxury retailers, etc. This action suggests that one of two things is happening: a) the long/short arbitrage trade is getting crowded from everyone short covering at the same time to take profit; and/or b) other quants are running short squeeze plays of their own on the most heavily shorted issues by going contrary to the prevailing hedgie herd - e.g. buying the common equity (or more likely taking substantial intra-day futures positions to move the market).

There is also a final factor at play here - the US govt's refusal to accept any publicly traded corporate bankruptcy. So the CDS buyers keep on paying out every quarter and the CDS sellers continue to collect the premiums. Company insiders are also taking the opportunity to sell their common shares. Meanwhile, equity volume among traders is slowly evaporating. And industry shill such as Barron's and CNBC broadcast fund propaganda to the retailer buyers about how the bottom is in.

I don't have access to the kinds of insider data that zerohedge, AI, nakedcapitalism, urbandigs and other good bloggers are privy to. But the scenario I sketched above seems to comport w/what they have been saying in numerous posts since late February.

Thoughts appreciated.