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I'm in the same boat. I got lost really early on because I don't really understand why the 'assets' appear to not have any value in this equation?

Are the assets by definition illiquid?

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Yep that's exactly why I'm lost.

the key that they seem to delight in not telling you is that the 100M debt also came with 100M in assets - you borrowed 100M cash (an asset you now have) and promise to give it back later (a liability you now also have). Apart from those offsetting 100M entries on your books, you also have 10M other assets.

so you may have started with 10M - then you borrowed (and promise to repay) 100M more. there's your 1:10 (10:100) ratio.

Ah, I suppose I had not thought of the assets as volatile (I was essentially imagining cash equivalents), but that seems right. Thanks!

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