U.S. subprime mortgage lender Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. (LEND) said it reached an agreement to sell $2.7 billion of loans at a substantial discount to alleviate pressures from margin calls.

The story surely goes much deeper than was reported in the story link above, and might even make a great book on corporate crisis management. We don’t claim to know the whole story, but earlier this week the company appeared headed to bankruptcy. Instead the announcement that it is taking a $150 million hit on its portfolio, delaying required regulatory filings and seeking a cash infusion was treated like fantastic news.

Much like the Long Term Capital Management meltdown (which only required intervention from the Federal Reserve because the managers were unwilling to take Warren Buffett’s offer) the incident shows that our markets are deep. There is a price at which any risk will be accepted, and that is a good thing. It gives the willing buyer an opportunity for large profits, and it gives Accredited the chance to fight another day. And those are good things.

Accredited Home Lenders did not make the cut for any of our Watch Lists in January (though it was on our original all-cap Watch List from June 2006.)