All things being equal, at any given time, if the maturity of two credit default swaps is the same, then the CDS associated with a company with a "higher" CDS spread is considered "more likely" to default by the market, since a higher fee is being charged to protect against this happening. However, factors such as liquidity and estimated loss given default can affect the comparison. Credit spread rates and credit ratings of the underlying or reference obligations are considered among money managers to be the best indicators of the likelihood of sellers of CDSs having to perform under these contracts.