Overview

The Fixed Income Group provides fixed income trading and sales assistance to a diversified group of institutional clients.  Business lines fall into three major categories.

Mortgage Pipeline Hedging Division (MPH)

Sanders Morris Harris's Mortgage Pipeline Hedging Division is dedicated to assisting small to mid-size mortgage lenders to access capital markets and to optimize profitability. Through the extension of credit, the disciplined use of risk management systems and strategic alliances, the MPH staff has assisted over 50 lenders since 2002 to achieve their goals.

Structured Finance Liquidations

The Fixed Income Group assists Trustees that need to liquidate assets in defaulted structured finance transactions, such as Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs).  The group analyzes deal collateral and, working with the Trustee, Trustee Counsel and other interested parties, conducts public auctions and settles the transactions for both "cash" and synthetic securities.

Fixed Income Sales and Trading

The highly experienced Fixed Income team assists middle-market institutional clients with their investment needs.  The sales group identifies client requirements and works closely with our analysts and traders to find solutions to meet those needs.

 

Products and Services

The Fixed Income Group focuses on all types of fixed income securities including securities of the United States government, Government sponsored GSE's, Agency and private label mortgage-backed securities, collateralized trusts such as CMO's,CDO'S,CBO'S,CLO's, municipal securities and high-grade corporate securities.

Mortgage Pipeline Hedging Division (MPH)

Sanders Morris Harris's MPH can assist mortgage lenders who need to access the capital markets, obtain financing and manage their risk. Through the use of proprietary systems and peer group benchmarks, MPH can assist lenders  to maximize the leverage that their balance sheet can support and maintain good financial controls to amplify the benefits of their loan manufacturing efforts. The analysts in MPH focus on balance sheet construction, the use of trading activities as a tool to facilitate the Best Execution of loan sales, and mitigation of interest rate risk. MPH can assist in pipeline valuations, hedge recommendations, and Best Execution practices. Utilizing a number of strategic alliances, SMH is approved for Assignment of Trade execution with all the major national mortgage investor conduits.

It should be noted that SMH does not participate in customer loan sales or the profits derived thereof. We offer our services to encourage customers to take advantage of opportunities presented by the capital markets.

Sanders Morris Harris's highly experienced team of traders, sales people and advisors to the mortgage loan origination industry bring together almost 100 years of cumulative experience in the mortgage origination process, along with extensive fixed income market knowledge and experience. Working with a number of originators, various conduits and advisors, SMH will assist mortgage banking clients to obtain approvals for MBS trading, facilitate Assignment of Trade (AOT) activity and delivery into short mandatory loan commitments to optimize profitability and cash flow.

Structured Finance Liquidations

Structured financial transactions can default due to poorly performing collateral.  Older Collateralized Bond Obligations (CBOs) have defaulted when the corporate bonds held in the trust have defaulted.  Newer CDOs can, and do, suffer from poorly performing mortgage collateral.  In either situation, the Trustee of the transaction must liquidate or sell the underlying collateral at the best possible price to pay the bondholders. The SMH fixed income trading desk works closely with the Trustee, the Trustee's attorneys and other interested parties to identify and describe all collateral in a given trust. Subsequently, recommendations are made as to the optimal method to liquidate the collateral, public auctions of the collateral are set up when necessary and trade settlement and reconciliation follow. Historically, collateral has included both securities and synthetic investment vehicles such as credit default swaps.

Fixed Income Sales and Trading

The highly experienced Fixed Income Sales and Trading department assists customers of  all types meet their investment needs.  Historically this group has included Commercial Banks, Savings ands Loans, some State and Local governments, Corporations, Money Managers, Hedge funds, corporations and individuals. The sales group identifies client requirements and works closely with analysts and traders to find solutions to meet those needs.  Sanders Morris Harris's daily participation in the markets and our excellent counterparty relationships enable SMH to efficiently buy and sell securities of all types.

 

Publications

The Sanders Morris Harris Fixed Income Division publishes several types of analyses on a weekly and monthly basis as well as additional reports on a situational basis.  Every week starts with a  Monday morning analysis of the Fed fund futures market in Fed Fund Notes and the implications for short-term interest rates.  Yield and Spread Notes, also distributed on Monday, is a weekly look at relative value in the corporate, Agency, municipal and mortgage markets.  Wednesday morning brings the weekly Fixed Income Note, which addresses an issue of importance in the fixed income markets.  Topics have included the economy, historical and forecast tends in the housing market, descriptions of different security types and fundamental explanations of various analytical methods.  The Monthly Economic Chartbook, which is a monthly package of charted economic data, is released the Tuesday following the monthly BLS Employment Situation Report.

Weekly

  • Fed Fund Notes
  • Fixed Income Notes
  • Yield and Spread Notes

Special Reports

  • Monthly Economic Chartbook
  • Special Reports

 

Professionals

The Sanders Morris Harris Fixed Income Division has an experienced staff of professionals with extensive educational credentials, long work histories, and strong backgrounds in the fixed income markets. In addition, SMH has demonstrable expertise in mortgage hedging, financial reporting, portfolio analysis and asset/liability management.

  • Ansel Eshelman
  • William Sias
  • Lee Olver
  • Peter Badger
  • Conrad Gerard
  • Robert Fuchs
  • David Senich
  • Ron Furman
  • Liz McHugh
  • Donna Gagliardi

 

Ansel Eshelman , Executive Vice President, Head of Trading, and Department Co-Head

In addition to serving as Department Co-Head, Ansel Eshelman is Executive Vice President and Head of Trading for the Fixed Income Group at Sanders Morris Harris. He is responsible for all fixed income transactions and the support of the trading needs of all of Sanders Morris Harris's financial advisors, SMH Partners, and Institutional Equities. He is experienced in all facets of fixed income trading and  has over twenty two years experience in the sales and trading of fixed income securities.

William H. Sias, Senior Vice President and Department Co-Head

William Sias is a Senior Vice President and the Department Co-Head of SMH Capital's Fixed Income Division. He brings over twenty two years of industry experience with a number of Wall Streets largest firms including Lehman Brothers, Prudential Securities, and Drexel Burnham Lambert. Mr. Sias has worked extensively in all areas of fixed income sales and trading including matched book finance, CMO modeling, portfolio analysis, hedging, fundamental credit research, and counter party risk assessment.

Mr. Sias is the founder and manager of the firm's Mortgage Pipeline Hedging Division (MPH). In this position, his activities include responsibility for all counter party risk assessment, he chairs the MPH credit committee, and he is actively involved in the development of new and proprietary risk management systems for both SMH and customers.  Mr. Sias is a published writer, he is an acknowledged expert who speaks at numerous industry gatherings and he is currently Vice Chair of the Illinois Mortgage Bankers Association Secondary Marketing Committee.


Mr. Sias has been an active member of the FMBA, TMBA, and IMBA. Bill has a Masters Degree in Finance and Accounting from the Jones School of Business Administration at Rice University and he holds Bachelor Degrees in Economics and Geology from Saint Lawrence University in Canton, New York .

Lee A. Olver, Senior Vice President, Financial Strategies

Lee Olver is a Senior Vice President in Financial Strategies for the Fixed Income Group at Sanders Morris Harris. He possesses a unique background combining extensive mortgage- and asset-backed securities, corporate bond, and derivatives instruments knowledge with bank, insurance company and mutual fund portfolio management experience.

Mr. Olver has ten years experience structuring and/or modeling and analyzing complex, high dollar mortgage- and asset-backed securities transactions and portfolios. He is knowledgeable in portfolio analysis, credit analysis, security selection, trading and computer system design and implementation and has developed strategy, managed and traded fixed income, MBS, ABS, and derivative positions for large insurance company and thrift.

Mr. Olver holds a Bachelor of Science and a Masters of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Davis and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Denver . He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a member of the CFA Institute.  He has numerous publications in the Bank Asset/Liability Newsletter and written White Papers for the Financial Managers Society.

Peter W. Badger, Managing Director, Institutional Funds Management

Peter Badger is Managing Director of Institutional Funds Management in the Fixed Income Division of Sanders Morris Harris. He has over 30 years experience working with institutional investors, including banks throughout the United Sates, Europe and Japan . From 2005 to 2006, he served a one-year term as Vice-Chairman of the Financial Managers Society (FMS), becoming Chairman for a one-year term in 2006-2007. The FMS is a not-for-profit professional society serving the technical, educational and professional needs of institutional financial and investment officers exclusively. The FMS has over 1,500 members nationwide. Mr. Badger is also a frequent author and speaker on institutional investment topics and addresses hundreds of individuals annually at state and national conventions, seminars, and webinars.

Peter has a B.S in Mathematics from the University of Houston and an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Missouri .

Conrad Gerard , Senior Vice President, Institutional Sales

Conrad Gerard is a Senior Vice President in institutional sales and works with money managers, insurance companies, banks, trust departments and pension funds.  With more than 22 years of experience, Mr. Gerard is especially familiar with all aspects of mortgage securities, as well as Agency, municipal and corporate debt.

Mr. Gerard holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from John Carroll University .

Robert Fuchs, Vice President Fixed Income Sales

Mr. Fuchs brings over 10 years of experience in securities industry and he currently functions as Marketing Director for Sanders Morris Harris's Mortgage Pipeline Hedging (MPH). In the recent past Bob has been instrumental in developing a model for assisting customers to determine how to analyze their loan sales for Best Execution and pipeline valuations. He has successfully deployed this work to numerous customers and he has developed and maintained a national account list of over 900 accounts who need products and services that include mortgage pipeline hedging, warehouse financing and technological solutions to current situations in the mortgage market.

Bob also consults with commercial banks and mortgage originators to monitor their investment risk and asset performance. Historically Bob has been involved in numerous whole loan transactions; especially those driven by the need to cleanup warehouse lines and remedy loan buybacks. Liquidation of REO and other sub/non-performing assets has been another area of strong contribution from Mr. Fuchs.

Mr. Fuchs holds a BS degree in Finance from the University of Missouri and an MBA from the University of Houston .

David Senich , Vice President Fixed Income Sales

David Senich is a Vice President in the Fixed Income Division of SMH Capital. He brings nearly ten years of industry experience working primarily with FDIC banks and both public and private mortgage banks. David is Director of Whole Loan Trading for SMH and is also a key member of the Mortgage Pipeline Hedging Group, which is actively involved in helping mortgage bankers reduce interest rate risk and improve profit margins through the forward sale of mortgage-backed securities. In addition to institutional sales, his roles include detailed mortgage pipeline analytics, profit and cash flow analysis, asset and liability management, bulk portfolio transactions, and the secondary marketing of whole loans.

Mr. Senich has been an active member of the MBAA and the IMBA. He has also held a seat on the IMBA's Secondary Marketing Committee for the past two years. Mr. Senich holds a Series 7 license and is currently working toward several designations from the MBA.

Ron Furman, Senior Vice President

Ron Furman is a Senior Vice President in the Fixed Income Group at Sanders Morris Harris. He has many years of mortgage banking experience and is a specialist in secondary marketing of all related products including MBS, whole loans and mortgage servicing rights. He works closely with a large clientele of banks, mortgage bankers and various other investors to enhance production and minimize risk. Mr. Furman has acted as broker/advisor on numerous larger transactions and has been an active member of the MBAA for nearly 30 years.

Liz McHugh , Fixed Income Trader

Liz is our fixed income trader, focused on support of retail customers.  Liz has special expertise in Agency, corporate and municipal securities. She performs analyses of client portfolios and prepares trade proposals in a readily understandable and explainable format. Her extensive operational background insures easy transactions.

Donna Gagliardi , Operations Manager

Donna is responsible for the operations of the group and for settlement of all transactions.   The Fixed Income group uses multiple clearing platforms, depending on the needs of the client.  Donna's familiarity with both the platforms and the securities eases the settlement process.