Empirasign in the Press

Mortgage Bond Poised to Set a Dubious First May is set to be the busiest month of the year for trading in AJ bonds, said Empirasign Strategies, a trade database.
Wall Street Journal, 05/16/13

Secondary Trading Back Up And Running Asset-backed securities trading in the secondary market is poised to bounce back following wider disruptions in the wake of Hurricane Sandy this week. The U.S. bond market was closed for a day and a half and some buyside and sellside firms were operating on truncated manpower, all but squashing secondary trading volumes last week. "It looks like we’re back to about two thirds of a normal trading session, or 85% when you look at today’s trading versus a normal Monday," said Adam Murphy, president of Empirasign Strategies.
Securitization Intelligence, 11/05/12

Subprime Rally Building As Dealers Sop Up Supply: Credit Markets Dealers circulated 278 lists of non-agency securities last week in auctions for investors known as “bids wanted in competition,” totaling $21.3 billion in face value, the largest amount of debt and fourth-most lists this year, according to New York-based Empirasign, a provider of trading information.
Bloomberg, 07/24/12

New Commercial CDO Sale Launched In Wake Of NY Fed Auction Morgan Stanley and at least three other dealers are seeking bids on $1.5 billion in collateralized debt obligations backed by commercial real-estate bonds for the owner, UBS AG (UBS, UBSN.VX), according to Empirasign Strategies, which tracks securitized-debt trading, and a UBS spokeswoman. The sale comes just days after the Federal Reserve Bank of New York captured the market's attention by auctioning $7.5 billion of similar securities.
Dow Jones, 05/01/12

Credit Suisse Paid $6.8 Billion for AIG’s Home-Loan Bonds The central bank this week is also probably accepting bids on a pool of $672 million of home-loan bonds being held by its first Maiden Lane vehicle, according to Empirasign Strategies LLC. The New York-based provider of data on securitized-debt trading based the assessment on a list of securities being auctioned and Fed disclosures on the vehicle’s holdings.
Bloomberg, 04/16/12

Big Long Is New Big Short as Bass Joins Subprime Bet Trading in non-agency mortgage bonds averaged $15.6 billion per week in the first six periods of this year, compared with $6.6 billion in the final 20 weeks of 2011, according to data reported to regulators and compiled by Empirasign Strategies LLC, a New York-based provider of information on securitization trading.
Bloomberg, 02/15/12

Goldman Said Bids for N.Y. Fed’s AIG Assets If the portfolio is sold to an individual investor or group assembled by dealers in an “all-or-nothing” process, that may obscure bids on specific securities and “a lack of price discovery is inherently not good,” said Adam Murphy, president of Empirasign Strategies LLC, a New York-based provider of data on securitization-market trading.
Bloomberg, 01/13/12

Sovereign Crisis Not Good for U.S. Spreads The potential for ABS/MBS sales resulting from the unwind would be bad for U.S. securitization spreads. "If their are any more Dexias that will mean further, albeit non-forced, selling pressure," said Adam Murphy, President of Empirasign Strategies. " What's French for Maiden Lane? Funny enough, it's the same in either language."
Structured Finance News, 10/12/11

BofA settlement may boost senior Countrywide RMBS Moreover, some bid lists up for trade today contained so-called "call options on clawbacks," meaning that buyers of these bonds will have the option to receive a portion of the settlement that goes through the cashflow waterfall on the legacy Countrywide bonds. "Sellers could be looking to recognize some money for this optionality," said Adam Murphy, president of Empirasign Strategies LLC, a capital markets data provider.
Reuters, 6/28/11

Fed's Maiden Lane Holding Bear Stearns-Tied Assets Shrink "This could be an acceleration of the 'pre-hiking' that the Fed started with its AIG sales," Adam Murphy, Empirasign's president, said, referring to actions by the central bank that represent a tightening of monetary policy before an increase in benchmark interest rates.
Business Week, 4/29/11

Strategos Seeks to Profit on Differing Views of Mortgage Bonds For example, the second-place bidder in a Feb. 8 auction of pieces of a bond backed by home-equity lines of credit offered 46.5 cents on the dollar, according to information compiled by Empirasign Strategies LLC. A month later, a second-place bid on the same debt was in the mid 50-cent range, according to the New York-based data provider.
Bloomberg, 4/6/11

CMBS/ABS bid list volume 50-100 pct above average-mkt sources This is indicative of shaky markets: Bid lists are being cancelled or postponed across ABS and CMBS amid increasing BWIC volume,
Reuters, 3/15/11

Mortgage Security Trading Jumps in U.S. as Prices Hover Near Two-Year High Sept. 14 was last week's busiest trading day for Non-Agency bonds, with dealers seeking bids on almost $1.3 billion of the debt excluding subprime mortgages, according to New York-based data provider Empirasign Strategies LLC. Buyers purchased 83 percent of the debt offered, according to Empirasign.
Bloomberg, 9/20/10

Risk-On Mindset Drives Mezz CMBS Rally May is on track to be the busiest month for mezzanine CMBS trading since February, said Adam Murphy, CEO of Empirasign Strategies, which compiles trading data across securitized products. "Higher prices are drawing out the fast money sellers. Sell in May and go away has not worked in stocks. Maybe it will work in CMBS mezzanine trading," he added.
Securitization Intelligence, 05/10/13

Three CDOs Totaling $177.59 Mln Set For Liquidation Next Week More than $7.87 billion of CDO liquidations across 33 lists have taken place this year, according to data provided by Empirasign Strategies. In 2011, $12.55 billion in CDO liquidations were offered up, across 57 lists.
Securitization Intelligence, 10/04/12

Macro Concerns, Fear Of Overhang Check CMBS Secondary Activity has been lighter this week, but there are a lot of compounding issues: Greece headlines, the holiday weekend and the Fed. I also think JPMorgan's [credit default swap] exposure may be hanging over the market, making people more risk averse,
Securitization Intelligence, 05/24/12

Commercial-Mortgage Market Slows Ahead Of Maiden Lane Sale Bid lists for "AJ" and slightly safer "AM" CMBS since April 16 has dropped to as little as $12 million in a day in the past week, compared with $100 million to $300 million per day earlier this month, according to Adam Murphy, president of Empirasign Strategies, which tracks trading in CMBS.
Fox Business, 04/24/12

Subprime Bulls Trim Bets as Rally Raises 2011 Specter: Mortgages The firm probably sold more than $1 billion in face value of the securities last week, according to Empirasign Strategies LLC in New York. The provider of information on securitized-debt trading based that assessment on auction lists from dealers and public reports on the firm’s holdings.
Bloomberg, 03/28/12

Fed Playing Favorites With Wall Street in Secretive Bond Deals “I fail to see how running a limited participation, secret auction is any way beneficial to the owners of these bonds, the U.S. taxpayer,” Murphy said. “Not to mention these bonds are now trading 15 to 25 cents” on the dollar “cheaper compared to when they were last auctioned in a more public manner.”
Bloomberg, 02/10/12

Morgan Stanley Non-Agency Mortgage Trader DePietro Said to Leave In the past five weeks, dealers have conducted auctions for $14.8 billion of non-agency debt, down from $26.1 billion in the first five weeks of the year, according to data from Empirasign Strategies LLC. Investment banks reported completed sales of $4.4 billion of the bonds offered in the most recent period, according to the New York-based provider of data on securitized-debt trading.
San Francisco Chronicle, 11/16/11

S&P resumes rating new CMBS; no rating changes warranted "CMBS bid lists that are DNT -- or did not trade -- are pretty high right now," said Adam Murphy, president of capital markets data provider Empirasign Strategies. "Funding pressures are hitting all sectors. And DNTs are much higher than we can observe because distributed color has been very light. So it's a safe bet that a lot of these lists that just go into the ether did not trade."
Reuters, 8/05/11

Fed's Maiden Lane II Gambit May Be Drawn-Out Affair "Our view is that this spring's spread-widening is a function of more than just ML2 supply weighing on the market," Murphy said. "The double dip in housing and spreads being too tight at the beginning of year are the main factors, as well as general risk aversion. It also does not help that Europe continues to play 'kick the can down the road' with Greece.
Reuters, 6/24/11

Update On NY Fed's Non-Agency RMBS Maiden Lane II Bid Lists Commenting on Thursday's list, Adam Murphy, President of Empirasign Strategies LLC, said the list traded about at expectations with some items lower than price talk and others above it. "I am not seeing any re-offers yet," Murphy said, "but my guess is this list had better investor sponsorship because all the items were round lots and with the reduced line item count as compared to Wednesday it was easier to spend more time analyzing each bond."
Market News International, 4/14/11

Talk From The Trenches: Supply/Demand Equation Eyed Warily "This fundamentally changes that equation," he added. "Another way to look at these sales is as a pre-hiking by the Fed." But on positive side, Murphy said the sales will bring "much needed transparency to the Non-Agency market" if Blackrock conducts these auctions in the "same open manner" Treasury has sold its Agency MBS holdings. "More transparency will bring in more market participants and that can't be anything but good for spreads," he said.
Market News International, 3/31/11

Option-ARM Bonds Tumble as Investors Question if Valuations Got Too `Rich' Wall Street brokers conducted open auctions on $4.9 billion of option-ARM securities this month, the most since October, according to Empirasign Strategies LLC. The 59 percent increase from January's $3.1 billion compares with a gain of 11 percent in the entire non-Agency market aside from subprime debt, the New York-based data provider said.
Bloomberg, 2/28/11

BlackRock, Rialto Dump Some of Their 'Skin' in CMBS Game Weekly trading in BB-rated bonds shot up as high as $2.4 billion in October, second only to April, when the New York Fed was unwinding a massive portfolio of crisis-era assets, according to Empirasign Strategies. It has averaged $1 billion a week this quarter, twice that of the third quarter, the firm's data said.
Dow Jones, 11/29/12

Commercial-Mortgage Bond Trades Surge Amid Boost In Offerings Investors have sought bids on $4.25 billion of debt linked to everything from skyscrapers to strip malls the past week, 64 percent more than the average weekly volume in 2012, according to Empirasign Strategies LLC, a New York-based data provider.
Bloomberg, 08/17/12

Talk From The Trenches: Additional Fed Action Not A Given "The actions of the NY Fed really do not square with those who are anticipating a QE3," said Adam Murphy, President of Empirasign Strategies. "The Fed's unwinding of Maiden Lane is effectively quantitative tightening, not easing, because it's taking money out of the system not putting it in," he added.
Market News International, 05/15/12

Fed solicits banks to buy risky securities "It basically guarantees lower proceeds and plays into the hands of the big dealer, because they are the only ones that have the capital to take down a larger trade," said Adam Murphy, president of Empirasign Strategies in New York, which tracks trading in securitized debt.
Reuters, 04/23/12

In today's mortgage bond market, it's take it or leave it In general, sellers are also accepting lower overall prices for their pools because they are placing more constraints on buyers, said Adam Murphy, president of Empirasign Strategies, which tracks trading in securitized debt.
Dow Jones, 03/15/12

US MORTGAGE MEMO: Non-Agencies Face Supply From Maiden Lane Adam Murphy, President of Empirasign, said the AON restriction should be lifted. "It reduces the average execution price because it limits the number of buyers," he says.
Market News International, 01/13/12

MF Global subprime RMBS liquidation is scuttled Secondary securitized-product flows have been much lighter this week. There has only been US$96.8m in prime and Alt-A RMBS traded in the secondary market today, according to Empirasign Strategies, a capital markets data provider.
Reuters, 11/01/11

Talk From The Trenches: Risk Is On; Fed ML2 Sales Suspended "The Fed clearly does not want to be in the mortgage market any longer than they have to," said Adam Murphy, President of Empirasign Strategies, "but the most important factor is the Fed wants to do right by the American taxpayer. And selling these bonds at distressed levels is doing a disservice to the taxpayer and the market."
Market News International, 7/01/11

Fed Sinks Subprime-Mortgage Bonds With Auctions: Credit Markets It completed auctions for $6.1 billion of securities through last week, accepting bids on $5.3 billion. The weighted average price was at least 49.27 cents on the dollar, according to Empirasign Strategies LLC, a New York-based data provider that tracks the second-best bids that dealers share with investors. Winning bids aren't typically disclosed.
Bloomberg, 5/11/11

Dealers worked for free to take part in Maiden Lane Auction "This list seemed to trade at, or above, most of the price guidance we saw," said Adam Murphy, president of Empirasign Strategies, a capital markets data provider. "There's a lot more product to sell, so it's hard to make a strong argument that subsequent lists will trade snugger. I think they'll trade wider because of the volumes involved, but not much wider because of the deliberate nature of the selling."
Reuters, 4/08/11

Secondary CMBS Market Most Hit By Japanese Crisis The Japanese crisis had the most impact on CMBS secondary market activity versus all other securitization sectors tracked by capital markets data provider Empirasign Strategies. "I think in terms of standard deviation away from the mean, the most action has been seen in CMBS," Adam Murphy, president of Empirasign said. "The story that's being pushed is Japan." Although generally prices have been weaker, in CMBS there has been a dramatic change in the "did not trade" (DNT) percent to around 40% from around 10% to 20% on both Tuesday and Wednesday this week, Murphy said. There has been a surge of lists out for bid, with sellers only getting their reserve price about half the time.
Structured Finance News, 3/18/11

Goldman Said to Win $6 Billion Mortgage-Bond Trade Brokers last month conducted open auctions for almost $14 billion of home-loan bonds lacking guarantees from government- supported Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae or federal Agency Ginnie Mae, according to Empirasign Strategies LLC. Since the start of July, the amount of securities offered through the process has totaled $75 billion, with at least $11.5 billion failing to be sold, according to the New York-based data provider.
Bloomberg, 12/8/10