Reports and Special Commentary

Our Analytical Services Division (ASD) publishes a variety of reports that provide clients with relevant and timely information about the bond market and investor demand.  In 2009, ASD produced market-leading research that challenged the initial bulge bracket firm response to Build America Bonds and highlighted investor appetite for smaller tranches with greater call flexibility.  In addition, each year ASD issues an in-depth review of state pension plans and their funded status. Other notable reports include an annual municipal bond volume forecast, annual briefings of Governor State of the State speeches, as well as a public private partnership report that explores the evolving role of P3s in the U.S.  ASD also circulates a monthly Municipal Strategy Report that provides a top-down look at municipal investing.

We provide a number of powerfully informative municipal research products:

• LoopAnalytics – Compilation for all MSRB-reported primary and secondary trades. The analysis includes the trade yield’s spread to the Municipal Market Data “AAA” scale on the day of the trade in order to maintain a historical benchmark reference of pricing information.

• Loop Secondary Activity Report – Pricing spreads of new issue to MMD and reveals trading patterns by showing secondary market trading spreads.

• Multiple Optionality Report – Quantifies the cost-effectiveness of utilizing a shorter call feature than the standard 10-year par call in order to achieve greater call flexibility.

• Loop Call Option Report – Quantifies the value of an embedded call option in callable bonds, and clarifies the difference between callable and non-callable advance refunding issues. 

Proprietary models and research products that help inform decisions

Our analytics team has developed a number of proprietary models that we update for clients. Models and resources include:

• Proprietary Option Pricing Models (logarithmic and Black-Derman-Toy)
• Municipal Volume Forecasting Model
• SIFMA Forecasting Model
• Fed Funds Forecasting Model
• Recession Forecasting (model successfully predicted all recessions in the last 30 years)
• Eviews, SAS, STATA. B34S and other advanced econometric software
• Vector Auto Regression
• Vector Error Correction Models
• MARS Modeling
• OAS Analysis (calculates the theoretical value/cost of a shorter call)
• Loop Preliminary Refunding Scan
• Refunding and Debt Analysis Report
• Loop Asset Valuation Toolkit
• Municipal Securities Database back to 2001