Monday 8/11 ... At A Glance

By: Matthew Graham •
  • 6.0's Unchanged at 100-06, slight selling in the belly, buying in the wings
  • Almost non-existent news today, just 48 hr Class A Notification (definition below)
  • Stocks relatively flat
  • Oil up a few down a few.
  • No scheduled data for the rest of the day, leaving us open to headline risk
  • outlook:
    • VERY UNCERTAIN... with such as strong day versus treasuries on Friday and fairly steep gains regardless, there may be some profit taking today.  If the stock rally extends it could add pressure.  For you lockers out there, if you have rates already this morning, be ready to lock at a moment's notice.  Floaters, keep enjoying the ride.



*****NEW TERMS*****

- "belly / wing " -  refers to the different portions of the "stack" (the range of different MBS coupons within a certain coupon type.  If a coupon type is a FNMA 30 year fixed, then the range of coupons could be from 4.5-8.0.  The "belly" refers to the two or three coupons that are trading closest to PAR (price of 100-00).  So since the 6.0 is currently at PAR (ish), and neither the 6.5 or the 5.5 are more than 3 points away, this would be the belly.  The wings would be all other coupons.  

- 48 hour class A notification: MBS are really TBA MBS meaning that the actual pools of loans that will compose the security are not necessarily decided at the time of the trade.  In this case, I could say that I'd like to sell 1 million dollars of 6.5's today on August 11th, even though I might not have funded any loans.  My settlement date for that million would not be occurring until some predetermined date in the future (usually 3 months or less out, the quicker, the better the price I get),  In this case, it would be 9/11/08.  As long as I fund 1 mil of securitizeable loans by then, I can begin to NOTIFY the buyer that purchased my loans of what the pool will contain, or if I will "roll" to an October delivery.  After 48 hours, then it's time to actual finalize the transaction ("settlement").