Taxable Debt Underwriting
GKST’s market presence, inventory capacity and contact with a nationwide securities dealer network grants us access to literally billions of dollars of securities. Our state-of-the-art technology keeps us in constant contact with all fixed-income markets in the country, allowing us to track available offerings more rapidly. These tools combine with decades of market savvy to produce the right products at the right prices to complement client strategies.
Our client-driven orientation is supported by a highly interactive communication process. The minute-by-minute exchange of information on the trading floor keeps our customers close to the pulse of the market and on top of investment opportunities. Our commitment to providing clients with a wide variety of investment products at the right prices requires our trading floor to maintain active markets in a broad spectrum of debt instruments. GKST maintains daily inventory positions ranging from $35 million to over $120 million, with an average inventory turnover of three days.
GKST’s taxable desk is active in U.S. government, government-sponsored enterprise debt, and mortgage-backed securities markets. The most rapidly growing segment is the underwriting/trading of government sponsored enterprise debt or GSEs. The firm maintains an active secondary market in securities issued by Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB), Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA), Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Association (FHLMC). About 50% of our business consists of taxable bonds and 50% consists of tax-exempt securities.