Dean Myerow
My knowledge of the municipal bond market is deep, having started my own trading and banking broker dealer, later selling that firm to a major bank and running the entire fixed income desk for the private client group at the bank. I participate daily in multiple national auctions of secondary market municipal bonds, and act as a market maker on numerous municipal bond credits My partner, Sean Vesey and I have been able to develop robust computerized electronic trading tools to assist our efficiencies for our proprietary trading and for our institutional clients and their portfolios.
High Quality Bond Portfolio Management
We offer portfolio management that is geared toward the preservation of principal with a keen eye on the reduction of interest rate risk. We employ strategies that are suited to the individual goals of the client. We use laddering and barbell strategies with an emphasis on our kicker bond strategy. Our concentration is on municipal bonds with insurance and reliable cash flow streams to build durable portfolios that are designed to weather extreme market conditions. Some of our clients combine a combination of high grade/high quality investing for most of their portfolios and add a high yield risk component to increase overall portfolio yields, depending on their objectives.
High Yield and Distressed Bond Investing
Over the last 25 years in the municipal bond market, I have become one of the active market participants in the high yield and distressed sector of the municipal bond market. Having a finance degree and a law degree coupled with a good understanding of bankruptcy and other insolvency law has been a great asset to my career. This slice of the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market is relatively small, perhaps less than one percent of the total outstanding muni issuance. Nonetheless, it has been an underserved area of the market with many large wire houses and banks not providing research coverage, and creating an opportunity for market players like me. My analysis has been focused on determining the underlying collateral value of assets securing distressed bonds. Some of the methods I have historically deployed are cash flow analysis, comparable asset market valuations, and replacement value analysis. I have been a sole bondholder on multiple distressed deals over the years in the private detention, private college, student housing, health care facility and the multifamily housing areas. In my role as the controlling bondholder, I have directed trustees, attorneys and other professionals toward creating profitable workout solutions. Also, I have been a noncontrolling, minority bondholder accumulating trading positions and riding shotgun as other creditors have directed the workout proceedings. I have served on restructuring and ad hoc bondholder committees and currently maintain an active database to follow many distressed municipal bond credits.