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Products & Services
for Money Managers

The Total Return Group at Vining Sparks is pleased to introduce you to products and services designed specifically for money managers and investment advisors. As a national leader in executing fixed income securities transactions, Vining Sparks is uniquely qualified to provide total return investors with opportunities to better meet their stated objectives. Our approach to successful investing combines strategic support services with broad trading capabilities. Some specific details of our services are listed below:

• Vining Sparks is of one the world’s top 20 underwriters of newly issued debt by agencies of the U.S. Government. Two market opportunities result from this activity: 1) we can structure deals specifically for you or let you know as new deals come to market; and 2) we offer excellent liquidity and flow for all types of agency securities.
• Vining Sparks is able to provide you with “one call access” to a wide array of primary dealer and regional inventories (including those you don’t regularly deal with). Our active trading desk is staffed by twenty-five trading professionals and even though we have our own inventory totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, we are not limited to just our own inventory.
• Through an in-house proprietary system, we can provide monthly pricing for virtually all fixed income securities. This system utilizes a variety of electronic pricing services and then selects the best source for each market sector and sector type. This approach is more accurate than using a single pricing source or a pricing matrix and proves invaluable when calculating total returns.
• Another Vining Sparks’ proprietary system compares your holdings to specific securities which pass through our inventory and through the dealer community. When “matchers” are noted, you are notified of the opportunity to “add on” to your current position. This is especially helpful to portfolio managers who wish to limit the number of securities owned.
• Derivative Solutions® is a commercially available software system designed to assist total return investors in beating a specific index or liability bogey. We are a licensed user of Derivative Solutions® and run the program for our total return customers who need it. The software includes a total return analysis module that is helpful in analyzing swaps as well as an attribution module which explains the components of past performance.
• Investors in securities with embedded options such as callable debt and mortgage-related securities will find our VPORT system helpful. This in-house system provides three services to assist in the regular management of these securities: 1) immediate notification of called securities by daily electronic monitoring; 2) predicted call dates updated regularly based on the current Treasury curve and newly issued security levels; and 3) five-year, month-by-month projection of cash flows based on predicted calls and projected prepayment speeds on amortizing securities.
• Soft dollar arrangements are available for other services which you might need but are not listed above.

If you have any further questions, please contact your account representative or Randy Wade, Executive Vice President, at (800) 829-0321.