Investortools

During the 2024 Fixed Income Leaders Summit, Senior Vice President James Morris sat down with Dan Barnes with Trader TV to discuss how municipal finance is being transformed by electronic trading and automation. This impact is particularly evident in the increased efficiency of odd lot trading, growing the number of the separately managed accounts (SMAs), and the ability to quickly find optimal trading opportunities in the market. At Investortools, Inc., we successfully guide clients through the transition to automation. By reducing the manual aspects of frequently carried out processes, users are empowered to scale operations and manage increased workloads more effectively. This efficiency is seen in portfolio construction times within our software, where clients are reporting rapid transitions from cash to fully invested portfolios in a matter of days. Connect with our team to learn how our automation toolkit and the #InvetortoolsDealerNetwork adds efficiency to historically manual processes: https://bit.ly/3WjX58H

Investortools is excited to attend next week’s annual Colorado Municipal Bond Club Outing right here in our home state! As a sponsor of this year’s event, Investortools looks forward to forging meaningful collaborations with the Colorado Municipal Bond Club, an organization that consistently gathers industry leaders from across the country to discuss timely topics shaping the market. The annual gathering provides an excellent opportunity to exchange fresh perspectives, share best practices, and explore how innovative solutions can further advance the municipal bond sector. We look forward to engaging with longtime partners and new connections next week!

How are you staying competitive? Our clients use the Investortools Dealer Network (IDN), which is transforming fixed-income trading through robust connectivity and streamlined workflows. By continuously streaming dealer and ATS inventory into Perform®, the IDN provides access to more than 500,000 live, tradable offers, RFQs, and BWICs on any given day, creating the largest consolidated view of the secondary market. By gathering all market data in one place, users can quickly identify optimal trading opportunities and eliminate the complexity of maintaining processes on different platforms. Automation is at the core of the IDN’s functionality: Perform can be automated to locate liquidity across multiple portfolios based on defined objectives and constraints, pre-allocating or even auto-executing the most favorable trades. This enhanced efficiency empowers firms to scale AUM without adding resources. Explore the power of the IDN: https://bit.ly/3CY2XxL

What a fantastic few days at the Municipal Bond Buyers Conference. James Morris recently joined fellow panelists Daniel Dyulgerski, CFA (Terrapin), Manju Boraiah (Allspring Global Investments), and moderator Daniela Duraof (JPMorganChase) to explore how electronic trading and automation are reshaping the municipal market. Thank you to the organizers of this wonderful event and our fellow panelists for an engaging conversation!

Investortools is headed to the 2025 Municipal Bond Buyers Conference, where James Morris will speak on the Technology and Automation Panel. James Morris, Senior Vice President, will speak on the Technology and Automation Panel. He will join other industry leaders to share insights on the transformative role of technology in the municipal bond market, focusing on how automation tools streamline workflows and enhance operational efficiency. Be sure to attend Tuesday’s 10:30 AM Technology Panel to discover how clients are leveraging these tools to scale their businesses.  We’re excited to connect with MBBC members and engage in meaningful conversations. See everyone in beautiful California!

Front-office trading technology is vital to fixed-income trading desks, where sourcing liquidity, analyzing intraday pricing feeds, and vetting different protocols can be overwhelming to bond traders.  At the ICE Strategic Partners Alliances Forum, panelists from OEMS provider FlexTrade, fixed-income software provider Investortools and electronic corporate bond trading platform Trumid discussed ways to bring greater efficiency to bond trading in the credit and municipal bond markets. One of the biggest challenges is consuming and filtering data that’s required to price bonds. FlexTrade’s Venky Vemparala said: “Our differentiation is really on how we improve workflow efficiency in the context of an EMS using connectivity and data as a building block.”   Read more (see link in comments) about the latest advances in reshaping the front-office, including liquidity analytics, portfolio trading and tools for rebalancing muni bond portfolios. #tradingtech #fixedincometrading #bonddata

The Bond Buyer hosted a fantastic event last week, bringing together municipal finance professionals from across the industry. It was a pleasure reconnecting with old colleagues and meeting new faces. If you didn’t get a chance to stop by our booth, Investortools looks forward to connecting and demonstrating how our solutions can enhance the efficiency of your workflow!

Investortools is honored to sponsor and speak at the upcoming 2025 Municipal Bond Buyers Conference. As a premier members-only event for senior municipal fixed-income professionals, the Municipal Bond Buyers Conference (MBBC), is an annual event that brings together over 160 leaders from more than 100 top investment firms. The event creates a dynamic platform for discussing the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in the municipal bond market. James Morris, Senior Vice President at Investortools, will join other industry leaders on the Technology panel to share insights on the transformative role of technology in the municipal bond market, focusing on how automation tools are streamlining workflows and improving operational efficiency. We’re excited to connect with MBBC members and explore how our solutions can help you navigate the complexities of today’s municipal bond market! Learn more about the event: https://bit.ly/4hT104r

The municipal yield curve shifted to sloping entirely upward in January, finally breaking the inversion that has been in the curve for over two years. Intermediate and especially short terms of the curve fell, while the entire long end of the curve rose. This resulted in only a small net return from yield curve movement as the Non-Parallel Shift Return offset much of the positive Parallel Shift Return. Reflecting on the Investortools's Municipal Market Performance for January 2025 with Joel Buursma and Mark Pinson Read the full report here: https://bit.ly/42NUgAn

Investortools’ 2024 Year in Review Municipal Bond Market Performance Report paints a dynamic year for municipal bonds. Despite a series of ups and downs, the municipal bond space ultimately closed the year on a positive note.   𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 - 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗬𝗶𝗲𝗹𝗱 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝘃𝗲: Throughout 2024, the yield curve saw marked fluctuations. The largest yield increases, causing the biggest drag on performance, happened in mid-range maturities. In contrast, the shortest-term maturities posted much smaller yield hikes, causing less performance drag. - 𝗢𝗻𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘀: For lower-rated bonds, credit spreads continued to tighten—a multi-year trend continuing to boost the returns of those securities. This development underscores growing confidence in higher-yielding municipal issuers and illustrates ongoing risk appetite. - 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗮 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁: While yield curve moves and credit conditions played crucial roles, the core strength of municipal bond income provided a buoyant effect, helping keep overall returns in the green for 2024. Read the full report: https://bit.ly/4hME5b1