Investment Process

Gulf Stream’s approach to investment decisions is both cooperative and iterative between the Portfolio Management team, Research and the Trading and Quantitative Analytics. Portfolio Management identifies sector weightings, specific portfolio focus, and directs Research accordingly. Portfolio Management relies heavily on the input of the Research professionals in establishing their weightings but ultimately retains the responsibility of managing our funds.

Research is organized by industry with analysts responsible for producing an industry outlook, evaluating all investment opportunities within the industry, recommending assets for inclusion in the portfolios and monitoring asset performance relative to our expectations. Our fundamental approach includes analyzing historic financials, assessing management, industry trends, competitive position, regulatory outlook and relative value of loan to other publicly traded comparables, producing cash flow forecasts and evaluating the underlying credit structure.

With constant interaction with the dealer and broker community, Trading conveys market depth, price trends, market sentiment, dealer activity, relative value security analysis to Portfolio Management. A dedicated Trading function ensures timely and best execution of the portfolio trades. Quantitative Analytics performs asset and portfolio analysis vital to both Research and Portfolio Management.

All four of these functions gather periodically and during regularly scheduled meetings to screen new opportunities, formally present credit recommendations, review assets and industries, present relative value and other quantitative asset level and portfolio level analysis, and provide daily valuation updates.

The Investment Management Committee (IMC) serves as the portfolio oversight function, responsible for managing credit and market risk. The IMC convenes periodically to review portfolio performance and consider any changes to each client’s investment strategy. The IMC is comprised of five senior investment professionals and chaired by Mark Mahoney, and is responsible for establishing firm-wide views on the credit and capital markets as well as the firm’s view on economic trends. IMC also ensures compliance with internal policies and procedures (such as allocation decisions) as well as compliance with our Registered Investment Adviser requirements.