New Facility Adds Technology To Training

Patrick Marshall, Teaching a Calyx Point Class

The new AMSU training facility is located at corporate campus, 1255 West baseline Road, Suite 152.

We just opened the new training facility last month, and for those of you that have not yet been here, it is awesome! It comes replete with 12 workstations, surround sound, and wide screen overhead projection. It allows students to train hands on with our various systems while the expert corporate instructors guide you through the course. We also hold Branch Orientation in this facility so all new Branches can see our facility and learn to live and work the AMS way!

Here are a few new classes that are now being offered:

Calyx Point 102 for processors and Calyx Point 103 for Branch Managers take place once / month. Calyx Point 102 is designed for the seasoned Processor and focuses on the implementation of templates and data based management in order to streamline the loan process. You are directed on how to set up cardex, tracking, custom documentation and reports.

Calyx Point 103 is designed for management. This class focuses on the benefits of network installation and generating custom documents and reports.

Brand New class that will be offered once / month beginning in July – Mortgage Calculator Class Training
Learn how to operate a mortgage calculator that will quickly calculate loan payments, qualifying ratios and multiple “what if scenarios”. In today’s world it is essential to provide both buyer and seller with the most accurate information that is available. (Calculators can be purchased at the class.)

LPA / Branch Manager Recruiting Discs – Designed for Branch Managers as a step-by-step introduction LPA recruits. Discs are available for any Branch Manager at our LPA / Branch Manager class that is offered on Fridays, twice / month.

If any questions, please contact our Corporate Trainer, Patrick Marshall at 480-730-4440 at ext. 1507

New Systems Support Help Desk Brings Answers

Our new AMSElite/AMSXpress help desk has the answers to all your AMSElite and AMSXpress software questions. Melissa Martin, who was recently hired after leaving Countrywide and the CWBC support desk mans the desk and waits for your urgent calls. If you are having technical issues or loan issues where you believe it may be the system not the information, you can call Melissa and she can walk you through the results in the system to make sure the system is working properly. Unfortunately Melissa cannot quote pricing or give loan scenarios, for that you should talk to your BDM, but she will be happy to walk you through entering a loan into our on-line systems so you feel comfortable doing it on your own. Melissa also assigns Point PDS accounts for access to the Point Data Server and can help you export your Point documents in Fannie Mae format.

A little about Melissa, she and her husband Dennis have 3 beautiful kids, Alexandra-10, Conor-8 and Jacob-2. When she is not at work she loves playing with her kids, especially video games and loves to play the piano.

Suzette's Almond-Crusted Halibut Crystal Symphony

Ingredients:
1/3 cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

2 tablespoons minced shallots

1 sprig fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

1/3 cup heavy cream

10 tablespoons unsalted butter - chilled, cut into tablespoon-size pieces

3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

6 (6 ounce) fillets halibut

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs

2/3 cup minced blanched almonds

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions:
1. Make beurre blanc: In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine wine, vinegar, shallots, thyme and bay leaf. Boil until liquid has evaporated. Stir in cream, and boil until liquid is reduced by half; decrease heat to low. Whisk in butter, 1 piece at a time, adding each new piece before previous one has melted completely. Do not allow sauce to simmer, or it may separate.

2. Strain sauce through a fine sieve into a heatproof bowl. Stir in chives, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Keep warm by setting bowl in a larger container of hot water.

3. Preheat oven on broiler setting. Pat fillets dry, and season with salt and pepper.

4. Heat oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute halibut fillets for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until lightly browned, and just cooked through. Transfer to a baking sheet, and cool 5 minutes. In a small bowl, stir together bread crumbs, almonds and 1 tablespoon melted butter. Brush tops of fillets with egg, and spread with almond mixture.

5. Broil fillets 1 to 2 minutes, or until browned (watch closely - every broiler has its own personality!). Place fillets on individual plates, and spoon beurre blanc around it.

Steve's Beverage Recommendation

With this meal Steve recommends:

Sauvignon Blanc

The Sauvignon Blanc grape produces wines of distinction in most of the areas where it is grown. It can tolerate greater heat than many varieties. Sauvignon Blancs are higher in acid and often exhibit 'melon' in the nose and tastes. If grown in too cool a climate, it can develop an herbal ('grassy') character in its aromas. Sauvignon Blanc produces large crops and is a low cost variety. In the U.S. it is often known as Fume Blanc.

I recommend a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc since they tend to have a higher level of acidity than the French or American varieties, which will help cut through the beurre blanc and balance well with the Halibut. My favorite for under $15: Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2004.

Joke Of The Week

Heaven Can Wait

3 friends die in a car accident and they go to an orientation in heaven. They are all asked, "When you are in your casket and friends and family are talking about you, what would you like them to say?

The first guy says,"I would like to hear them say that I was a great doctor of my time, and a great family man."

The second guy says, "I would like to hear that I was a wonderful husband and school teacher which made a huge difference in our children of tomorrow."

The last guy replies, "I would like to hear them say ... Look, He's Moving!

Hedge Against A Housing Bubble With Housing Futures

Hedge funds have been a big buzzword over the last decade as investors seek to "hedge their bets" in financial markets.

Now there are ways to hedge your bet in the housing market. Well, maybe not you personally - this is a pretty expensive proposition for an individual homeowner - but ways that mortgage companies, home builders, and others heavily invested in the future of the housing market can protect themselves against market fluctuations and investors can take advantage of rising prices without actually buying and selling homes. And maybe there will soon be opportunities for individual homeowners and small investors.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange recently followed the lead of a small San Mateo California derivatives exchange in offering housing based futures contracts to investors. These contracts are not quite like commodities and not quite like options contracts but have some of the features of both. In order to understand these products which are a bit amorphous, it is probably easiest to look at commodities and options.

Commodities contracts, long considered no game for amateurs, allow investors to speculate on the future price of real products - metals, agricultural goods, energy, currency and so forth at a given point in time. For example, an investor may have a hunch that oil will go to 85 dollars a barrel by December, 2006. He does not have the capacity to buy and store a thousand barrels of oil but he can invest in oil futures - paper that gives him ultimate ownership of those 1,000 barrels when they are produced in six months. As the price of oil inches upwards the value of his paper increases and perhaps in November, with oil prices approaching $90 a barrel, he will sell the futures contracts for much more than he paid. If the price of oil heads south, so will the value of the contract. The real danger with commodity contracts, however, is that the product, whether oil, sowbellies, or copper will be delivered to the person holding the contract when it expires. In other words, even if you lose thousands of dollars you still must bite the bullet at whatever loss before you have, as happened to an acquaintance, a freight car load of eggs rotting on a rail siding.

Commodities contracts can also be sold "short." If an investor feels that the price of oil is due to plummet he can sell a futures contract he does not own at a price that reflects current values. If oil prices drop, the value of his contract will too and will be able to "cover the short" by purchasing a real contract at a lower price than for what he sold his non-existent one. If prices continue to escalate, however, he must still cover the short by buying a contract, probably at a much higher price, before the expiration date. Since he sold the contract before he bought it, at least he doesn't have the rotting egg problem but he does owe the party who bought the non-existent contract either his money or a freight car full of eggs.

Investors buy commodity futures but the real market is with producers who are hedging their bets - a cattle rancher for example, who wants to lock in future beef prices even through his cattle won't be market weight for months.

While futures contracts are expensive, there are mutual funds that invest in commodities, allowing even small investors to take on what is substantial risk.

Options are generally tied to publicly traded stock. They expire on a date certain like commodities contracts, but unless the investor chooses to exercise the option, he never actually receives the stock.

For example, Microsoft, (NASDAQ symbol MSFT) is priced at around $22 per share after the recent market sell-off. If you wish to bet that Microsoft will go up but don't have $2,200 to buy 100 shares you can purchase a "call;" that is an option that gives you the right to purchase the stock by a certain date at a "strike price," perhaps $27 even if the price reaches $50 per share or resell the call as the price rises. Right now you could bet that MSFT will hit 27 by January, 2007 for .35 a share ($35 per contract) or that it will be at 27.50 in October 2006 for .15 a share. But, if you expect MSFT to drop still further you could buy a "put" which is the equivalent of selling a stock short - betting that the price is going to drop. Options are a low-cost way of playing the market but are valueless after the expiration date.

The new housing futures have features of both the commodities and the options market. The futures offered by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange are based on the Case-Shiller Home Price Index for each of ten cities; Chicago, Boston, Las Vegas, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington. Investors can also buy contracts based on a weighted composite index for all ten cities. The average contract is around $55,000 and there are four expiration dates each year, currently this August, November, and February and May of 2007. Investors can purchase calls thus betting that the market is going up or puts, banking that prices are going to decrease.

The Cash-Shiller index is based on repeat sales (much like the way OFHEO tracks home prices.) If a house sells at $100,000 and then sells again at $110,000 the index records a ten percent increase.

Unlike either options or futures the investor is not offering to buy anything and will not end up owning a single house, voluntarily or not. This is the amorphous part - he is betting on a trend and one in which forecasting has been problematic. In this respect housing futures are more like betting on a horse race; investors will end up cashing in their tickets or ripping them into confetti.

But as a hedge these products may have significant appeal. A large homebuilder in the middle of developing a 500 unit subdivision in the Chicago suburbs and worried about market stability might purchase puts for housing in his area. If prices go up during the contract period the value of his contracts would decline but he doesn't care because the value of the bricks and mortar that are his main concern will remain stable or rise and the cost of the contract can be viewed almost like an insurance premium. On the other hand, if prices adjust sharply downward the value of the contracts will increase and partially offset the loss the builder may suffer from slower sales or lower prices.

If these options prove popular, expect that contracts will be available for longer terms and that mutual funds will be created to invest in them. This will allow small investors to get into the market and permit individual homeowners to hedge their bets on their largest single investment just like the big guys.