gar wood securities overview jan 2011

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About Gar Wood Securities

Gar Wood Securities, LLC is a full-service boutique institutional broker-dealer noted

for expertise in alternative investment solutions, trading, operations and innovative risk

management.

Gar Wood provides a select group of hedge funds and professional traders with comprehensive prime brokerage (including start-up advisory), trade execution, structured products and third-party marketing services.

Gar Wood Securities is fast emerging as a premier trading firm, with an agency desk sought by institutions for providing seamless execution and outstanding liquidity in global equities and listed U.S. options. The firm has quickly grown to over 40 professionals located in Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Dallas, Milwaukee, Mobile, San Francisco and Vancouver Washington. Gar Wood delivers a full range of premier institutional-quality tools and support, and has rapidly earned a reputation for exceptional client service.

Gar Wood is fully dedicated to our clients - offering personal attention coupled with world class service through our clearing and custodial relationships with JPMorgan Clearing, Penson Financial Service, Interactive Brokers and Penson Futures –enabling them to run their businesses efficiently, and effectively.

Trading solely on an agency basis, we are equipped with leading-edge technology and proprietary tools enabling us to handle a wide variety of trading strategies. Gar Wood's experienced trading professionals have earned a reputation for superior service and efficiency in executing trades across all markets in accordance with client specifications.

Buy-side traders demand speed, objectivity and discretion from a relationship. A commitment to delivering superior client service is the driving force behind Gar Wood’s success. We focus on gaining a thorough and precise understanding of each client’s specific requirements, ensuring that orders are processed smoothly and efficiently.

Institutional clients count on our commitment, responsiveness and professional expertise.


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Institutional Brokerage

Global Trading Expertise

Gar Wood Securities is quickly gaining a solid reputation for trading equity, equity-linked and equity-derivative securities. The depth and breadth of the Firm’s equity sales and trading operations ensures liquidity and provides sophisticated analytics for companies and investors throughout the world.

� Agency Desk

� Direct Market Access (DMA)

� Global Equities

� Options

� Global Futures

� Fixed Income

� Soft Dollar

� Proprietary Equity Research

Prime Brokerage

Through our prime brokerage division and strategic partnerships, we offer consolidated clearance and custody of trades, financing and portfolio reporting services. Additionally, we provide clients with stock borrowing and stock lending in support of global trading and brokerage, asset management and clearing activities.


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Trade Execution

When best execution matters, Gar Wood is there.

Gar Wood delivers consistently superior execution and distribution for clients trading U.S., European, Asian, Canadian, Latin American, Australian and South African securities.

With a focus on minimal market impact and expertise in special situations and pair trades, our professional traders specialize in U.S. listed block trades, portfolio and electronic trading, options, derivatives and ETFs. Our experience and resources enable us to spot – and capitalize on – short-term market changes and industry trends.

Connected electronically to virtually every major U.S. and European exchange, Gar Wood also offers execution in American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) and Ordinary Shares – with settlement in USD and local currencies.

Agency Trading +

Gar Wood is an aggregator of electronic trading platforms that provide smart order routing to multiple trading exchanges, liquidity providers and dark pools. Gar Wood acts as agent in executing transactions globally in equity and equity-related products, including equity swaps, options, warrants and futures overlying individual securities, indices, baskets of securities and structured products.


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Options Trading

Exceptional Value-Added Service

Gar Wood’s experienced and skilled options execution agency desks that are located on the CBOE floor and in our offices to effectively handles both single stock and index options trading. Noted for outstanding service, our highly sought-after options agency desk provides:

Price Improvement – With many variables in pricing options, the electronic markets are inefficient and price spreads often very wide. We regularly get clients mid-market execution, achieving substantial savings in slippage.

Liquidity – Our extensive network of market makers enables us to fill large orders even when the electronic and floor markets lack depth in many stocks and indices.

Anonymity – As an agile firm with no proprietary trading, our clients can execute orders through our agency desk with great discretion.

Value – We are competitive and cost-effective with a negotiable volume-based fee structure.


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Algorithmic Trading

At the Nexus of Mathematics & Trading

Algorithmic trading is offered through our strategic relationships with Credit Suisse and Bank of America.

Gar Wood’s algorithms are the result of bringing together the disciplines of mathematics and trading for maximum market impact. Order types include:

� Agency VWAP

� Guaranteed VWAP

� T-VWAP

� Implementation Shortfall

� Arrival Price Orders

Customer order entry, order routing and execution are electronic and function seamlessly.


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Direct Market Access

Choose among the Best

Gar Wood clients are able to interface with several industry leading direct market access and OMS platforms.

Gar Wood offers a flexible, fully connected trading infrastructure, providing the highest quality of service and execution in 70+ markets worldwide, across the range of assets including: listed equities, OTC equities, listed options, futures and foreign exchange.

Clients may choose among several distinct trading platforms providing Direct Market Access. Gar Wood can easily accommodate FIX connectivity to any OMS or trading platform and can assist in the selection of co-hoisting venders.

To meet their unique requirements, our clients may choose among:

� Bloomberg

� Eze Castle

� InstaQuote

� NeoVest

� Nexa Technologies

� NYFIX

� Sterling Technologies

� RealTick

� Instinet

� CQG

� Patsystems

� Trading Technologies

Additionally, clients can connect directly to one of Gar Wood’s smart routing networks via a FIX API.


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Operations

Driven. Responsive. Effective.

Gar Wood’s Operations Team is focused on delivering the highest level of client service – consistently.

Gar Wood employs only the most seasoned operational professionals, those who fully understand the unique needs of sophisticated international institutional investors. Currently, the four senior members of our Operations Team have on average 25 years of brokerage operations experience.

“Service, Service, Service” is the response that a Gar Wood client used to describe Gar Wood’s operation team in the 2007 Global Custodian Prime Brokerage Survey.


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Why Choose Gar Wood Institutional Brokerage Services?

The Power of Partnership.

Gar Wood Securities offers flexible, customized solutions designed to provide a balance of personal attention and access world class service for our clients.

� Our business model focuses on the over all performance of each client’s assets

� Our culture of teamwork and extensive professional network enable us to effectively expand our service offerings to meet the growing needs of our clients

� Our strategic technology business partnerships developed through a rigorous, highly selective process ensure that our clients remain at the forefront of algorithmic trading with access to global markets

� Our ability to act in an agency only capacity places the focus on the clients’ best interest

� Our multi-clearing brokers and execution venues provides our clients with great flexibility


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Small-Cap Equity Research

Finding Hidden Value

Gar Wood’s Insight Equity Research team provides equity research to institutions, money managers, and hedge funds with a focus on emerging growth, small-cap companies.

Our analysts identify companies typically not found on Wall Street’s radar screens; companies with sound management teams and executable strategies that can help propel those underlying stocks toward long-term significant growth. Our median market capitalization is $200 million, and our analysts are considered:

� Generalists; with no specific sector of specialization

� Fundamentalists; arrive at a measure of value

� Quoted; by various media including Business Week, Dow Jones Newswires, TheStreet.com, Reuters, Investors Business Daily, and local publications

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Fixed Income Sales and Trading

Liquidity and Efficiency

We have deep and unique capabilities, including specializations in the sales and trading of a broad range of fixed-income securities. We are veteran product experts in the secondary market trading of:

�Distressed Corporate Debt

�'Stressed' and High Yield Corporate Debt and Debt-like Instruments

�Investment-grade Corporate Debt

�Agency and whole-loan MBS

We offer our clients outstanding sources of liquidity, both on a crossed- and Street-sourced basis, in-depth market analysis and expert execution.

Our broad network of investor relationships allows us to find liquidity and efficient price execution, even in markets that other dealers view as illiquid or inefficiently priced.


Investment Banking

Capitalizing Growth

Our investment banking group helps small-cap, emerging growth companies attain the capital needed to continue to grow and develop solutions to meet the ongoing needs of their client base. We focus our efforts on PIPE transactions, whereby our aim is to quietly and efficiently introduce institutional investor interest and capital with the investment opportunity.

Our PIPE transactions can include, in any combination:

� Convertible debt

� Preferred stock

� Common Stock

� Warrants

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Gar Wood Securities, LLC

Headquarters

440 S. LaSalle Street

Suite 2201

Chicago, Illinois 60605

Phone (312) 566-0741

Fax (312) 566-0750

Branch Locations

Atlanta, GA

Dallas, TX

Milwaukee, WI

Mobile, Al

New York, NY

Vancouver, WA

www.garwoodsecurities.net

Member FINRA | NFA | SIPC


gar wood securities overview jan 2011

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