Stephen A. Schwarzman

A $3B AUM New York-based financial institution came to Barker with a challenge: How do you grow an art-backed lending portfolio while reducing capital requirements and managing risk more effectively? Non-recourse lending against high-value art assets demands precision. In today’s environment, capital efficiency isn’t optional, rather, it's a competitive advantage. Here’s how we partnered with them: - Instant, Accurate Mark-to-Market Valuations: Our patent-pending technology prices thousands of assets in seconds, delivering real-time clarity across their art loan book - Risk Transfer with AAA-Rated Insurance: By backing our valuations with warranties and insurance, the institution was able to transfer risk and materially reduce required capital - Board-Level Mandate: The solution was approved and mandated for use by the board—a testament to the strength of the framework The results: Lower capital requirements, increased profitability, and scalable integration across every loan. This impact was immediate and ongoing; the $100M in annual capacity requested in 2024 spiked to $500M in annual capacity requested in 2025. “Working with Barker has been easy and transformative for our business… [Barker] significantly increased our profitability.” Luxury asset-backed lending is evolving. Institutions that combine precise valuation with institutional-grade risk transfer are positioned to lead. #TheBarkerPrice #LuxuryFinance #AssetBackedLending #ArtFinance #RiskManagement

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In this Masterclass Highlight, Guggenheim Investments Portfolio Manager Adam Bloch joins us for a Fixed-Income Masterclass, discussing the current macro environment 👉 https://lnkd.in/eqAKupqi Finding relative value and why today’s market may represent a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for #FixedIncome investors.

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Bridgewater Associates is having a standout year, with its flagship Pure Alpha II macro fund up 26.4% through September—its best performance since 2010. The surge comes amid tariff-driven market volatility, which has favored macro strategies across the hedge fund space. Under CEO Nir Bar Dea, Bridgewater has undergone a major transformation, including personnel changes and a strategic reboot. Billionaire founder Ray Dalio has fully exited the firm, while veteran trader Ben Melkman has joined as deputy CIO, bringing a more dynamic investment style to complement Bridgewater’s algorithmic approach. As global markets remain turbulent, Bridgewater’s resurgence signals a renewed edge in navigating macroeconomic uncertainty. Source: Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance #BridgewaterAssociates #HedgeFunds #MacroStrategy #RayDalio #NirBarDea #BenMelkman #InvestmentLeadership #MarketVolatility #PureAlpha #BloombergNews #YahooFinance #AssetManagement

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CAIS Live | South brought together 100+ advisors, industry-leading asset managers, bank issuers, and fintech innovators for two full days of education, insights, and connection. From macro trends and platform walkthroughs to in-depth manager roundtables, CAIS Live gives advisors the tools to navigate today’s evolving alternatives landscape. Go behind the scenes with Alex Cavalieri, CAIS Chief Marketing Officer, to see how CAIS is empowering the independent wealth community. #CAISLive #wealthmanagement #financialadvisors Ares Management Corporation BlackRock FlowStone Partners Forum Investment Group Invesco US J.P. Morgan KKR Monroe Capital LLC Neuberger Berman Nuveen, a TIAA company Origin Investments

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Barron's newsletter editor Josh Schafer explains how a viral Substack post driving stocks lower shows how investors are feeling increasingly uneasy about AI disruption.

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In #familyoffice investing, #performance alone is no longer the differentiator. Tom Ruggie, ChFC®, CFP®delivered the keynote at the Family Wealth Report Family Office Investment Forum on April 9 at BNY. A key takeaway from this presentation: #portfolioconstruction is shifting toward strategy-first thinking, with #resilience, #diversification, and long-term alignment taking priority over short-term returns. #Familyoffices are holding steady on allocations, focusing on structure, governance, and risk management rather than chasing performance cycles. The implication for advisors? It’s less about picking winners… and more about designing portfolios that can endure uncertainty and deliver across generations. Strategy isn’t replacing performance - it’s redefining how success is measured. https://lnkd.in/erfbJF6F #wealthmanagement #investmentstrategy Stephen Harris Philip Harris Tom Burroughes Amanda Cheesley Charles Paikert Theodora Viney Girish Massand, CFA Sheryl Garelick Brian Hughes Neil Nisker

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The U.S. Treasury market is on the move—$30 trillion today, projected to hit $52 trillion in the next decade. What does that mean for liquidity, regulation and your investment strategy? BNY Investments' latest Treasury Road Trip breaks down the key trends shaping the world’s largest government bond market. Read more 👉 https://lnkd.in/eYSEXXYB #TreasuryMarkets #Liquidity

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OHA and T. Rowe Price are proud to announce the launch of OFLEX, a multi-strategy credit interval fund designed to invest across public and private credit markets. The launch underscores the firms’ ongoing collaboration as they continue to expand their alternative investment capabilities. Learn more about OFLEX: www.oflexfund.com

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"There's absolutely opportunities in private assets, but selectivity is critical," says Samantha Davidson, President and Head of Global Investing at Cambridge Associates. Speaking with Bloomberg at the Milken Global Investing Conference, Samantha shared her perspective on the private asset landscape and how investors are staying present while preparing portfolios for a range of potential outcomes. Watch Samantha's full conversation with Romaine Bostick on Bloomberg Market's The Close: https://ow.ly/YmjR50Z2V69 #PrivateMarkets #MarketOutlook

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💸 Financing Adaptation in the U.S.: A Market Still in Transition At #NYClimateWeek2025, panels hosted by the Fixed Income Analyst Society, Inc. spotlighted the financing gap for U.S. adaptation. While 90% of state and local infrastructure is financed with municipal debt [https://lnkd.in/gnMQFaf9], only a few hands rose when keynote speaker Evan Kodra asked who actually works in municipal bonds — a telling sign of how opaque adaptation finance remains. Here's what we learned: 🔹Resilience by Default: Climate Adaptation Strategist Joyce E. Coffee, LEED AP compared resilience to seat belts: no project should move forward without it. Investors must also evolve from being “resilience curious” to “resilience committed” for adaptation to scale. 🔹  Resilience as a Credit Signal: Moody’s senior credit officer Jennifer C. noted that adaptation projects are often the first cut in tight budgets, though they are vital to long-term credit stability. Corpus Christi’s potential downgrade after canceling a desalination plant shows how rating agencies now link climate risk management to financial health. [https://lnkd.in/gGSC4HfV] 🔹  Resilience as a Financial Frontier: Municipalities have been testing financing mechanisms  like City of Norfolk, VA ’s “Resilience Penny” [https://lnkd.in/grsmsWWy] and North Carolina's North Carolina Joint Underwriting Association and North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association's catastrophe bond [https://lnkd.in/gPepJzsa], strategies highlighted amidst federal funding uncertainty. State revolving loan funds, bond banks, CDFIs, and project developers like PRE Collective are innovating. Through our collaboration with Milken Institute’s Community Infrastructure Center (CIC), we are watching how these financing mechanisms can come together to get projects off the ground. At Airys, we see the adaptation finance gap as both a funding and mindset challenge. That’s why we are building a nationwide dataset of municipal resilience efforts — surfacing the ambitions cities are designing for climate preparedness, and possible investment strategies and business opportunities that follow. p.s. we will be posting a few more reflections from NY climate week soon, so stay posted! #NYClimateWeek #ClimateAdaptation #ClimateResilience #AdaptationFinance #MunicipalFinance #InfrastructureResilience

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Share buybacks are one of the most persistent and underexploited flow signals in equity markets. Yet most research teams are still tracking them manually, stitching together 8-K filings, press releases, and quarterly repurchase tables by hand. That process is slow, inconsistent, and hard to scale. We built a better way. With the Bigdata.com MCP connector for Claude and the Financial Research Analyst Skill, your analysts can generate a structured buyback intelligence report from a single prompt: "I want a report on buyback announcements and events at US companies over the last two months. I want to get dates, the amount specified in the filing, and the reason given by the company." The attached PDF is the output - structured, sourced, and ready for a PM meeting. This is what becomes possible when you connect Claude to the Bigdata MCP. SEC filings, press releases, and earnings transcripts - unified into a research-grade workflow in minutes.

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ETP Forum - Fall 2025  📍New York Athletic Club, Nov. 18th.  ⌚3:35PM - 4:25PM Trading ETFs: Liquidity, Execution, and Market Efficiency Moderator: Elizabeth Marchetti, CFA, Senior Director, ETF Product & Capital Markets | SEI Panelists:  Naomi DePina, Managing Director of ETF Sales & Trading | GTS Rafael Zayas, SVP, Head of Portfolio Management and Trading | Vident Asset Management Aaron Kehoe, Head of QwickRoute, MCAP Platform Solutions | QwickRoute As ETFs continue to proliferate across asset classes, efficient trading has never been more critical. This panel explores how market makers, liquidity providers, and trading desks ensure smooth execution in a variety of market conditions. Panelists will unpack the latest developments in block trading, the role of authorized participants, innovations in execution technology, and how evolving regulation is shaping ETF liquidity. Whether you’re an issuer or investor, understanding the trading ecosystem is essential to maximizing ETF performance. #ETPForum #ETFs #TradingETFs #MarketEfficiency

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Changing risks call for flexible fixed income. Neuberger Berman's Strategic Income Fund (NSTLX) invests across sectors and aims for consistent income and attractive total returns with an investment grade risk profile. Learn how NSTLX puts the multi in multisector: http://spklr.io/6040BXCQA

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Public bond markets have enormous potential to mobilise capital at scale for social outcomes. To help demonstrate what that looks like in practice, our Impact Services team have partnered with Columbia Threadneedle Investments' CT Global Social Bond Fund to develop its latest Impact Report. Since its launch in 2023, the Fund has invested £75 million across 178 bonds from 141 issuers. Our Impact Report shows how Columbia Threadneedle Investments is mobilising capital through public bond markets to finance solutions to major social challenges, from affordable housing and healthcare to economic regeneration and access to essential services. Bonds offer significant advantages for impact investing. They operate at scale, give access to a wide range of issuers including governments, development banks and corporates, and can be structured to finance clearly defined social outcomes. Through a proprietary social assessment methodology and active engagement with issuers, Columbia Threadneedle Investments shows how public bond markets can deliver meaningful and measurable social outcomes. Read the full report. https://hubs.ly/Q047vnjt0

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Low volatility and quality are often mistaken as the same defensive strategy-but they solve very different problems. Nirmay Choksi, Director & Head of Investment at NJ Mutual Fund, explains why combining both builds a more resilient portfolio. 👉 vro.in/s227254

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What we’re seeing in the market: private credit fundraising talent remains highly concentrated, but with increasingly defined regional patterns. New York continues to be the primary hub, particularly for multi-strategy credit platforms, institutional fundraising roles, and secondaries coverage. At the same time, additional US markets are playing more targeted roles: ·      Chicago for insurance-adjacent capital, structured credit, and select wealth channel strategies ·      Los Angeles for credit and private wealth crossover coverage ·      San Francisco Bay Area for niche credit platforms ·      Miami and Palm Beach for wealth-facing and relationship-driven fundraising mandates In Europe, London remains the non-US center for global fundraising, especially for secondaries and cross-border private credit. Overall, the private credit and secondaries infrastructure remains highly concentrated in New York and London, with regional hubs emerging where distribution strategy and allocator access align. #PrivateCredit #CapitalFormation #FundraisingTalent #PrivateMarkets #PrivateWealth #AssetManagement #HiringTrends #MarketOutlook

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RESEARCH: Growing institutional appetite and conviction are expected to drive steady capital flows into infrastructure for several years, positioning the asset class as a core portfolio allocation. That is the assessment of the 2025 Institutional Infrastructure Allocations Monitor presented by Hodes Weill & Associates in partnership with Cornell Program in Infrastructure Policy (CPIP). https://lnkd.in/gX39mZZ3

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