Michael Farrell
Verified Expert in Management Consulting
Management Consulting Expert
New York, NY, United States
Toptal member since February 1, 2019
A CFA charter holder, Michael is a fixed income trader and portfolio manager who oversaw a $10+ billion portfolio. With a strong background in financial modeling and analysis, he has helped build the loan book of an education lending startup ($10 million in capital). He has worked with large firms with more than $100 billion in assets and early-stage firms and joined Toptal to help clients of all sizes steer through challenges in business growth.
Career Highlights
Education Highlights
Certification Highlights
Industry Expertise
- Finance
- Investment Banking
- Real Estate
- Financial Modeling
Software Expertise
- Bloomberg
- Microsoft Excel
Other Expertise
- Corporate Finance
- Financial Modeling
- Investment Portfolio Management
- Three-statement Modeling
- Valuation
Work Experience
Vice President
FARR Education LLC
- Built dynamic financial model to track IRRs, interest payments and expenses for portfolio investments.
- Prepared due diligence on potential new deals and review due diligence on existing deals annually. Potential investments included first mortgages, subordinated debt, and lines of credit.
- Provided financial consulting services to existing clients to help prepare them for future growth. Services include FP&A and internal process reviews.
- Assisted in new client acquisition and harvest potential new deals.
- Prepared financial statements for internal use.
Vice President
Annaly Capital Management
- Traded short duration Agency mortgage-based securities (MBS) portfolio - primarily 15-year MBS, 20-year MBS and adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) MBS. Size of portfolio ranged from $15-30 billion.
- Modeled different forward earnings scenarios given changes in portfolio and market conditions. Projections fed directly into portfolio decision making progress.
- Oversaw and managed the acquisition of a similar company that primarily invested in Agency ARM MBS. Required individual pricing of over $11 billion in market value and thousands of securities.
- Back-tested prepayment model versus previous interest rate market moves and tuned to better mirror realistic scenarios.
- Prepared documentation for quarterly financial reporting.
Associate
Annaly Capital Management
- Traded interest rate swaps, swaptions, and US Treasury futures for hedging an Agency MBS portfolio. Helped prepare the hedge portfolio through the transition to an exchange-traded product from an OTC product.
- Oversaw portfolio management for a short duration Agency MBS fund. Portfolio consisted of Agency collateralized mortgage obligation (CMO) Floaters, Agency ARM MBS, and Agency Fixed MBS.
- Tuned and monitored the prepayment model used for the Agency MBS portfolio. Required daily checks for reasonableness given market changes and portfolio holding changes.
- Monitored and reported on projected income and trading performance resulting from Agency MBS Dollar Roll trades using internal data and marketplace performance data.
- Prepared documentation for quarterly financial reporting.
Analyst
Annaly Capital Management
- Assisted in daily security selection for an Agency MBS portfolio by canvassing available inventories for new purchases. Built relationships across trading desks at all major investment banks.
- Identified and sold under-performing bonds held in current portfolio using relative value analysis. Bonds were normally sold in competition - a process that requires exactness and timely execution.
- Automated portfolio management tools by incorporating straight through processing across all internal software systems. Trade entry time was reduced drastically.
- Prepared materials for quarterly financial reporting.
- Assisted in trade entry and confirmation for senior traders.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Finance
Wake Forest University - Winston-Salem, NC
Certifications
Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
CFA Institute
Skills
Finance
Three-statement Modeling, Financial Modeling, Corporate Finance, Investment Portfolio Management, Valuation, Fixed Income Analysis, Value Investing, Fixed-income Derivatives, Interest Rate Risk, Interest Rate Swaps, Interest Rate Trading, Portfolio Analysis, Mortgage REITs, Internal Financial Reporting, Asset Valuation, Risk, Risk Models, Risk Analysis, Asset-backed Securities (ABS), Financial System Implementation, Financial Systems, RiskMetrics, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Finance Strategy, Investment Return Scenario Analysis, Valuation Modeling, Valuation Multiples, DCF Valuation, Transaction Modeling, Project Finance, Equity Financing, Subordinated Debt, Debt Restructuring, Debt Workouts, Debt Raises, Due Diligence, Financial Reporting, Asset-based Lending, Fixed Asset Lending, Asset-based Finance, Value Creation, Credit Risk, Credit Investing, Credit Analysis
Output Software
Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint
Data & Analysis Software
Bloomberg
Industry Expertise
Financial Services, Real Estate
Geographic Expertise
United States
Other
Investment Manager, Investment Consulting, Microsoft 365, Portfolio Management, Mortgage-backed Securities, Performance Management, Asset Acquisition, Asset Liability Management (ALM), Investments, Finance
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