Sigma Research

Staff Biographies

David L. Shirmeyer's background includes 20 years of corporate mortgage banking. Beginning his career as a mortgage loan originator, he quickly advanced to senior management responsible for an 18-branch retail mortgage banking firm. In 1975 he became chief operating officer of Churchill Mortgage Corporation in Atlanta and was instrumental in reversing previous annual losses and restructuring the company's operations. In 1979 he joined the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) to assist in creating a mortgage banking conduit to allow small credit unions access to mortgage funds. In 1982, he joined Conti Commodities, the firm that developed financial futures markets at the Chicago Board of Trade. In 1984, Shirmeyer joined Thompson-McKinnon Securities and developed risk-management techniques to successfully hedge interest rate risk exposure for financial institutions and for mortgage lenders' origination pipelines. Over the last twenty years his model has consistently forecasted every major market turning point and eliminated the risk of adverse price movement while capitalizing on market rallies. In 1989, Shirmeyer started his own interest rate consulting firm, Sigma Research, Inc. Sigma publishes a weekly market letter, THE SHIRMEYER REPORT, the e-DAILY RATE MARKET REPORT, directly manages interest rate pipeline exposure for large mortgage originators and writes private-label commentaries for mortgage wholesalers to use in marketing. Shirmeyer has been a featured columnist for the National Mortgage Broker magazine and has been an invited speaker for the Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Association of Mortgage Brokers and the Chicago Board of Trade, in addition to lecturing at advanced educational programs at Indiana University and Ohio State University.

Bruce M. Giacoma, CEO and founder of GM Capital Management, brings 28 years of experience in the mortgage banking industry to his expertise. Bruce orchestrates the advisory services in merger & acquisition, structure finance and organization, pipeline management through secondary marketing and leading mortgage bankers to correspondent lenders. Bruce began his career in 1969 working for IBM in sales as a top producer and management leader which laid the foundation for his move to the mortgage business when he joined McKeige & Co., a boutique mortgage backed securities company, in 1976. Here, his sales and management acumen gained at IBM were applied to the early stages of the mortgage-backed securities business only to achieve top sales for 10 years. Bruce continued his successful career in growing mortgage-backed securities departments on Wall Street over the next 8 years and at the same time founded, grew and successfully sold 2 mortgage banking companies: Keystone Mortgage (1984-1990) in Indianapolis, Indiana and Residential Mortgage Banking (1986-1997) in Hauppauge, New York. Bruce has worked with Sigma Research for over 15 years as a contributing editor and writer of The Shirmeyer Report.

Ann Magelinski began her career in business as an equity trader of NASDAQ stocks in 1982 after graduating from S.U.N.Y. at New Paltz with a degree in Economics and International Relations. Ann spent 20 years on Wall Street as a market maker and manager of international trading before entering the fixed income markets. Always intrigued with real estate and real estate finance, Ann co-founded GM Capital Management, LLC in 2001 to meet the needs of the Mortgage Banking Industry. In 2005, Ann received her Accredited Mortgage Professional designation from the Mortgage Bankers Association and is currently working on becoming a Certified Mortgage Banker. Ann has worked with Sigma Research since 2005 as a contributing editor and writer and publisher of The Shirmeyer Report, a weekly market letter analyzing U.S. interest rates and the mortgage market.

Jane Pontius, Vice President and co-founder of Sigma Research, brings a wealth of talent in accounting, computer technology and business management to the firm. She began her working career in sales and then management of health clubs, followed by becoming business manager for one of the country's largest architectural specifications firm. Her expansive knowledge of software and desktop publishing, coupled with her organizational skills make her an invaluable part of our team.