Market Outlook 2025–2026: Perspectives on the Road Ahead
[Agile Trader Talk Webinar]Register for this upcoming webinar on December 3rd at 11am PT.
As we close out 2025, financial markets are being shaped by evolving monetary policy, liquidity, technological changes, and heightened geopolitical dynamics. In this webinar hosted by Greg Vacura, President of Agile, panelists will share their insights on current market conditions, deal flow, regulatory developments, and the emerging trends expected to influence market structure, trading, and opportunities in 2026.
Mr. Vacura is a thirty-year mortgage industry veteran who previously served as SVP of Correspondent Pricing at Wells Fargo Funding, where he managed all aspects of correspondent mortgage pricing including the mandatory trade desk, best efforts lock desk, and revenue analytics. Mr. Vacura has been a proven pioneer throughout his career, changing the mortgage industry through groundbreaking innovations like the PerformanceWorks seller grading program, bid tape AOT loan sale deliveries, and a patented AI machine-learning loan-level bid automation system. He’s now been tasked with applying that deep industry expertise toward achieving Agile’s mission of creating a better MBS market. Mr. Vacura prides himself on prioritizing and developing his teams, fostering trust, loyalty, and collaboration. He holds a degree in Business Management from Hamline University and enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife and three children around their Minnesota home.
Chris Maloney is the mortgage strategist for BOK Financial Capital Markets and has over a quarter century of experience in the industry, beginning his career on the NASDAQ trade desk at Prudential Securities. Afterward he managed fixed income portfolios at both Lehman Brothers then Neuberger Berman.
He most recently was the mortgage strategist for over a decade on the First Word desk at Bloomberg News. He earned his MBA from NYU Stern and is currently working on his second book concerning the creation of the Federal Reserve System.
Mr. McHugh manages the firms Agency MBS, TBA, and Gestation Repo trading desks. In addition, Thomas heads the TBA & repo sales initiative for Cohen & Company. Thomas’s responsibilities include: trading and structuring all liabilities; oversight of the trade margining and exposure to counterparties; coordination of trade settlements; cash management; and maintaining the trading and credit relationships with the broker dealer and securities lending community. Mr. McHugh is also instrumental in the negotiations of the credit terms within all trading agreements.
Specialties: TBA & MBS/ABS/CMBS/Corporate Repo trading and managing a matched repo book, structuring long term repo, trade settlement, Cash Management, Counterparty Credit process, design of trade, margin and liability platforms and Negotiation of trade agreements (ISDA, MRA, Sec Lending, MSFTA, Prime Brokerage, Futures, Custodian).
Mr. Branthover has been a mainstay in the mortgage capital markets since the late 1980’s. He ran capital markets at JPMorgan Chase before conducting fixed income sales at Lehman Bros. He then spent almost 14 years as a managing director of MIAC and is currently the managing director of MBS sales at Huntington Securities, Inc. Mr. Branthover graduated from the University of Maryland with a BS in Finance.
