Bear Stearns Asset Management Inc. (BSAM) is an asset management arm of The Bear Stearns Companies Inc. The firm also provides sophisticated risk measurement and management capabilities to its clients. It primarily provides its services to individuals, including high net worth individuals. The firm also caters to banking or thrift institutions, investment companies, pension and profit sharing plans, pooled investment vehicles, charitable organizations, corporations, institutions, state and municipal government entities, colleges, and foundations. It manages separate client-focused equity and fixed income portfolios for its clients. The firm also manages mutual funds, hedge funds, and funds of hedge funds for its clients. It invests in the public equity markets and fixed income markets across the globe. The firm also invests in ADRs, GDRs, and ETFs to make investments. For its equity investments, it typically invests in value and growth stocks of small-cap, small/mid-cap, mid-cap, and large-cap companies. For its equity investments, the firm employs a combination of a quantitative and a fundamental analysis with a top-down and a bottom-up stock picking approach. It benchmarks the performance of its equity investments against the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, MSCI EAFE Index, the various Russell indices, and the S&P 500 index. For its fixed income investments, the firm invests in CDOs; U.S. investment grade securities; high quality securities denominated in U.S. Dollars, including both fixed and floating-rate securities; below investment grade securities; commercial paper; U.S. agency notes; corporate bonds; asset-backed securities; mortgage-backed securities; commercial mortgage-backed securities; U.S. treasury bills; securitized debt; and non-dollar securities. For its fixed income investments, it employs an intensive fundament driven credit analysis and quantitative analysis with a bottom-up stock picking approach. The firm benchmarks the performance of its fixed income investments against the USD 3-month LIBOR rate, Lehman Brothers Aggregate Bond Index, Citigroup 6-Month T-Bill, Merrill Lynch 1-3 Year Treasury, and Merrill Lynch Municipal indices. It employs an absolute return strategy and a managed leverage strategy as hedging techniques while making hedged investments. The firm has a disciplined, an opportunistic, and a diversified approach to investing. It employs a combination of an external research and in-house research while making investments. Bear Stearns Asset Management was founded in 1984 and is based in New York, New York with additional offices in San Francisco, California; Chicago, Illinois; Whippany, New Jersey.