New York Mortgage Trust, a self-advised real estate investment trust (REIT), invests in real estate assets including high-quality adjustable rate residential mortgages and mortgage-backed securities. It primarily buys agency-rated securities, which carry less risk, but the REIT is also building up its non-agency assets (which bring higher returns). New York Mortgage Trust was previously engaged in loan origination but exited that business in 2007 due to the volatile mortgage markets. It sold its retail loan operations to IndyMac Bancorp (which shortly thereafter was shut down in one of the largest bank failures in US history) and its wholesale operations to an affiliate of Franklin Credit Management.