“Rob, my capital markets gal eliminated our ability to lock overnight at yesterday’s rates. I think that she’s being unreasonable. Your thoughts?” No, she’s not. Overnight lock protection is one of the first things to go in a volatile rate environment, especially when developments in Ukraine, seven hours ahead of New York, contribute to our rate movement. Besides, who needs to lock loans at 3AM? It is tough enough to preserve pricing margins as it is. As packages of mortgage servicing rights continue to be sold by companies looking to raise cash, do you think it’s hard to make money doing mortgages these days? Try music. I was recently chatting with a musician in Nashville who told me that they earn .003 per stream on YouTube. There are varying deal structures, of course, but for someone just starting out this equates to $30 for 10,000 streams. Yikes. I hope that Bruce Willis, and his family, made some money as they’ve been selling off $65 million of very nice real estate as the actor’s health declines. (Today’s audio version of the commentary is available here and this week’s is sponsored by Optimal Blue, a division of Black Knight. Optimal Blue delivers technology and analytics solutions that help mortgage lenders and investors more accurately price, lock, hedge, and trade loans to increase profitability, mitigate risk and grow their business. Today’s features an interview with Mark Tereris and John Dumonsau on how leveraging product pricing and eligibility technology will deliver the most targeted, and attractive, loan product, faster than ever before.)