Summary of Significant Accounting Policies	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2014
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Summary of Significant Accounting Policies	2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies Basis of Presentation and Use of Estimates The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Rule 10-01 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by GAAP for complete financial statements. In the opinion of management, all adjustments (consisting of normal recurring accruals) considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included. Operating results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the calendar year ending December 31, 2014. These unaudited consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited financial statements and notes thereto included in the Company’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013. The preparation of the consolidated financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates. Significant estimates affecting the accompanying consolidated financial statements include the valuation of MBS and derivative instruments. Certain prior period amounts have been reclassified to conform to the current period presentation. Principles of Consolidation The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and all of its subsidiaries. The Company also considers the provisions of Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standard Codification (“ASC”) Topic 810 on Consolidation in determining whether consolidation is appropriate for any interests held in variable interest entities. All significant intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated. Financial Instruments The Company considers its cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, MBS (settled and unsettled), forward purchase commitments, debt security held-to-maturity, receivable for securities sold, accrued interest receivable, principal payments receivable, payable for unsettled securities, derivative instruments, repurchase agreements, dollar roll liability and accrued interest payable to meet the definition of financial instruments. The carrying amount of cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, receivable for securities sold, accrued interest receivable, dollar roll liability and payable for unsettled securities approximate their fair value due to the short maturities of these instruments and are valued using Level 1 inputs. The carrying amount of repurchase agreements is deemed to approximate fair value given their short-term duration and would be valued using Level 2 inputs. See Notes 4 and 7 for discussion of the fair value of MBS and forward purchase commitments, respectively. See Note 5 for discussion of the fair value of the held-to-maturity debt security. See Note 7 for discussion of the fair value of derivative instruments. The Company limits its exposure to credit losses on its portfolio of securities by purchasing predominantly agency securities. The portfolio is diversified to avoid undue exposure to loan originator, geographic and other types of concentration. The Company manages the risk of prepayments of the underlying mortgages by creating a diversified portfolio with a variety of expected prepayment characteristics. See Note 4 for additional information on MBS. The Company is engaged in various trading and brokerage activities including repurchase agreements, dollar roll transactions, interest rate swap agreements, interest rate swaptions and futures contracts in which counterparties primarily include broker-dealers, banks, and other financial institutions. In the event counterparties do not fulfill their obligations, the Company may be exposed to risk of loss. The risk of default depends on the creditworthiness of the counterparty and/or issuer of the instrument. It is the Company’s policy to review, as necessary, the credit standing for each counterparty and retain collateral when appropriate. See Note 6 for additional information on repurchase agreements and Note 7 for additional information on dollar roll transactions, interest rate swap agreements, interest rate swaptions and futures contracts. Mortgage-Backed Securities The Company invests predominantly in agency securities representing interests in or obligations backed by pools of single-family residential mortgage loans. Guidance under the FASB ASC Topic 320 on Investments requires the Company to classify its investments as either trading, available-for-sale or held-to-maturity securities. Management determines the appropriate classifications of the securities at the time they are acquired and evaluates the appropriateness of such classifications at each balance sheet date. The Company currently classifies all of its MBS as available-for-sale. All assets that are classified as available-for-sale are carried at fair value and unrealized gains and losses are included in other comprehensive income (loss). The estimated fair values of MBS are determined by management by obtaining valuations for its MBS from independent sources and averaging these valuations. Security purchase and sale transactions are recorded on the trade date. Gains or losses realized from the sale of securities are included in income and are determined using the specific identification method. Forward purchase commitments to acquire “when issued” or to-be-announced (“TBA”) securities are recorded at fair value in accordance with ASC Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging (“ASC 815”). The fair value of these forward purchase commitments is included in derivative assets or derivative liabilities in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets. If the Company intends to take physical delivery of the securities, as is the case for forward purchase commitments to acquire TBA securities from mortgage originators, the commitment is designated as an all-in-one cash flow hedge and its unrealized gains and losses are recorded in other comprehensive income. If the Company does not intend to take physical delivery of the securities, as is the case with most TBA dollar roll transactions, the commitment is not designated as an accounting hedge and unrealized gains and losses are recorded in “Gain (loss) on derivative instruments, net.” See Note 7 for additional information on forward purchase commitments. The Company assesses its investment securities for other-than-temporary impairment on at least a quarterly basis. When the fair value of an investment is less than its amortized cost at the balance sheet date the impairment is designated as either “temporary” or “other-than-temporary.” In deciding on whether or not a security is other-than-temporarily impaired, the Company uses a two-step evaluation process. First, the Company determines whether it has made any decision to sell a security that is in an unrealized loss position, or, if not, the Company determines whether it is more likely than not that the Company will be required to sell the security prior to recovering its amortized cost basis. If the answer to either of these questions is “yes” then the security is considered other-than-temporarily impaired. See Note 4 for discussion of an other-than temporary impairment recognized as of September 30, 2013. Derivative Instruments The Company manages economic risks, including interest rate, liquidity and credit risks, primarily by managing the amount, sources, cost, and duration of its debt funding. The objectives of the Company’s risk management strategy are 1) to attempt to mitigate the risk of the cost of its variable rate liabilities increasing during a period of rising interest rates, and 2) to reduce fluctuations in net book value over a range of interest rate scenarios. The principal instruments that the Company uses to achieve these objectives are interest rate swaps and Eurodollar Futures Contracts (“Futures Contracts”). The Company uses Futures Contracts to approximate the economic hedging results achieved with interest rate swaps. The Company does not enter into any of these transactions for speculative purposes. The Company accounts for derivative instruments in accordance with ASC 815, which requires an entity to recognize all derivatives as either assets or liabilities and to measure those instruments at fair value. The accounting for changes in the fair value of derivative instruments depends on whether the instruments are designated and qualify as part of a hedging relationship pursuant to ASC 815. Changes in fair value related to derivatives not in hedge designated relationships are recorded in “Gain (loss) on derivative instruments, net” in the Company’s consolidated statements of income, whereas changes in fair value related to derivatives in hedge designated relationships are initially recorded in other comprehensive income (loss) and later reclassified to income at the time that the hedged transactions affect earnings. Any portion of the changes in fair value due to hedge ineffectiveness is immediately recognized in the income statement. Derivative instruments in a gain position are reported as derivative assets and derivative instruments in a loss position are reported as derivative liabilities in the Company’s consolidated balance sheets. In the Company’s consolidated statements of cash flows, cash receipts and payments related to derivative instruments are classified according to the underlying nature or purpose of the derivative transaction, generally in the operating section if the derivatives are designated as accounting hedges and in the investing section otherwise. The use of derivatives creates exposure to credit risk relating to potential losses that could be recognized in the event that the counterparties to the instruments in an asset position fail to perform their obligations under the contracts. The Company attempts to minimize this risk by limiting its counterparties to major financial institutions with acceptable credit ratings, monitoring positions with individual counterparties and adjusting posted collateral as required. All of the Company’s interest rate swaps have historically been accounted for as cash flow hedges under ASC 815. However, on September 30, 2013, the Company discontinued hedge accounting for its interest rate swap agreements by de-designating the interest rate swaps as cash flow hedges. No interest rate swaps were terminated in conjunction with this action, and the Company’s risk management and hedging practices were not impacted. As a result of discontinuing hedge accounting, beginning October 1, 2013 changes in the fair value of the Company’s interest rate swap agreements are recorded in “Gain (loss) on derivative instruments, net” in the Company’s consolidated statements of income, rather than in other comprehensive income (loss). Also, net interest paid or received under the interest rate swaps, which up through September 30, 2013 was recognized in “interest expense,” is instead recognized in “Gain (loss) on derivative instruments, net.” These interest rate swaps continue to be reported as assets or liabilities on the Company’s consolidated balance sheets at their fair value. As long as the forecasted transactions that were being hedged (i.e. rollovers of the Company’s repurchase agreement borrowings) are still expected to occur, the balance in accumulated other comprehensive income (AOCI) from interest rate swap activity up through September 30, 2013 will remain in AOCI and be recognized in the Company’s consolidated statements of income as “interest expense” over the remaining term of the interest rate swaps. See Note 7 for further information. The Company may also enter into forward purchase commitments as a means of investing in and financing agency securities via TBA dollar roll transactions. TBA dollar roll transactions involve moving the settlement of a TBA contract out to a later date by entering into an offsetting short position (referred to as a “pair off”), net settling the paired off positions for cash, and simultaneously purchasing a similar TBA contract for a later settlement date. The agency securities purchased at the later settlement date are typically priced at a discount to securities for settlement in the current month. This difference is referred to as the “price drop.” The price drop represents compensation to the Company for foregoing net interest margin (interest income less repurchase agreement financing cost) and is referred to as “dollar roll income,” which the Company classifies in “Gain (loss) on derivative instruments, net.” Realized and unrealized gains and losses related to TBA dollar roll transactions are also recognized in “Gain (loss) on derivative instruments, net.” TBA dollar roll transactions represent off-balance sheet financing. Repurchase Agreements The Company finances the acquisition of its MBS through the use of repurchase agreements. Under these repurchase agreements, the Company sells securities to a lender and agrees to repurchase the same securities in the future for a price that is higher than the original sales price. The difference between the sale price that the Company receives and the repurchase price that the Company pays represents interest paid to the lender. Although structured as a sale and repurchase obligation, a repurchase agreement operates as a financing under which the Company pledges its securities as collateral to secure a loan which is equal in value to a specified percentage of the estimated fair value of the pledged collateral. The Company records repurchase agreements on the consolidated balance sheets at the amount of cash received (or contract value), with accrued interest recorded separately. The Company retains beneficial ownership of the pledged collateral. At the maturity of a repurchase agreement, the Company is required to repay the loan and concurrently receives back its pledged collateral from the lender or, with the consent of the lender, the Company may renew such agreement at the then prevailing financing rate. These repurchase agreements may require the Company to pledge additional assets to the lender in the event the estimated fair value of the existing pledged collateral declines. Dollar Roll Liability In addition to the TBA dollar roll transactions described above, the Company may from time to time execute dollar roll transactions on specified pools (“CUSIP dollar rolls”). These transactions represent on-balance sheet financing, presented as “Dollar roll liability” in the Company’s consolidated balance sheets. During the period of a CUSIP dollar roll, the financed security remains on the Company’s balance sheet, and the components of the net interest margin earned from the price drop are classified in “interest income on mortgage-backed securities” and “interest expense,” respectively. Offsetting of Assets and Liabilities The Company’s derivative agreements and repurchase agreements generally contain provisions that allow for netting or the offsetting of receivables and payables with each counterparty. The Company reports amounts in its consolidated balance sheets on a gross basis without regard for such rights of offset or master netting arrangements. Interest Income Interest income is earned and recognized based on the outstanding principal amount of the investment securities and their contractual terms. Premiums and discounts associated with the purchase of the investment securities are amortized or accreted into interest income over the actual lives of the securities using the effective interest method. Income Taxes The Company has elected to be taxed as a REIT under the Code. The Company will generally not be subject to federal income tax to the extent that it distributes 100% of its taxable income, after application of available tax attributes, within the time limits prescribed by the Code and as long as it satisfies the ongoing REIT requirements including meeting certain asset, income and stock ownership tests. The Company has made an election to treat certain of its subsidiaries as TRSs. These TRSs are taxable as domestic C corporations and are subject to federal, state and local income taxes based upon their taxable income. Share-Based Compensation Share-based compensation is accounted for under the guidance included in the ASC Topic on Stock Compensation. For share and share-based awards issued to employees, a compensation charge is recorded in earnings based on the fair value of the award. For transactions with non-employees in which services are performed in exchange for the Company’s common stock or other equity instruments, the transactions are recorded on the basis of the fair value of the service received or the fair value of the equity instruments issued, whichever is more readily measurable at the date of issuance. The Company’s share-based compensation transactions resulted in compensation expense of $890 and $637 for the three months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013, respectively. Share-based compensation expense was $2,592 and $1,893 for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013, respectively. Earnings Per Common Share (EPS) Basic EPS is computed by dividing net income less preferred stock dividends to arrive at net income available to holders of common stock by the weighted average number of shares of common stock outstanding during the period. Diluted EPS is computed using the two class method, as described in the ASC Topic on Earnings Per Share, which takes into account certain adjustments related to participating securities. Participating securities are unvested share-based awards that contain rights to receive nonforfeitable dividends, such as those awarded under the Company’s equity incentive plan. Net income available to holders of common stock after deducting dividends on unvested participating securities if antidilutive, is divided by the weighted average shares of common stock and common equivalent shares outstanding during the period. For the diluted EPS calculation, common equivalent shares outstanding includes the weighted average number of shares of common stock outstanding adjusted for the effect of dilutive unexercised stock options, if any. Recent Accounting Pronouncements In June 2014, the FASB issued ASU 2014-11, Transfers and Servicing: Repurchase-to-Maturity Transaction, Repurchase Financings, and Disclosures (the “ASU”). This guidance requires repurchase-to-maturity transactions to be accounted for as secured borrowings as if the transferor retains effective control, even though the transferred financial assets are not returned to the transferor at settlement. The ASU also eliminates existing guidance for repurchase financings and requires instead that entities consider the initial transfer and the related repurchase agreement separately when applying the derecognition requirements of ASC 860, Transfers and Servicing. New disclosures will be required for (1) certain transactions accounted for as secured borrowings and (2) transfers accounted for as sales when the transferor also retains substantially all of the exposure to the economic return on the transferred financial assets throughout the term of the transaction. This guidance will take effect for periods beginning after December 15, 2014, and early adoption is prohibited. Certain disclosures under this guidance do not take effect until the first period beginning after March 15, 2015. This ASU is not expected to have any material impact on the Company’s financial statements.

2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Basis of Presentation and Use of Estimates

The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Rule 10-01 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by GAAP for complete financial statements. In the opinion of management, all adjustments (consisting of normal recurring accruals) considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included. Operating results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the calendar year ending December 31, 2014. These unaudited consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited financial statements and notes thereto included in the Company’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013.

The preparation of the consolidated financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates. Significant estimates affecting the accompanying consolidated financial statements include the valuation of MBS and derivative instruments.

Certain prior period amounts have been reclassified to conform to the current period presentation.

Principles of Consolidation

The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and all of its subsidiaries. The Company also considers the provisions of Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standard Codification (“ASC”) Topic 810 on Consolidation in determining whether consolidation is appropriate for any interests held in variable interest entities. All significant intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated.

Financial Instruments

The Company considers its cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, MBS (settled and unsettled), forward purchase commitments, debt security held-to-maturity, receivable for securities sold, accrued interest receivable, principal payments receivable, payable for unsettled securities, derivative instruments, repurchase agreements, dollar roll liability and accrued interest payable to meet the definition of financial instruments. The carrying amount of cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, receivable for securities sold, accrued interest receivable, dollar roll liability and payable for unsettled securities approximate their fair value due to the short maturities of these instruments and are valued using Level 1 inputs. The carrying amount of repurchase agreements is deemed to approximate fair value given their short-term duration and would be valued using Level 2 inputs. See Notes 4 and 7 for discussion of the fair value of MBS and forward purchase commitments, respectively. See Note 5 for discussion of the fair value of the held-to-maturity debt security. See Note 7 for discussion of the fair value of derivative instruments.

The Company limits its exposure to credit losses on its portfolio of securities by purchasing predominantly agency securities. The portfolio is diversified to avoid undue exposure to loan originator, geographic and other types of concentration. The Company manages the risk of prepayments of the underlying mortgages by creating a diversified portfolio with a variety of expected prepayment characteristics. See Note 4 for additional information on MBS.

The Company is engaged in various trading and brokerage activities including repurchase agreements, dollar roll transactions, interest rate swap agreements, interest rate swaptions and futures contracts in which counterparties primarily include broker-dealers, banks, and other financial institutions. In the event counterparties do not fulfill their obligations, the Company may be exposed to risk of loss. The risk of default depends on the creditworthiness of the counterparty and/or issuer of the instrument. It is the Company’s policy to review, as necessary, the credit standing for each counterparty and retain collateral when appropriate. See Note 6 for additional information on repurchase agreements and Note 7 for additional information on dollar roll transactions, interest rate swap agreements, interest rate swaptions and futures contracts.

Mortgage-Backed Securities

The Company invests predominantly in agency securities representing interests in or obligations backed by pools of single-family residential mortgage loans. Guidance under the FASB ASC Topic 320 on Investments requires the Company to classify its investments as either trading, available-for-sale or held-to-maturity securities. Management determines the appropriate classifications of the securities at the time they are acquired and evaluates the appropriateness of such classifications at each balance sheet date. The Company currently classifies all of its MBS as available-for-sale. All assets that are classified as available-for-sale are carried at fair value and unrealized gains and losses are included in other comprehensive income (loss). The estimated fair values of MBS are determined by management by obtaining valuations for its MBS from independent sources and averaging these valuations. Security purchase and sale transactions are recorded on the trade date. Gains or losses realized from the sale of securities are included in income and are determined using the specific identification method.

Forward purchase commitments to acquire “when issued” or to-be-announced (“TBA”) securities are recorded at fair value in accordance with ASC Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging (“ASC 815”). The fair value of these forward purchase commitments is included in derivative assets or derivative liabilities in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets. If the Company intends to take physical delivery of the securities, as is the case for forward purchase commitments to acquire TBA securities from mortgage originators, the commitment is designated as an all-in-one cash flow hedge and its unrealized gains and losses are recorded in other comprehensive income. If the Company does not intend to take physical delivery of the securities, as is the case with most TBA dollar roll transactions, the commitment is not designated as an accounting hedge and unrealized gains and losses are recorded in “Gain (loss) on derivative instruments, net.” See Note 7 for additional information on forward purchase commitments.

The Company assesses its investment securities for other-than-temporary impairment on at least a quarterly basis. When the fair value of an investment is less than its amortized cost at the balance sheet date the impairment is designated as either “temporary” or “other-than-temporary.” In deciding on whether or not a security is other-than-temporarily impaired, the Company uses a two-step evaluation process. First, the Company determines whether it has made any decision to sell a security that is in an unrealized loss position, or, if not, the Company determines whether it is more likely than not that the Company will be required to sell the security prior to recovering its amortized cost basis. If the answer to either of these questions is “yes” then the security is considered other-than-temporarily impaired. See Note 4 for discussion of an other-than temporary impairment recognized as of September 30, 2013.

Derivative Instruments

The Company manages economic risks, including interest rate, liquidity and credit risks, primarily by managing the amount, sources, cost, and duration of its debt funding. The objectives of the Company’s risk management strategy are 1) to attempt to mitigate the risk of the cost of its variable rate liabilities increasing during a period of rising interest rates, and 2) to reduce fluctuations in net book value over a range of interest rate scenarios. The principal instruments that the Company uses to achieve these objectives are interest rate swaps and Eurodollar Futures Contracts (“Futures Contracts”). The Company uses Futures Contracts to approximate the economic hedging results achieved with interest rate swaps. The Company does not enter into any of these transactions for speculative purposes.

The Company accounts for derivative instruments in accordance with ASC 815, which requires an entity to recognize all derivatives as either assets or liabilities and to measure those instruments at fair value. The accounting for changes in the fair value of derivative instruments depends on whether the instruments are designated and qualify as part of a hedging relationship pursuant to ASC 815. Changes in fair value related to derivatives not in hedge designated relationships are recorded in “Gain (loss) on derivative instruments, net” in the Company’s consolidated statements of income, whereas changes in fair value related to derivatives in hedge designated relationships are initially recorded in other comprehensive income (loss) and later reclassified to income at the time that the hedged transactions affect earnings. Any portion of the changes in fair value due to hedge ineffectiveness is immediately recognized in the income statement.

Derivative instruments in a gain position are reported as derivative assets and derivative instruments in a loss position are reported as derivative liabilities in the Company’s consolidated balance sheets. In the Company’s consolidated statements of cash flows, cash receipts and payments related to derivative instruments are classified according to the underlying nature or purpose of the derivative transaction, generally in the operating section if the derivatives are designated as accounting hedges and in the investing section otherwise. The use of derivatives creates exposure to credit risk relating to potential losses that could be recognized in the event that the counterparties to the instruments in an asset position fail to perform their obligations under the contracts. The Company attempts to minimize this risk by limiting its counterparties to major financial institutions with acceptable credit ratings, monitoring positions with individual counterparties and adjusting posted collateral as required.

All of the Company’s interest rate swaps have historically been accounted for as cash flow hedges under ASC 815. However, on September 30, 2013, the Company discontinued hedge accounting for its interest rate swap agreements by de-designating the interest rate swaps as cash flow hedges. No interest rate swaps were terminated in conjunction with this action, and the Company’s risk management and hedging practices were not impacted. As a result of discontinuing hedge accounting, beginning October 1, 2013 changes in the fair value of the Company’s interest rate swap agreements are recorded in “Gain (loss) on derivative instruments, net” in the Company’s consolidated statements of income, rather than in other comprehensive income (loss). Also, net interest paid or received under the interest rate swaps, which up through September 30, 2013 was recognized in “interest expense,” is instead recognized in “Gain (loss) on derivative instruments, net.” These interest rate swaps continue to be reported as assets or liabilities on the Company’s consolidated balance sheets at their fair value.

As long as the forecasted transactions that were being hedged (i.e. rollovers of the Company’s repurchase agreement borrowings) are still expected to occur, the balance in accumulated other comprehensive income (AOCI) from interest rate swap activity up through September 30, 2013 will remain in AOCI and be recognized in the Company’s consolidated statements of income as “interest expense” over the remaining term of the interest rate swaps. See Note 7 for further information.

The Company may also enter into forward purchase commitments as a means of investing in and financing agency securities via TBA dollar roll transactions. TBA dollar roll transactions involve moving the settlement of a TBA contract out to a later date by entering into an offsetting short position (referred to as a “pair off”), net settling the paired off positions for cash, and simultaneously purchasing a similar TBA contract for a later settlement date. The agency securities purchased at the later settlement date are typically priced at a discount to securities for settlement in the current month. This difference is referred to as the “price drop.” The price drop represents compensation to the Company for foregoing net interest margin (interest income less repurchase agreement financing cost) and is referred to as “dollar roll income,” which the Company classifies in “Gain (loss) on derivative instruments, net.” Realized and unrealized gains and losses related to TBA dollar roll transactions are also recognized in “Gain (loss) on derivative instruments, net.” TBA dollar roll transactions represent off-balance sheet financing.

Repurchase Agreements

The Company finances the acquisition of its MBS through the use of repurchase agreements. Under these repurchase agreements, the Company sells securities to a lender and agrees to repurchase the same securities in the future for a price that is higher than the original sales price. The difference between the sale price that the Company receives and the repurchase price that the Company pays represents interest paid to the lender. Although structured as a sale and repurchase obligation, a repurchase agreement operates as a financing under which the Company pledges its securities as collateral to secure a loan which is equal in value to a specified percentage of the estimated fair value of the pledged collateral. The Company records repurchase agreements on the consolidated balance sheets at the amount of cash received (or contract value), with accrued interest recorded separately. The Company retains beneficial ownership of the pledged collateral. At the maturity of a repurchase agreement, the Company is required to repay the loan and concurrently receives back its pledged collateral from the lender or, with the consent of the lender, the Company may renew such agreement at the then prevailing financing rate. These repurchase agreements may require the Company to pledge additional assets to the lender in the event the estimated fair value of the existing pledged collateral declines.

Dollar Roll Liability

In addition to the TBA dollar roll transactions described above, the Company may from time to time execute dollar roll transactions on specified pools (“CUSIP dollar rolls”). These transactions represent on-balance sheet financing, presented as “Dollar roll liability” in the Company’s consolidated balance sheets. During the period of a CUSIP dollar roll, the financed security remains on the Company’s balance sheet, and the components of the net interest margin earned from the price drop are classified in “interest income on mortgage-backed securities” and “interest expense,” respectively.

Offsetting of Assets and Liabilities

The Company’s derivative agreements and repurchase agreements generally contain provisions that allow for netting or the offsetting of receivables and payables with each counterparty. The Company reports amounts in its consolidated balance sheets on a gross basis without regard for such rights of offset or master netting arrangements.

Interest Income

Interest income is earned and recognized based on the outstanding principal amount of the investment securities and their contractual terms. Premiums and discounts associated with the purchase of the investment securities are amortized or accreted into interest income over the actual lives of the securities using the effective interest method.

Income Taxes

The Company has elected to be taxed as a REIT under the Code. The Company will generally not be subject to federal income tax to the extent that it distributes 100% of its taxable income, after application of available tax attributes, within the time limits prescribed by the Code and as long as it satisfies the ongoing REIT requirements including meeting certain asset, income and stock ownership tests. The Company has made an election to treat certain of its subsidiaries as TRSs. These TRSs are taxable as domestic C corporations and are subject to federal, state and local income taxes based upon their taxable income.

Share-Based Compensation

Share-based compensation is accounted for under the guidance included in the ASC Topic on Stock Compensation. For share and share-based awards issued to employees, a compensation charge is recorded in earnings based on the fair value of the award. For transactions with non-employees in which services are performed in exchange for the Company’s common stock or other equity instruments, the transactions are recorded on the basis of the fair value of the service received or the fair value of the equity instruments issued, whichever is more readily measurable at the date of issuance. The Company’s share-based compensation transactions resulted in compensation expense of $890 and $637 for the three months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013, respectively. Share-based compensation expense was $2,592 and $1,893 for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013, respectively.

Earnings Per Common Share (EPS)

Basic EPS is computed by dividing net income less preferred stock dividends to arrive at net income available to holders of common stock by the weighted average number of shares of common stock outstanding during the period. Diluted EPS is computed using the two class method, as described in the ASC Topic on Earnings Per Share, which takes into account certain adjustments related to participating securities. Participating securities are unvested share-based awards that contain rights to receive nonforfeitable dividends, such as those awarded under the Company’s equity incentive plan. Net income available to holders of common stock after deducting dividends on unvested participating securities if antidilutive, is divided by the weighted average shares of common stock and common equivalent shares outstanding during the period. For the diluted EPS calculation, common equivalent shares outstanding includes the weighted average number of shares of common stock outstanding adjusted for the effect of dilutive unexercised stock options, if any.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In June 2014, the FASB issued ASU 2014-11, Transfers and Servicing: Repurchase-to-Maturity Transaction, Repurchase Financings, and Disclosures (the “ASU”). This guidance requires repurchase-to-maturity transactions to be accounted for as secured borrowings as if the transferor retains effective control, even though the transferred financial assets are not returned to the transferor at settlement. The ASU also eliminates existing guidance for repurchase financings and requires instead that entities consider the initial transfer and the related repurchase agreement separately when applying the derecognition requirements of ASC 860, Transfers and Servicing. New disclosures will be required for (1) certain transactions accounted for as secured borrowings and (2) transfers accounted for as sales when the transferor also retains substantially all of the exposure to the economic return on the transferred financial assets throughout the term of the transaction. This guidance will take effect for periods beginning after December 15, 2014, and early adoption is prohibited. Certain disclosures under this guidance do not take effect until the first period beginning after March 15, 2015. This ASU is not expected to have any material impact on the Company’s financial statements.