The Fixed Income Group at R.J. O’Brien

The Fixed Income Group (FIG) has crafted a unique niche in the finance industry by teaching clients how to take generic, yet highly cost-efficient exchange traded futures and options and create effective, accountable interest rate hedges. As financial regulatory requirements have forced many financial derivatives to be centrally cleared, the use of exchange-traded futures has soared. Currently, FIG uses multiple SOFR, Treasury, and Mortgage-based futures and options products from various futures exchanges to manage clients’ interest rate risk.

Quick Facts on the Fixed Income Group:

• The Fixed Income Group unified in 1997 at R.J. O’Brien.
• Our service is solely directed to institutional clients.
• We design, execute, and clear hedge and derivative solutions at the request of our clients and the perceived needs of the industry.
• Current focus is motivated by Dodd-Frank mandates that necessitate traditional effectiveness but emphasize margin and compliance efficiency.
• FIG’s proprietary swap futures software optimizes for margin minimization, convexity maximizations, as well as arbitrage opportunities between Treasury Futures, Eris Swap Futures, and SOFR-based synthetic interest rate swap positions.
• Historically we focus on assets, portfolios, and businesses with significant non-linear risk profiles/asymmetric behavior and leverage: mortgage derivatives, adjustable rate mortgages, Jumbo, Alt-A & non-conforming credit, MSRs, IO, ABS, equipment leasing, structured financing/repo, vega immunization, synthetic swap/cap/floor/swaptions, rate lock, builder forwards…
• The FIG maintains a vital best-execution presence on the trading floor and among market makers to handle option arbitrage, inter-market spreads and weighted “tailing” strategies –transactions that routinely result in less-efficient execution on electronic platforms.
• With the LIBOR-SOFR benchmark transition notably impacting financial markets, RJO FIG has been at the forefront of the migration, speaking at key industry conferences, providing insight, and publishing analysis for clients to assist in a seamless, yet effective conversion.

Quick Facts on R.J. O’Brien & Associates:

• R.J. O’Brien & Associates, LLC (“RJO”) is a privately owned Futures Commission Merchant (“FCM”) founded in 1914. Consistently among the largest non-bank FCMs in the United States, RJO has a global presence with offices in Asia, Europe and North America.
• With client assets of approximately $6.1bb USD$ and net capital of approximately $410mm USD$, RJO is a fully diversified, integrated FCM servicing some of the world’s largest financial, industrial, and agricultural institutions.
• RJO is the only remaining founding member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and continues to be a member of all major futures exchanges worldwide, including the CME Group (CME, CBOT, COMEX, NYMEX), EUREX, ICE Futures (US, Canada), CBOE Futures (CFE), and the NASDAQ Futures Exchange.
• Offering the latest in order entry technology, coupled with 24-hour execution and clearing for nearly 80,000 accounts, RJO has the ability to clear and/or execute futures products globally.
• With rigorous and experienced risk management, the firm’s capital base is strictly utilized for the protection of its customers and is not leveraged in any capacity.