Trading Places, March 9, 2015

RJ O'Brien promotes risk officer to COO of holding company

Futures broker and clearing firm RJ O'Brien & Associates has announced the promotion of Jamal Oulhadj, senior managing director and chief risk officer, to chief operating officer of the firm's holding company, RJO Holdings. In his new role, he will be responsible for the global risk operations, credit and information technology functions. With more than 15 years' experience in risk management, Oulhadj joined the broker as chief risk officer in 2006, assuming responsibility for operations and technology in 2011. He had previously worked for Refco, the former commodities and futures broker, for nearly eight years. Prior to that he was a senior research analyst at Chicago Mercantile Exchange – now CME Group. Gerald Corcoran, chairman and chief executive of RJO, said: "Jamal has been a vital member of our management team and he will be an outstanding COO for our holding company. He has demonstrated a great command of all operational aspects of our business, and earned the respect of everyone on his team as well as our board of directors. We're very pleased to recognise his contribution and entrust him with these expanded responsibilities."

TradeToolsFX appoints director of operations

Foreign exchange software-development firm TradeToolsFX has announced the hire of Mark Osterloh as director of operations. He joins from IBFX, where he was vice-president of trade operations and also in charge of the transition from MetaTrader3 to the MT4 platform. Osterloh joined InterbankFX in 2001. Val Lazovski, founder and director of TradeToolsFX, said: "Mark's experience of working with multiple liquidity providers and prime brokers will allow him to provide valuable feedback and insight as we continue to refine and improve our Freedom Liquidity Bridge solution to meet the ever-changing needs of forex brokers around the world." He added: "We are excited to add a person with Mark's background as we continue to experience record growth. Year-on-year revenues increased over 800% in 2014 as we expanded into new markets, and we continue to refine our full suite of solutions for forex and binary options brokers. Having Mark's extensive operations experience will be invaluable as we continue to scale our business internationally." Osterloh stated: "I believe the Freedom Bridge technology, along with Binary Options and Multi Account Trader, will enhance the trading experience, and help new and existing brokers to be competitive in the exciting world of trading."