COMPANY NEWS

Jersey City, NJ, December 12, 2017 – OpenDoor Securities (“OpenDoor”), the first all-to-all marketplace for off the run Treasuries and TIPS, has appointed Hicham Hajhamou, formerly Head of Rates and FX Trading at quantitative hedge fund AQR Capital Management, as...

OpenDoor Securities (“OpenDoor”) has raised $10 million in a Series A investment round from private investors. The funds will be used to enhance the OpenDoor platform, improve its connectivity to current customers, and expand its network of client institutions and central banks.

OpenDoor Securities (“OpenDoor”) is today launching the first trading platform dedicated to improving liquidity in the less liquid segments of the U.S. Treasury bond market. Nearly three dozen firms representing more than $5 trillion of AUM and six sponsor-dealers are already onboarded to participate.

The diversified client base includes central banks, hedge funds, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, mutual funds, insurance companies, primary dealers, asset managers and trading firms.

OpenDoor Trading LLC (“OpenDoor”), a market-based solution designed to improve liquidity in the U.S. Treasury bond markets, has appointed Darcy Bradbury, former Assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary for Financial Markets, to its Board of Directors; and Debbie Matz, former Board Chairman of the National Credit Union Association (NCUA), to its Advisory Board.

OpenDoor Securities (“OpenDoor”) CEO and co-founder Susan Estes has been named Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2016 Women in Finance Markets Choice Awards presented by Markets Media. The Women in Finance Markets Choice Awards, in their second year, recognize the most distinguished women in the financial services sector at firms that range from hedge funds and global banks to institutional investment firms, exchanges, and technology vendors.

OpenDoor Securities (“OpenDoor”), a platform specifically designed to improve liquidity in the U.S. Treasury bond markets, has appointed Michael Paulus as Senior Managing Director. Paulus joins OpenDoor’s expanding team of Wall Street and fixed income industry veterans as it prepares for its platform launch in Q4 2016. He will report directly to President Rob Grillo.

Following the closing of a $10 million investment round, OpenDoor Trading, LLC (“OpenDoor”) has become the first U.S. bond trading platform both majority-owned and majority-controlled by women. The funds will be used to support technology and business development of an innovative ‘all-to-all’ trading platform for off-the-run Treasuries and TIPS. Launch is scheduled for the fall.

OpenDoor, which was co-founded by industry veterans Susan Estes and Brian Meehan less than three years ago, is quickly developing traction with central banks, asset managers and other institutional investors, as well as the dealers that service them. Discreet trading sessions will allow a variety of protocols to match the needs of end-users, and improve liquidity in the systemically important U.S. Treasury market.

OpenDoor Trading (“OpenDoor”), a platform designed to improve liquidity in the U.S. Treasury bond markets, has appointed electronic trading pioneer Michael Sanderson, and fixed income veteran, Chris Ferreri, to its Advisory Board. They join a Board that already boasts bond market experts John Brynjolfsson and Kenneth deRegt, formerly of PIMCO and Morgan Stanley respectively. 

OpenDoor Trading (“OpenDoor) is working closely with Broadway Technology to fast-track development of a unique, open trading platform for the U.S. Treasury bond market. The ongoing relationship between the two firms is ramping up for an early-Q4 launch in response to demands from institutional investors for greater liquidity at all maturities, at a time of increasingly fragmented market structure.

The Fed and the Treasury describe the U.S. Treasury market as, “the deepest and most liquid government securities market in the world.” While arguably true for the six on-the-run (OTR) benchmark securities, those six securities make up less than 2% of the total $13.4 trillion of total outstanding supply. It is the other 98%, known as off-the-runs (OFTRs) that should be of greater concern to market participants and policy-makers alike.

OpenDoor Trading (“OpenDoor”), a platform designed to improve liquidity in the U.S. Treasury bond markets, has appointed Robert Grillo as its President. He is the second senior hire by OpenDoor this month, as it prepares to launch an innovative session-based trading platform.

Grillo, a Bank of America Merrill Lynch veteran with nearly 30 years’ industry experience, is joining a seasoned management team headed by CEO Susan Estes. In his new role, Grillo is responsible for driving product development and electronic distribution. He will help expand the growing pool of primary dealers, central banks, asset management firms and other institutional investors supporting the pending launch. His appointment follows the recent hire of Guy Haselmann as Managing Director of Product Solutions.

While there is broad agreement about the liquidity challenges of the US Treasury market, there is still much debate on how best to address them.

I had the opportunity to participate in the lead panel discussion at the TabbForum Fixed Income Conference: Panel Video . I spent a reasonable amount of time addressing the multiple layers of bifurcation in the Treasury market, and why it was necessary to include the entire curve (and not just the six most recently auctioned securities) in any discussion about the changing market structure.