Fixed Income
Taxable Fixed Income
The Fixed Income unit of Blaylock Robert Van, LLC. is known for its integrity, quality of execution and commitment to providing value-added trading services to clients and customers. Our focus on the competitive, cost effective trading of U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds, as well as Agency securities, has led to our prominent inclusion as a principal underwriter, selling group member or placement agent for:
- Fannie Mae (FNMA)
- Freddie Mac (FHLMC)
- Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB)
We established ourselves early on as a creative and sophisticated fixed income underwriter of agency debt. Our ability to position, trade and swap these instruments with a large number of end user and primary dealer customers has become our strong suit in this highly competitive, price sensitive, execution driven marketplace.
Value is also added through opportunistic trading, as mis-pricings, market dislocations, supply-demand imbalances and other special situations present themselves. With the blending of the Robert Van Securities and Blaylock platforms, we have been able to build upon two powerful institutions on a going forward basis. We are committed to supporting a wide range of new issue and secondary fixed income products, including multiple classes of both Corporate Bonds as well as Preferred Stocks. We have been able to leverage our combined distribution and marketing networks to fit the needs of many sizeable, frequent Issuers. This is the foundation which allowed us to Lead or Co-manage 42 fixed-income transactions for 2008, raising approximately $108 Billion for our clients.
Performance is the centerpiece of our mission statement. We strive to maximize value added and exceed client goals utilizing accountability, trading efficiency and teamwork. We recognize that the success of our firm is based on our ability to deliver consistent quality execution to
our clients. Our commitment in every client relationship is to elevate our level of responsiveness and understanding to fulfill each specific client’s unique needs and objectives.
The Fixed Income Team
Timothy O’Brien, Executive Vice President – Sales & Trading
Mr. O’Brien has over 24 years of experience in the sales, trading execution, and clearing of domestic equity and taxable fixed income products. Prior to joining Robert Van Securities in 1992, he was an assistant vice president for Sutro & Company and Dean Witter Reynolds, where he worked on BIS (Branch Institutional Sales) teams. Tim is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, with a B.S. in Social Science/Education.
Ed Tollefsen, Sr. Vice President – Sales and Trading
Mr. Tollefsen has over 23 years of experience in taxable fixed income markets. His career began in 1980 as a money market trader at Seafirst National Bank where he advanced into a proprietary trading position in U.S. Treasuries, futures, and federal agencies. He has also performed Treasury bill / future trading for Crocker National Bank’s primary dealer. For fourteen years Mr. Tollefsen worked as a fixed income trader, strategist and in-house economist for Sutro & Co. in San Francisco, CA. A graduate of the University of Washington, Mr. Tollefsen holds a bachelor degree in economics.
Emanuel Schmalz, Sr. Vice President – Sales and Trading
Mr. Schmalz has over 20 years of experience in the sales and trading of Fixed Income Securities for institutions. Over the last several years, he has sold fixed income instruments to institutions at multiple firms, including Tucker Anthony, Oppenheimer & Company and Utendahl Capital. Manny graduated from Brooklyn College with a BA in Economics and received an MBA in Finance from New York University Business School.
Jimmy De León, Vice President – Fixed Income
Mr. De León is responsible for marketing new fixed income issues to the clientele of Blaylock Robert Van, LLC, and also supports the daily institutional sales and trading activity within the firm. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University at Albany SUNY, and an MBA in Finance from Fordham University.