ADVISORY AGREEMENTConsulting Services Agreement |
|
|
You are currently viewing: This Consulting Services Agreement involves
Conquest Capital LLC | RJ O'Brien Fund Management, LLC. RealDealDocs™ contains millions of easily searchable legal documents and clauses from top law firms. Search for free - click here. |
|
|
|
|
CONFIDENTIAL TREATMENT REQUESTED. Confidential portions of this document have been redacted and have been separately filed with the Commission.
EXHIBIT 10.02
ADVISORY AGREEMENT
THIS AGREEMENT, made as of the 1 st day of July, 2009 , among RJO Global Trust, a Delaware statutory business trust (the “Fund”), R.J. O’Brien Fund Management, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (the “Managing Owner”), and Conquest Capital LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (the “Trading Advisor”).
W I T N E S S E T H :
WHEREAS , the Fund has been organized as a Delaware statutory business trust pursuant to its organizational documents to, among other things, directly or indirectly through one or more commodity trading advisor, trade, buy, sell, spread, or otherwise acquire, hold, or dispose of commodities (including, but not limited to, foreign currencies, mortgage-backed securities, money market instruments, financial instruments, and any other securities or items which are now, or may hereafter be, the subject of futures contract trading), domestic and foreign commodity futures contracts, forward contracts, foreign exchange commitments, options on physical commodities and on futures contracts, spot (cash) commodities and currencies, exchange of futures contracts for physicals transactions, exchange of physicals for futures contracts transactions, and any rights pertaining thereto, whether traded on an organized exchange or otherwise (hereinafter referred to collectively as “futures interests;” provided , however , such definition shall exclude securities futures products as defined by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), options in securities futures and options in equities) and securities (such as United States Treasury securities) approved by the CFTC for investment of customer funds and other securities on a limited basis, and to engage in all activities incident thereto;
WHEREAS , the Fund is a commodity pool operated by the Managing Owner; and the Fund’s units are being offered pursuant to a registration statement on Form S-1 (No. 333-146177) as from time to time amended filed under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended;
WHEREAS , the principals of the Trading Advisor have extensive experience trading in futures interests and the Trading Advisor is willing to provide the services and undertake the obligations as set forth herein;
WHEREAS , the Fund and the Managing Owner each desires the Trading Advisor to act as a trading advisor for the Fund and to make investment decisions with respect to futures interests for the Fund and the Trading Advisor desires so to act; and
WHEREAS , the Fund, the Managing Owner and the Trading Advisor wish to enter into this Agreement which, among other things, sets forth certain terms and conditions upon which the Trading Advisor will conduct the futures interest trading with respect to a portion of the Fund’s assets, as described herein.
NOW, THEREFORE , the parties hereto hereby agree as follows:
1
1. Undertakings in Connection with the Continuing Offering of Units .
(a) The Trading Advisor agrees with respect to the continuing offering of interests (“Units”) in the Fund: (i) to make all disclosures regarding itself, its principals and affiliates, its trading performance, its trading systems, methods and strategies (subject to the need, in the reasonable discretion of the Trading Advisor, to preserve the secrecy of Proprietary Information (as defined in Section 1(c) hereof) concerning such systems, methods and strategies), any client accounts over which it has discretionary trading authority (other than the names of or identifying information with respect to any such clients), and otherwise, as the Fund may reasonably require (x) in connection with Fund’s offering materials (the “Prospectus”) as required by Rule 4.21 of the regulations under the Commodity Exchange Act (the “CEAct”), and the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) including in connection with any amendments or supplements thereto, or (y) to comply with any other applicable law or rule or regulation, including those of the CFTC, the National Futures Association (the “NFA”), the SEC, or any other regulatory or self-regulatory body, exchange, or board with jurisdiction over its members (or to comply with the reasonable request of the aforementioned organizations); and (ii) to otherwise cooperate with the Fund and the Managing Owner by providing information regarding the Trading Advisor in connection with the preparation of the Prospectus, including any amendments or supplements thereto, as part of making application for registration of the Units under the securities or blue sky laws of any jurisdictions, including foreign jurisdictions, as the Fund may deem appropriate; provided that all such disclosures are subject to the need, in the reasonable discretion of the Trading Advisor, to preserve the secrecy of Proprietary Information concerning its clients, systems methods and strategies. As used herein, unless otherwise provided, the term “principal” shall have the meaning as defined in Rule 4.10(e) of the CFTC’s regulations and the term “affiliate” shall mean an individual or entity that directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with, such party. The Managing Owner may, in its sole discretion and at any time, withdraw the SEC registration of the Units or discontinue the offering of Units.
(b) If the Trading Advisor becomes aware of any materially untrue or misleading statement or omission regarding itself or any of its principals or affiliates in all information provided by Trading Advisor to the Managing Owner (the “Disclosure Information”), or of the occurrence of any event or change in circumstances which would result in there being any materially untrue or misleading statement or omission in the Disclosure Information regarding itself or any of its principals or affiliates, the Trading Advisor shall promptly notify the Managing Owner and shall cooperate with the Managing Owner in the preparation of any necessary amendments or supplements to the Prospectus. Neither the Trading Advisor nor any of its principals, or affiliates, or any stockholders, officers, directors, or employees shall distribute the Prospectus or selling literature or shall engage in any selling activities whatsoever in connection with the continuing offering of Units except as may be specifically approved by the Managing Owner and agreed to by the Trading Advisor.
(c) For purposes of this Agreement, and notwithstanding any of the provisions hereof, all non-public information relating to the Trading Advisor including, but not limited to, records, whether original, duplicated, computerized, handwritten, or in any other form, and information contained therein, business and/or marketing and/or sales plans and proposals, names of past and current clients, names of past, current and prospective contacts, trading
2
methodologies, systems, strategies and programs, trading advice, trading instructions, results of proprietary accounts, training materials, research data bases, portfolios, and computer software, and all written and oral information, furnished by the Trading Advisor to the Fund and the Managing Owner and/or their officers, directors, employees, agents (including, but not limited to, attorneys, accountants, consultants, and financial advisors) or controlling persons (each a “Recipient”), regardless of the manner in which it is furnished, together with any analysis, compilations, studies or other documents or records which are prepared by a Recipient of such information and which contain or are generated from such information, regardless of whether explicitly identified as confidential, with the exception of information which (i) is or becomes generally available to the public other than as a result of acts by the Recipient in violation of this Agreement, (ii) is in the possession of the Recipient prior to its disclosure pursuant to the terms hereof, (iii) is or becomes available to the Recipient from a source that is not bound by a confidentiality agreement with regard to such information or by any other legal obligation of confidentiality prohibiting such disclosure, or (iv) that is independently developed by the Recipient without use of the confidential information described in this Section 1(c), are and shall be confidential information and/or trade secrets and the exclusive property of the Trading Advisor (“Confidential Information” and/or “Proprietary Information”).
(d) The Fund and the Managing Owner each warrants and agrees that they and their respective officers, directors, members, equity holders, employees and agents (including for purposes of this Agreement, but not limited to, attorneys, accountants, consultants, and financial advisors) will protect and preserve the Confidential Information and will disclose Confidential Information or otherwise make Confidential Information available only to the Fund’s or the Managing Owner’s officers, directors, members, equity holders, employees and agents (including for purposes of this Agreement, but not limited to, attorneys, accountants, consultants, and financial advisors), who need to know the Confidential Information (or any part of it) for the purpose of satisfying their fiduciary, legal, reporting, filing or other obligations hereunder or to monitor performance in the account during the term of this Agreement or thereafter, or to the Fund, Managing Owner or a Recipient, as the case may be, is required to disclose such Confidential Information due to a fiduciary obligation or legal or regulatory request. Additionally, the Fund and the Managing Owner each warrants and agrees that it and any Recipient will use the Confidential Information solely for the purpose of satisfying the Fund’s or the Managing Owner’s obligations under this Agreement and not in a manner which violates the terms of this Agreement.
(a) Upon the commencement of trading operations on or about July 1, 2009 by the Trading Advisor with respect to a portion of the assets of the Fund, the Trading Advisor hereby agrees to act as a Trading Advisor for the Fund and, as such, shall have authority and responsibility for directing the investment and reinvestment of that portion of the Fund’s assets allocated to the Trading Advisor, which shall consist of the Allocated Net Assets (as defined in Section 5(c) hereof) plus “notional” funds, if any, allocated to the Trading Advisor, as specified in writing by the Managing Owner and consented to by the Trading Advisor (the “Assets”), on the terms and conditions and in accordance with the prohibitions and the trading policies set forth in Exhibit A to this Agreement as amended from time to time and provided in writing to the Trading Advisor by the Managing Owner (the “Trading Policies”); provided , however , that the Managing Owner may override the instructions of the Trading Advisor without notice to the
3
Trading Advisor to the extent necessary (i) to comply with the Trading Policies and with applicable speculative position limits, (ii) to fund any distributions or redemptions, (iii) to pay the Fund’s expenses, (iv) to the extent the Managing Owner believes doing so is necessary for the protection of the Fund, (v) to terminate the futures interest trading of the Account (as defined in Section 4) with the Trading Advisor, or (vi) to comply with any applicable law or regulation. The Managing Owner agrees not to override any such instructions for the reasons specified in clauses (ii) or (iii) of the preceding sentence unless the Trading Advisor fails to comply with a request of the Managing Owner to make the necessary amount of funds available to the Fund within two (2) trading days of such request. The Trading Advisor shall not be liable for the consequences of any decision by the Managing Owner to override instructions of the Trading Advisor, except to the extent that such consequences result from a material breach of this Agreement by the Trading Advisor or the Trading Advisor fails to comply with the Managing Owner’s decision to override an instruction. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this Agreement, the Fund shall have the right to instruct the Trading Advisor to liquidate any or all positions at any time.
(b) The Trading Advisor shall:
(i) Exercise good faith and due care in trading futures interests for the account of the Fund in accordance with the prohibitions and Trading Policies, and the trading systems, methods, and strategies of the Trading Advisor described in any Disclosure Information, with such changes and additions to such trading systems, methods or strategies as the Trading Advisor, from time to time, incorporates into its trading approach for accounts the size of the Fund.
(ii) Provide the Managing Owner, within forty-five (45) days of the end of a calendar quarter, and within forty-five (45) days of a separate request which the Managing Owner may make from time to time, with information comparing the performance of the Fund’s account and the performance of all other client accounts (“Other Accounts”) directed by the Trading Advisor using the trading systems used by the Trading Advisor on behalf of the Fund over a specified period of time for the purpose of confirming that the Fund has been treated equitably compared to such Other Accounts. In providing such information, the Trading Advisor may take such steps as are necessary to assure the confidentiality of the Trading Advisor’s clients’ identities. The Trading Advisor shall, upon the Managing Owner’s request, consult with the Managing Owner concerning any discrepancies between the performance of such Other Accounts and the Fund’s account. The Trading Advisor shall promptly inform the Managing Owner in writing of any material discrepancies of which the Trading Advisor is aware. The Managing Owner acknowledges that the following differences in accounts may cause divergent trading results: different trading strategies, methods or degrees of leverage, different trading policies, accounts experiencing differing inflows or outflows of equity, different risk profiles, accounts which commence trading at different times and accounts which have different portfolios or different fiscal years.
4
(iii) Inform the Managing Owner when the Trading Advisor’s open positions maintained by the Trading Advisor exceed the Trading Advisor’s applicable speculative position limits.
(iv) Upon request of the Managing Owner, promptly provide the Managing Owner with all information concerning the Trading Advisor and its activities reasonably requested by the Managing Owner (including, without limitation, information relating to changes in control, key personnel, trading approach, or financial condition). Additionally, the Trading Advisor agrees to furnish R.J. O’Brien & Associates, LLC (“RJOB”) by telephone, facsimile or electronic data transmission (i) a final report of all trades at the end of each Business Day (as defined in Section 5(a)(i) hereof) and (ii) a report of any trade made involving a position with a required initial margin equal to 10% or more of the Assets within 30 minutes of the Trading Advisor’s receipt of confirmation, verbal or otherwise, from the executing broker that such a trade has been executed. The Trading Advisor further acknowledges and agrees that the timely provision of all such information is of the essence in order to enable the Fund, its designated entities, and RJOB to monitor and comply with mandatory risk control algorithms imposed upon the operation of the Fund.
(c) All purchases and sales of futures interests pursuant to this Agreement shall be for the account, and at the risk, of the Fund and not for the account, or at the risk of the Trading Advisor or any of its affiliates or each of their principals, stockholders, directors, officers, or employees, or any other person, if any, who controls the Trading Advisor. All brokerage commissions and related transaction fees arising from such trading by the Trading Advisor shall be for the account of the Fund.
(d) Subject to Section 8(a) hereof, * . The Trading Advisor shall have an affirmative obligation to promptly notify the Managing Owner upon discovery of its own errors with respect to the account, and the Trading Advisor shall use its best efforts to identify and promptly notify the Managing Owner of any order or trade which the Trading Advisor reasonably believes was not executed in accordance with its instructions to any Commodity Broker or such other commodity broker utilized to execute orders for the Fund.
(e) Prior to the commencement of trading by the Fund, the Managing Owner, on behalf of the Fund, shall deliver to the Trading Advisor a trading authorization appointing the Trading Advisor the Fund’s attorney-in-fact for such purpose (a form of which is attached hereto as Exhibit B ).
(f) In performing services to the Fund, the Trading Advisor shall utilize its Macro trading program (the “Trading Program”), as described in the Disclosure Information, and as modified from time to time. The Trading Advisor shall give the Managing Owner prior written notice of any change in the Trading Program that the Trading Advisor considers to be material (and shall not effect such change on behalf of the Fund without the Managing Owner’s consent), including any additional futures interests to be traded by the Trading Advisor not already listed on Exhibit C . Changes in the futures interests traded, provided that such futures interests are listed on Exhibit C , shall not be deemed a modification of the Trading Program.
5
For all purposes of this Agreement, the Trading Advisor shall be deemed to be an independent contractor and shall, unless otherwise expressly provided herein or authorized, have no authority to act for or represent the Fund in any way or otherwise be deemed an agent of the Fund. Nothing contained herein shall be deemed to require the Fund to take any action contrary to its governing documents as from time to time in effect, or any applicable law or rule or regulation of any regulatory or self-regulatory body, exchange, or board. Nothing herein contained shall constitute the Trading Advisor or the Managing Owner as members of any partnership, joint venture, association, syndicate or other entity, or be deemed to confer on any of them any express, implied, or apparent authority to incur any obligation or liability on behalf of any other. It is expressly agreed that the Trading Advisor is neither a promoter, sponsor, or issuer with respect to the Fund, nor does the Trading Advisor have any authority or responsibility with respect to the offer, sale or issuance of Units.
The Trading Advisor shall effect all transactions in futures interests for the Fund through the Fund’s separate account of the Fund to be traded exclusively by the Trading Advisor (the “Account”) maintained with RJOB or such commodity broker or brokers as the Managing Owner shall direct and appoint from time to time (the “Commodity Brokers”). The Managing Owner has selected such Commodity Brokers on its own and has not relied on advice from the Trading Advisor in making such selections. Except as described in Section 2(d), the Trading Advisor shall not be responsible for any errors or omissions due to the performance or activities of the Commodity Brokers.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Trading Advisor may execute trades through floor brokers other than those employed by RJOB and its affiliates so long as arrangements (including executed give-up agreements and reverse give-up agreements) are made for such floor brokers to “give-up” or transfer the positions to RJOB in conformity with the Trading Policies set forth in Exhibit A attached hereto.
(a) For the services to be rendered to the Fund by the Trading Advisor under this Agreement:
(i) The Fund shall pay the Trading Advisor a monthly management fee equal to * % (a * % annual rate) of the Assets allocated to it (as defined in Section 2(a) hereof) as of the last day of each month (the “Management Fee”). The Management Fee is payable in arrears within twenty (20) Business Days of the end of the month for which it was calculated. For purposes of this Agreement, “Business Day” shall mean any day which the securities markets are open in the United States.
6
(ii) The Fund shall pay the Trading Advisor an incentive fee equal to 20% of the New Trading Profit (as defined in Section 5(d) hereof) that shall accrue monthly but is not payable until the end of each calendar quarter (the “Incentive Fee”). The initial incentive period will commence on the date the Trading Advisor commences trading the Account and shall end on the last day of the calendar quarter after such date. The Incentive Fee is payable within twenty (20) Business Days of the end of the calendar quarter for which it was calculated.
(b) If this Agreement is terminated on a date other than the last day of a calendar quarter, the Incentive Fee shall be determined as if such date were the end of a calendar quarter. If this Agreement is terminated on a date other than the end of a month, the Management Fee described above shall be determined as if such date were the end of a month, but such fee shall be prorated based on the ratio of the number of trading days in the month through the date of termination to the total number of trading days in the month. If, during any month after the Trading Advisor commences trading operations on behalf of the Account (including the month in which the Trading Advisor commences such operations), the Fund does not conduct business operations, or suspends trading for the Account, or, as a result of an act or material failure to act by the Trading Advisor, is otherwise unable to utilize the trading advice of the Trading Advisor on any of the trading days of that month for any reason, the Management Fee shall be prorated based on the ratio of the number of trading days in the month which the Account engaged in trading operations or utilizes the trading advice of the Trading Advisor to the total number of trading days in the month. The Management Fee payable to the Trading Advisor for the month in which the Fund begins to receive trading advice from the Trading Advisor pursuant to this Agreement shall be prorated based on the ratio of the number of trading days in the month from the day the Fund begins to receive such trading advice to the total number of trading days in the month. In the event that there is an increase or decrease in the Assets as of any day other than the first day of a month, the Trading Advisor shall be paid a pro rata Management Fee on such increase or decrease in the Assets for such month.
(c) The term “Allocated Net Assets” shall mean the total assets of the Fund allocated to the Account (including, but not limited to, all cash and cash equivalents, accrued interest and amortization of original issue discount, and the market value (marked-to-market) of all open futures interest positions and other assets of the Account) less all liabilities of the Fund determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles consistently applied under the accrual basis of accounting. Unless generally accepted accounting principles require otherwise, the market value of a futures or option contract traded on a United States exchange shall mean the settlement price on the exchange on which the particular futures or option contract shall be traded by the Trading Advisor on behalf of the Account with respect to which the Net Assets are being determined; provided , however , that if a contract could not be liquidated on such day due to the operation of daily limits or other rules of the exchange on which that contract shall be traded or otherwise, the settlement price on the first subsequent day on which the contract could be liquidated shall be the market value of such contract for such day, or if a contract could not be liquidated on such day due to the exchange being closed for an exchange holiday, the settlement price on the most recent preceding day on which the contract could have been liquidated shall be the market value of such contract for such day. The market value of a forward contract or a futures or option contract traded on a foreign exchange or market shall mean its market value as determined by the Managing Owner on a basis consistently applied for each different variety of contract.
7
(d) The term “New Trading Profit” shall mean net futures interest trading profits (realized and unrealized) on the Assets, decreased proportionally by the Trading Advisor’s monthly Management Fees and brokerage commissions and NFA fees applicable to the Account. Interest income is not included in New Trading Profit. Extraordinary expenses do not reduce New Trading Profit. Extraordinary expenses do not reduce New Trading Profit. Such trading profits and items of decrease shall be determined from the end of the last calendar quarter in respect of which an Incentive Fee was earned by the Trading Advisor or, if no Incentive Fee has been earned previously by the Trading Advisor, from the date that the Trading Advisor commenced managing the Assets, to the end of the calendar quarter as of which such Incentive Fee calculation is being made. New Trading Profit shall be calculated before reduction for Incentive Fees paid or accrued so that the Trading Advisor does not have to earn back Incentive Fees.
(e) If any payment of Incentive Fees is made to the Trading Advisor on account of New Trading Profit earned by the Trading Advisor and the Trading Advisor thereafter fails to earn New Trading Profit or experiences losses for any subsequent incentive period, the Trading Advisor shall be entitled to retain such amounts of Incentive Fees previously paid to the Trading Advisor in respect of such New Trading Profit. No Incentive Fees shall be payable to the Trading Advisor until the Trading Advisor has earned New Trading Profit; provided , however , that if the Assets are reduced because of redemptions that occur at the end of, and/or subsequent to, a calendar quarter in which the Trading Advisor experiences a futures interest trading loss for the Fund, the trading loss that must be recovered before the Trading Advisor will be deemed to experience New Trading Profit in a subsequent calendar quarter will be equal to the amount determined by (x) dividing the Assets after such decrease by the Assets in immediately before such decrease and (y) multiplying that fraction by the amount of the unrecovered futures interest trading loss prior to such decrease. In the event that the Trading Advisor experiences a trading loss in more than one calendar quarter without the Trading Company paying an intervening Incentive Fee and Assets are reduced in more than one such calendar quarter because of redemptions, then the trading loss for each such calendar quarter shall be adjusted in accordance with the formula described above and such reduced amount of futures interest trading loss shall be carried forward and used to offset subsequent futures interest trading profits. No Incentive Fees shall be payable to the Trading Advisor until the Trading Advisor has earned New Trading Profit.
(a) If the Managing Owner at any time deems it to be in the best interests of the Fund, the Managing Owner may designate one or more additional trading advisors for the Fund and may apportion to such additional trading advisor(s) the management of such amounts of the Fund’s assets as the Managing Owner shall determine in its absolute discretion. The designation of an additional trading advisor or advisors and the apportionment of the Fund’s assets to such trading advisor(s) pursuant to this Section 6 shall neither terminate this Agreement nor modify in any regard the respective rights and obligations of the Fund, the Managing Owner and the Trading Advisor hereunder. In the event that assets are reallocated from the Trading Advisor, the Trading Advisor shall thereafter receive management and incentive fees based, respectively, on Assets, as reduced pursuant to this Section 6(a) and the Trading Profits attributable to such reduced Assets.
8
(b) The Managing Owner may at any time and from time to time upon three (3) Business Days' prior notice reallocate Assets to any other trading advisor or advisors of the Fund or allocate additional Assets upon three (3) Business Days' prior notice to the Trading Advisor from such other trading advisor or advisors; provided that any such addition to or withdrawal from Assets will only take place on the last day of a month unless the Managing Owner determines that the best interests of the Fund require otherwise. The Trading Advisor shall have the right to refuse any additional allocations to be made pursuant to this Section 6(b).
(c) The Managing Owner shall not, without the consent of the Trading Advisor, allocate to the Trading Advisor "notional" assets of the Fund.
(a) This Agreement shall continue in effect for a period of one year from the date the Agreement was entered into unless otherwise terminated as set forth in this Section 7. The Trading Advisor may terminate this Agreement at the end of such one-year period by providing prior written notice of termination to the Fund at least sixty (60) days prior to the expiration of such one-year period. If the Agreement is not terminated upon the expiration of such one-year period, this Agreement shall automatically renew for an additional one-year period and shall continue to renew for additional one-year periods until this Agreement is otherwise terminated, as provided for herein. This Agreement shall automatically terminate if the Fund is dissolved.
(b) The Fund and Managing Owner each shall have the right to terminate this Agreement in its discretion (i) at any month end upon five (5) days’ prior written notice to the Trading Advisor, or (ii) at any time upon prior written notice to the Trading Advisor upon the occurrence of any of the following events: (A) if any person described as a “principal” of the Trading Advisor in the Prospectus ceases for any reason to be an active “principal” of the Trading Advisor; (B) if the Trading Advisor becomes bankrupt or insolvent; (C) if the Trading Advisor is unable to use its trading systems or methods as in effect on the date hereof and as modified in the future for the benefit of the Fund; (D) if the registration, as a commodity trading advisor, of the Trading Advisor with the CFTC or its membership in the NFA is revoked, suspended, terminated, or not renewed, or limited or qualified in any respect; (E) except as provided in Section 12 hereof, if the Trading Advisor merges or consolidates with, or sells or otherwise transfers its advisory business, or all or a substantial portion of its assets, any portion of its futures interest trading systems or methods, or its goodwill to, any individual or entity; (F) if, at any time, the Trading Advisor violates any Trading Policy or administrative policy, except with the prior express written consent of the Managing Owner; or (G) if the Trading Advisor fails in a material manner to perform any of its obligations under this Agreement.
9
(c) The Trading Advisor may terminate this Agreement at any |
AGREEMENTS / CONTRACTS
CLAUSES
| Get Email Updates |
