About this episode

Bobby “Yogi” Schwartz discusses his career from CME floor trading to co-founding RCM, sharing insights on trading culture and the evolution of the futures market.

Former CME floor trader and RCM co-founder Bobby “Yogi” Schwartz joins Jeff to close out our Chicago month and walks through a wild career arc: from generational hog pit roots to dominating the Nasdaq futures pit during the dot-com bubble, then building prop firms, arbing minis vs. big contracts, and eventually stepping into Hollywood film finance before returning to launch RCM. Bobby shares vivid floor stories: badges, hand signals, full-contact fights, and multi-million-dollar errors, while explaining how open outcry actually worked, why Chicago produced so many elite prop traders, and how the e‑mini revolution rewired the futures landscape. He breaks down building and backing 100+ traders, deploying early “gray box” tech, and structuring option and index arb trades that bridged futures, ETFs, and cash baskets. The conversation then shifts to what RCM does today: multi-FCM clearing, outsourced trading, ETF and mutual fund infrastructure, ag and global trade finance, and navigating the explosion of new DCMs, prediction markets, and perps. Along the way, Bobby drops Hollywood war stories, Chicago steakhouse lore, and a candid look at where derivatives trading is headed next…

People in this episode

Host: Jeff

Guest: Bobby “Yogi” Schwartz

Topics covered

• trading
• futures
• prop firms
• Hollywood finance
• Chicago trading culture
• derivatives

Keywords

• CME
• Nasdaq
• prop trading
• derivatives
• Chicago
• Hollywood finance
• e-mini
• arbitrage
• trading technology

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: RCM, CME, Nasdaq, Hollywood

Places: Chicago, Chicago steakhouse

More episodes of The Derivative

• So You Want to Start an ETF? With Gavin Filmore of Tidal · July 16, 2026 · 1h 19m
• Too Basic to Notice, Too Big to Ignore: Tom Ferguson on the VC Opportunity in Water Tech · July 9, 2026 · 1h 18m
• How Chicago Became the World’s Options, Vol, and Derivatives Capital (with Cboe’s Rob Hocking & Mandy Xu) · June 18, 2026 · 1h 17m

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Derivative podcast page.