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Options Institute Faculty
 Jim Bittman: Mr. Bittman is the author of two books, Options for the Stock Investor, (McGraw-Hill, 1996), and Trading Index Options (McGraw-Hill, 1998). He teaches courses for public and institutional investors, and he has presented several custom courses throughout the U.S., Europe, South America and Southeast Asia. In 1980 Mr. Bittman began his trading career as an equity options market maker at the Chicago Board Options Exchange. From 1983 to 1993, he was a Commodity Options Member of the Chicago Board of Trade where he traded options on financial futures and agricultural futures. Mr. Bittman received a BA, magna cum laude, from Amherst College in 1972 and an MBA from Harvard University in 1974. In addition to his responsibilities at The Options Institute, Mr. Bittman is also a member of the faculty of The Illinois Institute of Technology, where he teaches in the masters level Financial Markets and Trading Program.
 Marty Kearney: Mr. Kearney began his association with the Chicago Board Options Exchange when he became an independent Market Maker in the Spring of 1981. In early 1992 he left the trading floor to become a founding partner and Registered Options Principal of PTI Securities L. P., a member firm of the CBOE. Mr. Kearney's responsibilities at PTI included development and implementation of hedging strategies using listed options for PTI's institutional clients as well as PTI's retail investors. Additionally, he authored PTI's weekly strategy letter for over four years, and composed the daily comments on the PTI web-site, which he helped develop. He has been a regular contributor to many news services including Reuters, WMAQ Radio(Group W), The CBS Radio Network, Derivatives Week, Channel 26 TV, BARRON'S, and others. Mr. Kearney served on various committees at the CBOE, including the Arbitration Committee from 1984 to 1996. Mr. Kearney was a marketing director for NCR Corporation in Chicago for over eight years prior to joining the CBOE.
 Peter B. Lusk: Mr. Lusk is an instructor at the Options Institute, the educational arm of the Chicago Board Options Exchange. He teaches option courses for public and institutional traders and has contributed educational type articles to various financial publications.
Prior to working at the Options Institute, Peter was a highly successful market maker for 10 years on the floor of the CBOE trading equity options. He was also involved in options training for new market makers at Lakota Trading in Chicago.
As a professional trader, Peter enjoys sharing his knowledge of proven option strategies and risk management at the Options Institute.
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Guest Lecturers
 Rudy Aguilera: Rudy Aguilera is a founding principal with Helios, an independent fee-only Registered Investment Advisor that offers objective investment counsel free from industry and product affiliations. Utilizing an institutional platform, Helios works closely with advisory firms so that they may expand their suite of services to include low-cost, diversified, tax-efficient portfolios that exhibit less volatility than traditional equity investments.
Mr. Aguilera is a sought after speaker on the topics of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), concentrated equity positions, tax-efficient investing and the use of derivatives to decrease the volatility inherent in investment portfolios. Mr. Aguilera has been quoted in a number of publications including The Wall Street Journal and Business Week.
For the past two years, Mr. Aguilera has conducted continuing education sessions on investing for the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants (FICPA) at their statewide conference in Orlando and at the South Florida Accounting Show in Ft. Lauderdale. Moreover, Mr. Aguilera has served as a moderator, panelist and advisory board member at a number of ETF industry conferences. Currently, Mr. Aguilera is an occasional guest instructor at the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), where he teaches investment professionals how to budget the amount of risk within investment portfolios. Recently, Mr. Aguilera was a presenter at the Financial Planning Association’s (FPA) 2007 National Retreat. In addition, Mr. Aguilera has written a number of articles for industry publications and journals.
 Fari Hamzei: Fari Hamzei is the founder of Hamzei Analytics, LLC, which is in its tenth year of providing cutting-edge proprietary analysis and indicators to institutional and professional traders, featuring quantitative market sentiment data -- in real time -- for 500 of the most active indices, equities, sector HOLDRS, ETFs, and Index Tracking Stocks. Its indicators include the only real-time, intra-day dollar-weighted put/call ratios. Hamzei’s subscription services feature proprietary buy/sell signals, market sentiment, and trend/momentum indicators. Mr. Hamzei is frequently quoted by CNBC, Bloomberg, and RealMoney.com and is often featured on TradeStation.com and on the eSignal.com forums. His book, Master Traders: Strategies for Superior Returns from Today’s Top Traders, was published by John Wiley & Sons in October 2006. Fari was (as of May 5, 2006) ranked FIRST for the last three, six and twelve months, as tracked by Timer Digest, the sponsor of the “Market Timer of the Year” competition. He is also the Group Leader of the Los Angeles TradeStation /eSignal /RealTick /MetaStock Users’ Group (www.ActiveTraders.org). Mr. Hamzei is a graduate of Princeton University with a BSE degree in financial engineering, and was a director of strategic planning at Northrop Grumman Corporation Aircraft Group.
 Price Headley: BigTrends.com provides traders with specific real-time stock
and options strategies and investment education on a daily basis to maximize profits during
significant market trends. Founder Price Headley has appeared regularly on FoxNews as well as CNBC and Bloomberg Television, and in a variety of national financial media, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Investors Business Daily, and USA Today. He speaks regaularly to investment audiences nationwide. Mr. Headley is a graduate of Duke University and a chartered market technician (CMT) charterholder. He is also a chartered financial analyst (CFA) charterholder. Price Headley also authored the Amazon Investing best-seller, Big Trends in Trading: Strategies to Master Major Market Moves.
 Aron Lenkowsky: Since 1992, Aron Lenkowsky has managed his own portfolio in both the US Equities and Options markets. In 1999, he began trading full time and quickly became aware of the ebbs and flows of indices, sectors and intra-market analysis on multiple time frames. In 2000, he was asked to mentor at leading educational firms and share his expertise with less experienced traders. His methodology has been heard all over the world through live chat rooms where he quickly became known for his accuracy. In 2003, Mr. Lenkowsky founded Vantana Education/Vantana Associates, LLC to deliver education that would allow the average individual to participate in the US Markets. Using an original curriculum, Mr. Lenkowsky provides aspiring market participants the opportunity to learn first hand how to successfully navigate the ever-changing markets through seminars, small group and individual sessions. Mr. Lenkowsky received a Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and Political Science from Ithaca College and currently resides in New York City with his wife and daughter.
 AJ Monte: As a premier trading consultant, AJ is one of the most sought after in his field. He teaches professionals specialized techniques on how to accumulate and protect wealth through innovative market techniques. He has over 23 years in the business, ten of which were spent as a trader on the floor of the NY Commodity Exchange where he specialized in Gold & Silver Options. During his time on the trading floor he served for two years as the Chairman of the Option Floor Trading Committee for Comex. He left the floor in 1992 to trade NASDAQ stocks for Mayer & Schwitzer & Nash Weiss, which is now part of Bank of America. Several years later AJ pioneered the Trading Analytics Group for Charles Schwab & Co., which is a collection of team professionals who educate both clients and high profile brokers in the areas of Technical and Fundamental Analysis. AJ is the co-host of “Wealth & Wisdom”, a weekly financial show on WXEL PBS television in south Florida. His travels bring him to London, Switzerland and different parts of Asia teaching people how to manage risk by using technical analysis. AJ also appeared in the movie TRADING PLACES starring Dan Ackryod and Eddie Murphy while consulting with Director John Landis and the stars to prepare them for their realistic roles in the film. He is a Chartered Market Technician and member of the Market Technicians Association who currently resides in Orlando, Florida. He is married, has two children and loves to coach Lacrosse.
 Dan Sheridan: Dan is a 22-year CBOE pit veteran with Mercury Trading, where for the past 17 years he served as senior trader and risk manager. Dan regularly taught traders and retail investors on behalf of Mercury and the CBOE's Options Institute. He has previously provided training and commentary to numerous organizations including First Options, the Mexican Stock Exchange, DePaul University, Jon Najarian's TCB Radio program, and WCIU TV 26. Currently, Dan is president/founder of Sheridan Options Mentoring Corporation which provides, in cooperation with OptionVue Systems, one-on-one mentoring to retail and institutional traders seeking to add or improve their options trading skills.
 Rick Swope: Rick has presented in many seminars across the U.S. and around the world for some of the world’s top financial firms. Specializing in the areas of Technical Analysis and Risk Management, his topics have continually stayed in demand. His passion for teaching is obvious and his energy is contagious. Rick was the managing partner of a trading firm in Cincinnati for several years, providing technical analysis, trading strategy and software training to the firm’s traders. His well-rounded business background has also helped him create and develop premier consultant teams across America, as some may call him a consultant’s-consultant. Rick created the first market technical analysis consulting team for a financial firm with $1 trillion in client assets. Many members of that team are now training and consulting leaders in other firms around the country. Rick is the co-host of The Market Guys’ podcast, which is consistently rated among the top on-demand business shows in the world on Apple iTunes. He is the co-host of “Wealth & Wisdom”, a weekly financial show on WXEL PBS television in south Florida. His education through his Doctoral studies was in the areas of Engineering, Mathematics, Operations Research and Statistics. Rick is married with a 10-year-old son and a 6-year-old daughter. He is an avid runner and duathlete. Rick also holds a black belt and currently trains in both Tae Kwon Do and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
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