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. |
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Marty Kearney: Mr. Kearney is the co-author of Understanding LEAPS®, published by McGraw-Hill, released in September of 2002 and a contributing author of Options: Essential Concepts and Strategies (3rd edition), edited by The Options Institute, the educational arm of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). Mr. Kearney began his long association with the CBOE when he became an independent Market Maker in early 1981. Mr. Kearney traded equity options full time on the trading floor until 1992 and periodically thereafter until 1996. In early 1992 he became a founding partner and Registered Options Principal of a brokerage firm based in Chicago. Mr. Kearney's responsibilities included development and implementation of hedging and trading strategies using listed options for their institutional clients as well as their retail investors. Mr. Kearney authored a weekly strategy letter for over four years, and composed the daily comments on the firms' website, which he helped develop. He has been a regular contributor to many news services including Reuters, Group W, The CBS Radio Network, Derivatives Week, BARRON'S, FORTUNE, Ticker Magazine, Stock Futures and Options, CNBC, Bloomberg, NPR and others. Mr. Kearney served on various committees at the CBOE, including the Arbitration Committee from 1984 to 1996. Prior to joining the CBOE Mr. Kearney was a marketing director for NCR Corporation. Mr. Kearney is a graduate of St. Mary's University (MN), BS, 1971, and pursued his MBA at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. In 2006 he completed a 3-year SII/SIA program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. At The Options Institute his duties include helping brokers develop new business with conservative option strategy such as covered- writing and portfolio hedging. He also trains brokerage firms' compliance department staff. |
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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.
Peter has spoken to thousands of investors across North America the past few years including over 100 webinars for the CBOE and member firms on trading options. He can also be seen each week on CBOETV with his show, Strategy of the Week. In addition to his responsibilities at the Options Institute, Peter serves as an Instructor for the Options Industry Council - an organization representing the options industry in the U.S. Prior to working at the Options Institute, Peter was a highly successful market maker for many 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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Russell Rhoads: Russell Rhoads, CFA is an instructor with The Options Institute at the Chicago Board Options Exchange. He joined the Institute in 2008 after a career as an investment analyst and trader with a variety of firms including Highland Capital Management in Memphis, Caldwell & Orkin Investment Counsel in Atlanta, and Balyasny Asset Management in Chicago. He also is a financial author and editor having contributed to Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities magazine and edited several books for Wiley publishing. In 2008 he wrote Candlestick Charting For Dummies and is currently working on an option spreading book to be released in late 2010. He is a double graduate of the University of Memphis with a BBA (92) and an MS (94) in Finance and also received a Master’s Certificate in Financial Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2003. Also, he instructs a graduate level options course at the University of Illinois - Chicago.
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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. |
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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.
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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. |
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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. |
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Allen Reminick: Mr. Reminick is a mathematician who has developed quantitative market forecasting theories and techniques. He has taught mathematics at Brooklyn College and St. Johns University, where his expertise was in Riemannian geometry. Over 30 years ago Mr. Reminick noticed that these mathematical time series techniques could be used in market forecasting. In 1987 Mr. Reminick met and became a student of Dr. Jerome Baumring of the Investment Centre in California. Dr. Baumring added a clear and complete picture of market behavior and a set of techniques that led to the application of abstract mathematical theories to real time market action. After integrating these techniques, Mr. Reminick became a market strategist and advisor to fund managers and traders. In 2007, Mr. Reminick founded Blue Apple Trends, a software development company dedicated to creating automated trading and hedging strategies. These techniques became the basis of The Reminick Letter, a monthly newsletter for trading stocks and commodities. As a result of the accuracy of the newsletter, a demand grew for seminars that explain these techniques. Mr. Reminick began giving seminars at the CBOE in 2009.
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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. |
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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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