Options News Network

Matt is the CEO of The Options News Network. Prior to that, he was a decorated Navy fighter pilot for 15 years and flew the F/A-18 Hornet. He graduated from the Navy Fighter Weapons School ("TOPGUN"), has close to 400 carrier landings and flew 44 combat sorties over Iraq.

After leaving active duty and joining a reserve fighter squadron in Fort Worth, Texas, "Whiz" was scheduled for his first flight as an American Airlines pilot on September 11th, 2001. Instead, he ended up flying combat air patrol over the United States and went from piloting his first airliner to possibly shooting one down. He was furloughed along with thousands of others in the airline industry, and turned his attention to the business and financial world.

Matt is a nationally recognized speaker in the areas of leadership, business strategy and risk management. He has been trading options for himself for over 10 years.He recently completed his first book titled "From Sea Level to C Level; A Navy Fighter Pilots Leadership and Business Lessons from the Front Lines to the Front Office."

He is the host of "Mad About Options" and "The Options Cocktail".

Jud is the Chief Investment Strategist for Options News Network. Jud started his career in finance in 1994 as a derivative analyst with SBC Warburg, now UBS Warburg. After 4 years with Warburg, Jud joined PEAK6 Investments, L.P. as an equity options trader and as chief risk officer.

As a trader, Jud traded on average over 5,000 contracts per day, and over 1.2 million contracts per year. He also built the stock group for all PEAK6 Investments, L.P. hedging, which currently trades on average over 5 million shares per day, and over 1 billion shares per year. Further, from 2004-2006 he managed the trading and risk management for PEAK6 Investments L.P.'s lead market-maker operation on the former PCX exchange, which traded over 10,000 contracts per day.

Jud is the "Mad About Options" Resident Expert. Jud is also a regular contributor to "Options Physics."

Prior to joining the ONN crew, Carrie Long worked as an associate producer for the CME Group Broadcast Communications Department. She has diverse experience on and off camera as a host, writer, producer and media director. Carrie is a graduate of Purdue University, where she studied Broadcast Journalism and Theatre Performance, as well as studying internationally and was a news intern for the ABC network in Chicago.

Carrie is the host of "OptionsNews.."

Kevin studied philosophy and education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and wanted to become a teacher. Instead, he found his way to Chicago's commodity exchanges in the mid-90's and discovered the world of futures and options. Standing next to pro options traders every day for two years was an incredible opportunity for him to learn the essential dynamics of probability, risk, and long-term trading success.

He used this knowledge to leave the trading floor and gain a spot as an electronic trader on a high-volume, currency arbitrage desk. As a high-frequency market maker for 9 years, Kevin was part of the ground-breaking team at the CME that provided deep liquidity to global banks and funds in all time zones in order to establish a solid link on Globex between currency futures and the underlying cash markets and he traded $50 to $150 million worth of currencies per day to do so. That puts the total mileage somewhere around $150 billion in foreign exchange during his tenure, equivalent to well over 1,000,000 futures contracts. He thinks it added 20 years to his age.

During that intense training ground amidst the titans of the interbank, Kevin also dove into a detailed study of trading psychology and systems and the predominating odds of failure for most new traders. He gathered and organized key principles on the mental and mathematical "edges" of skilled discretionary and systems traders and then began sharing the results of his research in 2003 through writing and free seminars, coaching futures and stock traders to think with an emotionally-detached "probability mind-set" about risk and reward by replicating the option trader's approach to systematic rules execution and money management.

Kevin joined the Options News Network to build exciting options education for investors and traders, which brings him full circle to his goal of teaching. He believes options are more interesting and versatile and more fun than any other investment vehicle.

Kevin is the host of "Options Physics" and "Mark2Market", where traders can learn the fundamental probability and risk mechanics of options trading in ways they won't find anywhere else.

Jared Levy has spent his entire career (and much of his adolescence) immersed in the finance and options industries. Jared began his career as a retail stock broker, spending three years managing money and educating the public on smart investing decisions, which included many alternative strategies.

After creating his own stock and options-trading strategy and indicator, Jared assumed his next role as a pit trader. One of the youngest-ever members of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX), Levy became a market maker, trading the largest volume issue on that exchange, Dell (DELL). He then moved to the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), trading Cisco Systems (CSCO) contracts. Before the age of 25, Jared had been recruited by Equitec Proprietary Group to be one of the original market makers trading Nasdaq-100 Trust options ("Qubes"), where he traded thousands of options contracts and shares daily.

In 2001, Jared returned to the PHLX to launch a new operation for his firm, there he served as an options specialist for companies including Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (KKD), Expedia.com (EXPE), Baxter Technologies, and Broadband and Semiconductor HOLDRS products, among others.

After leaving the floor, Levy traded distressed assets and consulted for Thomson Financial before relocating to Dallas to join Wizetrade and WTV as Chief Options Strategist and on-air options expert. He was known for his 3+ hours of daily, live and unscripted market commentary and education. Jared dedicated his time with Wizetrade to educating people worldwide about the mechanics of the market, risk management, options trading and the equity and derivative markets in general.

Jared has been featured in several industry publications and won an Emmy for his daily video, "Trader Cast."

As Senior Finance Specialist for Financial Markets Education, LLC, Jared offers his extensive market knowledge to both institutional and retail traders.

Joe Troccolo earned a PhD in theoretical mathematics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He taught in the mathematics department of Cleveland State University, specializing in designing and teaching mathematics courses for students in non-scientific areas. For most of his time at CSU Joe taught in First College, a unique small college within a large urban university that was organized around an intense personalized approach to learning.

In 1987 Joe left the academic world to work with O'Connor and Associates, a closely held hedge fund based in Chicago. Upon joining Joe went through the same rigorous training that he would subsequently be responsible for delivering to the market-makers, traders and quantitative analysts at O'Connor. Soon after O'Connor was acquired by Swiss Bank Corporation Joe become the Global head of the Financial Markets Education department, responsible for the education of bank personnel in all areas of finance. FME typically delivered in excess of 1000 days of training each year.

In recent years Joe has spent a lot of his time delivering education to the bank's clients. He held this job, rising to the level of Managing Director, until 2007 when he left UBS, the entity created by the merger of Swiss Bank Corporation and the Union Bank of Switzerland.

Joe also runs an independent education consultancy through which he delivers courses and consults on educational programs to selected clients in hedge funds, investment banks and asset management firms. His specialization is in education on derivatives but his range extends through foreign exchange, interest rates, fixed income, equity valuation, structured products, convertible bonds and special topic areas such as hedge funds and behavioural finance.

Joe is the host of "Options Physics Professional."