Speakers

Christopher Gardner

Owner and CEO, Christopher Gardner International Holdings

Christopher Gardner is the owner and CEO of Christopher Gardner International Holdings with offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. Surmounting acute obstacles on his road to success, Gardner is an avid motivational speaker, addressing the keys to self-empowerment, beating odds, and breaking cycles. Gardner is also a passionate philanthropist committed to many charitable organizations. More...

 

Ned W. Bennett

Executive Vice Chairman, optionsXpress Holdings, Inc.

Ned W. Bennett is Executive Vice Chairman of optionsXpress Holdings, Inc, the online options and stock brokerage. Bennett co-founded the company with Jim Gray, chairman, and David Kalt, CEO, in 2000 to provide tools and services to help investors use options as part of a long-term portfolio management strategy.

In this role, he is responsible for overseeing the company’s operational and customer service initiatives. With David Kalt, optionsXpress’ co-founder and CEO, he is also responsible for day to day management and enforcement of the company’s goals and policies.

Prior to joining optionsXpress, Bennett was COO of Pacific Brokerage Services, where he played a critical role in growing their online brokerage to more than $1 billion in client assets. He assisted in the sale of the company to Mellon Bank in 1997.

As CEO/COO of ED&F Man International Securities Inc., Bennett established the company as one of the three largest derivative brokers in the world.

As President/CEO of Geldermann Securities in 1986, Ned converted the company from a fully disclosed broker/dealer to a self-clearing operation and built an extensive correspondent business.

Bennett has been a Senior Options Principal since 1987 and is currently a NASD Series 3, 4, 7, 24, 27, 53, 63 Registered Representative and is a NYSE Series 8 Registered Representative.

David Fisher

CEO of optionsXpress Holdings, Inc.

David Fisher is the CEO of optionsXpress Holdings, Inc., the online options and stock brokerage. Previously, David has served as the Company's President since March 2007, and prior to that served as Chief Financial Officer beginning in August 2004. He has played an instrumental role in creating a strong, recognizable brand and driving the Company's most important initiatives including the conversion to self-clearing, the acquisition and integration of online futures broker XpressTrade, LLC and the initial public offering.

From March 2001 to July 2004, David Fisher served as Chief Financial Officer of Potbelly Sandwich Works, a quick service restaurant chain with over 60 units. Prior to that, Mr. Fisher served as Chief Financial Officer and Secretary of Prism Financial Corporation, a publicly-traded, nationwide consumer financial services company. David is a member of the Illinois Bar.

Joe Cusick

Vice President of Education

Joe Cusick is the Vice President of Education for optionsXpress. Attendees of Joe’s seminars around the country note his straightforward approach, his humor, and his ability to cover a wide range of questions from the most common to the most obscure. Joe’s experience as a CBOE market maker and a portfolio manager coupled with his first-hand knowledge of online trading make him a resource for all investors.

Joe is a Marquette University graduate and is a NASD Series 4, 7 and 63 Registered Representative.

Presentation: Conservative option strategies for the long term investor

Mike Tosaw

Director of Education

Mike Tosaw is the Director of Education for optionsXpress and is known for his ability to cover questions that range from the simple to the most complex. Mike is the man behind many of our online tutorials and live Webinars. His audiences around the country include online traders, members of investment clubs, and independent representatives seeking education about online stock and options trading.

His first hand experience as a retail investor and investment advisor makes him a resource for all investors. Mike is a Missouri Southern University graduate and a NASD Series 3, 4, 7 and 63 Registered Representative.

Presentation: Diagonal Spreads vs. Covered Calls...Which strategy is best for you?, Volatility

Tom Stern

Chief Executive Officer, optionsXpress International

Tom Stern is the Chief Executive Officer of optionsXpress International. Tom’s 30+ years in the brokerage industry provides a solid foundation in operations, trading and risk management. His prior experience includes Senior Executive positions with brokerage and clearing firms. Tom currently teaches the New Members at the CBOE, and serves on committees.

Tom was also an original CBOE floor member dating back to 1973. Tom is a NASD Series 4, 7, 24, 27, 55 and 63 Registered Representative and is a Registered Principal in Canada with the IDA.

Philip Bennett

Executive Vice President and Head of Customer Service, optionsXpress

Philip Bennett is an Executive Vice President and head of customer service for optionsXpress, based in El Paso, TX. Live Help, plus e-mail and phone support are Phil’s domain. Prior to entering the financial industry, Phil worked for a National Fraternal organization, the Loyal Order of the Moose, assisting in the management of volunteers in the New England territory.

There, he acted as a Top Director two years, and won Top Association awards and was awarded the Fraternities highest degree of service. Phil is a NASD Series 7, 4, 24 and 66 Registered Representative.

Jill DeArmond

Senior Vice President of Futures, optionsXpress

Jill DeArmond is the Senior Vice President of Futures for optionsXpress. Jill’s primary responsibility is running the newly-created Futures division. Prior to working at optionsXpress, Jill worked as a market maker in the DAX options and traded S&P Futures. Jill is a graduate of the University of Chicago and is a NASD Series 3, 4, 7, 24, 53, 55, and 63 Registered Representative.

Nina Milovac

Field Representative and Instructor, optionsXpress

Nina Milovac is a Field representative and instructor for optionsXpress working one on one with options investors. Prior to joining optionsXpress, Nina was a market maker at the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and was selected to serve on two committees for the Exchange. Nina is a NASD Series 7, 4, and 63 Registered Representative. Nina has also earned a double degree in Economics and International Studies from Northwestern University.

 

Fred Cadena

Vice President of Margin, optionsXpress Holdings, Inc.

Fred's primary responsibility is overseeing the monitoring of accounts to ensure compliance with margin lending and minimum equity requirements. Fred is also responsible for developing processes to streamline and automate our optionsXpress' operations and clearing functions. Prior to working at optionsXpress, Fred worked as a retail broker for Edward Jones and is a NASD Series 3, 4, 7, 24, and 63 Registered Representative.

Presentation: What You Don’t Know About Expiration Could Hurt You.

Heather Mitchell

Heather's induction to the futures industry began with ADM Investor Services in the agriculture pits at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 1994. She started as a runner and quickly moved to a phone clerk position, working with several retail customers handling sizable, broker-specific orders. Her experience at the CME also included out-trade reconciliation, back office operations, and balancing functions. Heather transferred to ADMIS' New York desk in 1997 to further her futures industry knowledge and experience. Recognizing the ever-expanding role of technology in our business, she joined XPRESSTRADE in January, 1998 and holds the Series 3 license.

Presentations: Intro to Emini S&P futures, Intro to Energy Futures, Futures 101

Gary Morton

Vice President of Risk & Margins, optionsXpress Holdings, Inc.

Gary has headed the margins and risk departments at optionsXpress for the past five years. Most recently, Mr. Morton played an integral role in bringing portfolio margin to optionsXpress, writing the application for exchange approval of portfolio margin and designing the infrastructure to support the new margin system. Gary was also instumental in developing the calculations that enabled optionsXpress to offer portfolio margin in a live, real-time environment.

Presentation: Portfolio Margining.

Jim Bittman

Jim Bittman, the CBOE's Options Institute

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.

Presentation: Trading Predictions and Option Strategies - sponsored by CBOE.

Albert H. Brinkman, Jr

Director, Equity Derivatives Marketing, Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX)

Albert Brinkman is Director, Equity Derivatives Marketing for the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. As such he is responsible for equity, sector index and currency option marketing and educational services to investors, brokerage firms and institutional clients throughout the United States and Canada along with directing the over-all product marketing programs of the exchange Al has presented options and derivatives classes at numerous Universities, brokerage firms, investor clubs and professional organizations throughout the U.S. Additionally, he also serves as a staff instructor for the Options Industry Council (OIC) and serves on the educational committee of the OIC. Prior to assuming his present position Mr. Brinkman spent over 20 years as a member of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange acting as both and equity specialist and option floor broker. Mr. Brinkman received his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Texas Christian University, and is a graduate of the Securities Industry Association Securities Industry Institute at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and is a NASD series 7 and 4 Registered Representative. Additionally, Mr. Brinkman served over 30 years in the United States Army Reserve as an infantry and civil affairs officer retiring with the rank of Colonel.

Presentation: Trading the new third dimension of Foreign Exchange – PHLX Cash-Settled World Currency Options & Futures

Tom Busby

Founder, DTI Traders

Tom Busby is a pioneer in the trading industry as a world-recognized educator. Busby emerged as one of the industry’s first trading professionals to TRADE LIVE in front of a crowd of his clients and peers at various venues around the country. He has served as an educator in weekly online webinars for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where he has been a member since 2002. He is also a Member of the Chicago Board of Trade, who has also called on Busby to trade live in CBOT sponsored events at some of the largest trade shows in the industry.

Busby takes a complex subject, the global markets, and puts it into an easy-to-understand language for all levels of traders and investors. As the CEO of DTI, a virtual trader’s paradise of information and education, he spends his days teaching his students and trading his own private account in futures, options and equities.

Busby’s lifelong career in the markets started as a money manager with some of the world’s largest wire houses. He then moved into the private sector and started training others about the global markets. With guest speaking spots on Bloomberg and CNBC, he is also the author of two best-selling books, Winning the Day Trading Game and The Markets Never Sleep. Busby also hosts a daily online live trading room for investors around the globe.

Presentation: The Markets Never Sleep: Strategies for Trading Around the Globe, Live Trading with Professional Trader Tom Busby

Mark Dannenberg

Director Seminar Operations, Compound Stock Earnings

Mark Dannenberg has been applying the Compound Stock Earnings technique for eight years and was one of the first students privately mentored by CSE Founder, Joseph Hooper. Mark spent 26 years as a senior executive with a fortune 500 company and is now Director Seminar Operations at Compound Stock Earnings.

Presentation: Covered Calls and LEAPS - Income Generation Potential

Fasi Filaga

Co-Founder, Spread Trade Systems

Fasi Filiaga, the Founder of Spread Trade Systems and curriculum director, has been trading in the stock market for 15 years using the system he and co-founder Greg Jensen have developed. The trading methodology taught by Fasi and Greg is comprised of three equally important components: 1) proper strategy application, 2) setting and following predetermined exit points, and 3) executing trade adjustments — all of which depend on proper due diligence.

Presentations: Wing Spreads, Volatility: How It Affects Your Trades

Tom Gentile

Optionetics

A full time trader at heart, Tom Gentile started his trading career on Wall Street at the American Stock Exchange and then turned to trading off the floor. He has appeared on numerous television and radio shows including CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News and Reuters. With over two decades of industry-wide experience, Tom Gentile also plays a key role in the development of Optionetics. A regular contributor to Stocks and Commodities, The Wall Street Journal, Barron's and other publications, Tom Gentile has co-authored The Stock Market Course, The Volatility Course and the The Index Course with George Fontanills, founder of Optionetics.

Presentations: 7 Habits to Help You Trade - With Case Studies, Supercharge Your Trading for 2007 and Beyond

Daniel Gramza

President of Gramza Capital Management, Inc.

Daniel Gramza is president of Gramza Capital Management, Inc., and DMG Advisors, LLC. He is a trader, consultant to domestic and international clients, and the trading advisor to the St Croix hedge funds. Mr. Gramza has published works in Australia, Europe, Japan, and the US, and is completing Trading in the Eye of the Storm and The Handbook of Japanese Candle Trading Strategies.

Presentation: Futures and Options Strategy Applications Using Japanese Candlesticks

Philip Guziec

Derivatives Strategist, Morningstar, Inc.

Responsible for developing derivatives research products, Philip is currently developing the Morningstar approach to options investing to help reduce risk and enhance returns, including the presentation of equity options prices and analytics, Morningstar proprietary volatility indexes, and a series of articles. Philip is also working on a suite of tools that will use graphical analysis to help demystify the complexities of options transactions, and use Morningstar's proprietary stocks research to help identify the best option investment opportunities.

Presentation: Fundamental Stock Investing and Options

Fari Hamzei

Founder, Hamzei Analytics

Fari Hamzei is the founder of Hamzei Analytics, LLC, which is in its ninth year of providing 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 real-time, intra-day dollar-weighted put/call ratios. Hamzei Analytics' subscription services feature proprietary buy/sell signals, market sentiment, zero-lag trend/momentum and market timing 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 webinars on Sigma Channels are always booked over capacity on OXPS' WebEx system. His book, Master Traders: Strategies for Superior Returns from Today's Top Traders, published by John Wiley & Sons is a best-seller on Amazon.com trading space. 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.

Presentation: High Speed Indicators for High Speed Trading of Futures Markets

Price Headley

Founder, Big Trends

Price Headley is the founder of BigTrends.com, which aims to provide traders and investors with real-time stock and options strategies as well as investment education and coaching.

Headley appears regularly on CNBC, Fox News, Bloomberg Television and in a variety of print and online financial-news outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Forbes, Investor's Business Daily and USA Today.

He regularly speaks to investment audiences nationwide. He is a member of the Market Technicians Association, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder and a Chartered Market Technician (CMT) charterholder. He graduated from Duke University.

Presentations: Managing the Trade - Critical Steps to Define Your Risk & Reward in Options Trading, Options Indicators for Effective Market Timing

David Hightower

President of The Hightower Report

David Hightower is a principal of Hartfield Management, Inc., a registered Commodity Trading Advisor, and editor of The Hightower Report newsletter. The Hightower Report produces research reports daily via proprietary quote systems, fax, e-mail, and, in 2004, launched its comprehensive Research Center Web site, which probably makes it one of the most widely read commodity daily research product in the world. The Research Center provides insightful daily market forecasts, including pre-opening, verbal mid-day, and after-market reports, along with trading ideas utilizing both futures and options. Mr. Hightower has been the senior commodity research analyst with The Hightower Report since its inception. Previously, he was the director of research at Stotler Company where he directed over 40 analysts in every sector of the marketplace. Mr. Hightower was one of the first paid full-time stock index analysts in the early 80s and continues to cover the index markets on a daily basis. Many key brokerage firms utilize his services as a research consultant and market strategist; he is also a noted options specialist at the commercial level. Mr. Hightower has served as an expert witness for regulatory agencies on various issues regarding hedging procedures, validating various research projects, and in preparing government trial efforts. He is also a frequent guest on CNN, Bloomberg Television, and many other industry programs.

Presentation: Commodity Prices with Leveraged Option Strategies

Alex Jacobson

Vice President, Education International Securities Exchange (ISE)

Alex Jacobson is the Education Officer of ISE. From 1985 to 2000, he was with the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), most recently as Vice President of Business Development. During his tenure at CBOE, Mr. Jacobson was instrumental in developing CBOE's liaison to the brokerage community. He was also significantly involved in the initial development of the Options Industry Council and is a founding member of the Options Institute. Prior to 1985, Mr. Jacobson was a top producing broker and options trainer at Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith, Inc.

Mr. Jacobson is frequently quoted in the financial media and has taught in the training schools of most major brokerage firms and several foreign derivatives exchanges. He is also a contributing author to the book "Master Traders" which will be published by Wiley Publishers in late 2006.

Mr. Jacobson has an M.B.A. in Finance from DePaul University and a B.S. in Finance from the University of Illinois.

Presentations: Effective Trading Tactics using FX Options, Optimizing your spread trades in a high volatility market

Ross Jardine

Mr. Jardine has been an active investor since 1988 and is considered one of the innovators in the field of investor education. Mr. Jardine was the co-founder of Online Investors Advantage, which grew to be one of the world-wide leaders in investor education. He has personally trained thousands of individual investors how to manage their own personal investments using the tools and strategies he developed. Mr. Jardine has been a featured speaker at hundreds of investment seminars and conferences in dozens of countries around the world. He is the author of the book The Bear Market Game Plan as well as dozens of training courses, seminars and video presentations on personal investing and option strategies. Mr. Jardine was one of the pioneers in ecommerce having founded one of the first successful online shopping sites (iMall) in 1994 that was later sold to Excite@Home. He created the first-ever website for the Super Bowl in 1995 as well as developing online strategies for the Covey Leadership Center, Healthrider and a host of other companies. Mr. Jardine is a graduate of Brigham Young University where he earned a BA in Public Relations (cum laude) with an emphasis on Business.

Presentations: Bear Market Strategy & Income Strategies using LEAPs, Maximizing Implied Volatility & Directional Break-Outs

Greg Jensen

Co-Founder, Spread Trade Systems

Greg Jensen, Spread Trade Systems Co-founder and Lead Instructor, has been trading for a living for 7 years and has helped thousands of people develop a No Fear trading portfolio. He graduated from Utah St. University with a B.S. in Business Management where he studied Finance and first got turned on to the stock market. During college he started investing using stocks and options and has never done anything other than that until he and Fasi created Spread Trade Systems. He has been a Registered Investment Advisor in the past and has actively managed private investment accounts.

Presentations: Adjustments — Turn losing trades around, Volatility: How It Affects Your Trades

Jared Levy

National Trainer, GlobalTec

Jared Levy has been involved in the financial markets and studying options theory since he was a teenager, He has held his series 7 and 63. Beginning his career as a retail stock broker, he created his own trading indicator for options and went to trade in the Pits. He is a former member of the Philadelphia Stock exchange, American Stock Exchange and Chicago Stock exchange. Jared was one of the youngest members of both the PHLX and AMEX.

By 1998, Jared was a market maker trading the largest volume issue as on the PHLX (DELL). Before 25 he was one of the original members (market makers) in the QQQ options pit on the AMEX, and one of the largest volume market makers trading thousands of options contracts as well as stock and NDX futures daily. On the PHLX, after launching an equities and options operation for his firm, served as specialist for such companies as Krispy Kreme Donuts, Expedia.com, Baxter Technologies, Broadband and Semiconductor HOLDRS products amongst many others.

Jared is currently the senior national trainer and options strategist for Wizetrade for Options and resident options expert on several programs on WizetradeTV (wizetradetv.com) Jared has a passion for teaching and inspiring others.

Presentation: A Unique Vertical Spread with Jared Levy

Larry McMillan

Author, Options as a Strategic Investment

Larry McMillan has written several books on trading options, including McMillan on Options, Profit with Options, and Options as a Strategic Investment — which has sold more than 200,000 copies — and he co-authored New Insights on Covered Call Writing. He currently writes a daily advisory service — Daily Volume Alerts — aimed at selecting short-term stock trades by looking for unusual increases in equity option volume. McMillan edits and publishes The Option Strategist, a derivative products newsletter covering equity, index, and futures options, as well as The Daily Strategist, covering similar strategies on a daily basis. He’s also frequently quoted in publications such as Barron’s, Stocks and Commodities magazine, Futures Magazine, TheStreet.com, and Active Trader magazine.

Presentations: Modern Portfolio Protection, The Power Of Options

Stephen Meizinger

Director of Education, International Securities Exchange (ISE)

Steve Meizinger is a Director of Education at the International Securities Exchange with twenty years of Equity Options trading experience. Steve has worked at three different U.S. options exchanges, facilitating trades between professional traders and customers and has been an Equity Options Specialist on the trading floor. Through those roles, Steve learned how to adapt to changing trading environments and implemented many different options strategies, which he now shares with the rest of the options-trading community.

Steve has written articles for the Options Industry Council and travels throughout North America teaching options strategies. Steve serves as an instructor for ISE and the Options Industry Council.

Steve has a B.S degree in Finance from Rider University in Lawrenceville N.J.

Presentations: The re-pricing of risk, what does it mean for my trading?

John O'Donnell

Chief Knowledge Officer, Online Trading Academy (OTA)

John O'Donnell is the Chief Knowledge Officer for Online Trading Academy (OTA), delivering a combination of educational and corporate experience that has been instrumental in making Online Trading Academy one of the premier trading schools in the world with 20 global offices via franchise model. He also serves as a consultant to five public companies and his expertise is an essential ingredient in OTA's fast global growth and industry peer award-winning recognition. Mr. O'Donnell was a finalist two years in a row for the "Entrepreneur of the Year" award by Inc. magazine in Orange County, CA. His recent articles, interviews, and speaking engagements have focused on issues such as historic boom/bust business cycles and the potential coming burst of the credit bubble in the "Globalization 3.0 Era" as well as impacting many newsletter subscribers and the global audience of active trader communities. Mr. O'Donnell has been featured in and been a keynote speaker at many global finance portals and expos including FNN, CNN, CNBC, CNNfn, FXstreet.com, Trade2Win, Online Traders Expo, London IX Expos, Brazil Active Traders Expos, World's First Virtual Online Traders Expo, Canadian Financial Forums, MoneyShow.com, MarketWatch, The Wall Street Journal, IBD, and ADVfn. He began his career in 1968 as a public school teacher and then moved to public corporations working as an investment banker for 20+ years.

Presentations: How to Survive with Power Trading in Globalization 3.0

John Person

John Person is a 26-year veteran trader in the futures and options markets and is a registered Commodity Trader Advisor (CTA). His book, The Complete Guide to Technical Analysis for the Futures Markets, was one of the first books to illustrate how to use candlesticks combined with pivot point analysis. John’s second book, Trading Triggers, was released in 2006, and his third book, Forex Conquered, in May 2007. John is the editor of the weekly Bottom Line newsletter, available at nationalfutures.com. He is often quoted by business journalists including CBS Market Watch, Reuters, Dow Jones, Bloomberg and he appears regularly on CNBC.

Presentations: Advanced Trading Tactics for Precious Metals Futures Markets

Freddie Rick

Founder, BetterTrades

As founder of www.BetterTrades.com, Freddie Rick has long experience in educating and motivating students who want to learn to trade the stock market. A natural teacher, Freddie's leadership and management skills were fine tuned in the Marine Corps where he received numerous promotions and was selected Marine of the Year (Far East). After the military, Freddie applied his considerable skills on the executive teams of several large companies, including the TPN PrimStar Satellite Network. Freddie started BetterTrades in the late 90's with the goal of using state of the art teaching methods to train individual investors about the financial markets. Freddie continues as an active investor and trading instructor, as well, and is a frequently requested speaker at investment conventions, seminars and trading groups all over the country. The unusual energy and engaging style he uses in demonstrating investment scenarios encourages student participation and inspires confidence in their newfound trading skills.

Presentations: Road Map to Retirement: Using Options to help generate Monthly Cash Flow

Vic Schiller

President, Investors Observer

Mr. Schiller spent nearly twenty years battling it out in the trenches of the high-tech computer software and hardware world. He started with the nuts and bolts of Research and Development and rose through the ranks of Marketing to the CEO position of a leading computer software publisher. In his last position, Mr. Schiller ran the Eclipse Consumer Software Division for Phoenix Technologies.

Presentation: 4 Conservative Option Strategies Investors often Overlook

Steven M. Sears

Senior Special Writer, Barron's & Barron's Online

Steven writes the Striking Price, and Striking Price Daily columns, which focus on options trading, the stock market and investment trends. Steven is also a contributor for Smartmoney.com for which he writes The Contrarian, a column that focuses on how investors can use options to help demystify and better navigate the financial markets. Mr. Sears pioneered coverage of the options market for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. Prior to assuming his current duties, Steven was director of corporate affairs for the International Securities Exchange, At ISE, he developed the ISE Sentiment Index (ISEE), which has become a widely followed trading barometer in the securities industry. Mr. Sears also served as senior advisor to the chairman of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, participating in the restructuring of the nation's oldest securities market.

Presentation: Options News You Can Use: An Insiders Guide To Puts, Calls And Financial News

Dan Sheridan

Dan Sheridan was a 22-year CBOE market maker with Mercury Trading where for the past 17 years he served as senior trader, trainer and risk manager. A dynamic presenter, Dan regularly teaches traders and retail investors on behalf of the CBOE’s Options Institute. Since leaving the pit in 2004, he founded Sheridan Mentoring and has mentored individual traders on the techniques and methods he used everyday to help generate potential opportunities in the options markets. 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 (Chicago).

Presentation: Live Trading with Dan Sheridan: Creating a Portfolio for Monthly Income, The Art of Adjusting

Steve Smith

Senior Options Columnist, TheStreet.com

With more than 20 years of experience, Steven was a seat-holding member of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) from 1989 to 1995. During that six-year period, he traded multiple markets for his own personal account and acted as an executing broker for third-party accounts. While at the TheStreet.com, Steven has helped to expand coverage of the growth options and derivatives markets by writing a daily blog featured on RealMoney.com. He also manages TheStreet.com Options Alerts newsletter, which provides both options education and a real-time model portfolio.

Presentation: Spread Your Wings: Using Butterfly Spreads

Tim Truelove

GlobalTec

Tim Truelove is an avid options trader and national trainer for Wizetrade for OptionsTM, a product of GlobalTec’s suite of industry trend recognition software for individual investors. In that role, Tim conducts training events for options traders of all skill levels. He also hosts OptionsTalkTM Live, daily Internet-based training broadcasts aired during market hours, and iLearn Options Online Learning Classes. Tim, who joined the GlobalTec team in 2004, is attending the University of North Texas, where he is pursuing a degree in business.

Presentation: Wizetrade for Options

Jim Wyckoff

Jim Wyckoff has spent the better part of two decades involved with the stock, financial and commodity futures markets. Jim cut his teeth as a reporter on the rough-and-tumble commodity futures trading floors in Chicago and New York, covering every futures market traded in the U.S., at one time or another. Not long after beginning his career in financial journalism, Jim began studying technical analysis and realized that it could help to level the playing field between the “professional insiders” in the markets, and an individual trader.

Presentation: Effective Market Entry and Exit Strategies in the Grain Futures

Ernie Zerenner

PowerOptions Plus

During a 30-year career at Hewlett-Packard, Ernie Zerenner forged a trail of achievement. During his HP tenure, Ernie continued his lifelong fascination with the stock market, building a successful portfolio. When retirement loomed, Ernie felt it was necessary to switch his investing philosophy from seeking capital gains to creating income from assets owned. So he turned to covered calls, an options trading strategy designed to help generate income. To get an edge in the market, Ernie and a colleague designed a computerized system to rapidly scan the entire market and help find covered call opportunities. The time required to analyze potential trades dropped from almost a day to just minutes. It was breakthrough technology (SmartSearchXL) that earned a patent, and was the basis for a website that not only supports Ernie’s covered call investments, it supports thousands of subscriber/investors in over 57 countries all over the world. PowerOpt.com is the largest subscription program of Power Financial Group, the publishing company Ernie established in 1997. Today, he continues to innovate and seek ways to help investors grow through options.

Presentation: 4 Conservative Option Strategies Investors often Overlook

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