Options Insider Radio Interviews

In this episode, Mark is joined by Derek Sammann, Global Head of Commodities and Options Products and Blu Putnam Chief Economist at CME Group. They discuss: Looking at options at the FIA conference Volatility spike is a great opportunity to use options Interesting move in the flight to quality The global use for options Globalizing participation Re-defining who CME Group is and who they want to be And more

In this episode, Mark is joined by Jon Cherry, Head of U.S. Options at Northern Trust Capital Markets. They discuss: What does Northern Trust do in options? Who are their clients? What services do they provide? What are the most common uses of options for Northern Trust clients? How have clients responded to the recent changes in the market? The benefits of the consultative approach What products do they use most often? The explosion and implosion of inverse volatility products What's to come from Northern Trust in options?

In this episode, Mark is joined by Jonathan Molchan Portfolio Manager, Horizons ETF Management (US), LLC. They discuss: What is Horizon's ETF Management? Jonathan's background in financial services The Horizon's flagship product: QYLD Current and upcoming products, including using Russell Indexes Why cap the upside? What about commodities? Passive versus active portfolio management To learn more, visit the Horizons website

Mark attended the Inside ETFs conference and met with Rolf Agather, Managing Director of North America Research at FTSE Russell. They discussed: Rolf's background in financial services How does FTSE Russell define smart beta? The uses of smart beta Advisors' awareness of smart beta The resurgence of interest in beta Can smart beta bridge the divide between active and passive management? Emergence of fixed income taking advantage of systematic sources of return What's coming next from FTSE Russell?

Mark attended the Inside ETFs conference and ran into Eric Cott. They discussed: OCC's perspective on ETF options What is the level of options interest in ETF providers and traders? Total cleared volume for 2017 Is there a shift from passive to active portfolio management afoot? The new OIC options certificate for advisors What about Bitcoin options? Will the new tax code impact options traders?

Today's guest is world-renowned financial innovator, Dr. Richard L. Sandor, who is widely regarded as the father of interest rate derivatives and the father of the carbon markets. He discusses: The American Financial Exchange The genesis of AFX: viability of LIBOR You have to be early to be on time Will there be Ameribor futures and options? Expanding liquidity providing What is the relationship with Cboe? What is on the horizon for AFX in 2018? How things played out with the Climate Exchange His 2017 book, "How I Saw It" His forthcoming book "Electronic Trading and the Blockchain" Is crypto the tip of the iceberg? And more

In this episode we feature John Kinahan, CEO of Group One Trading He discusses: His background in the financial markets and journey to becoming CEO of Group One What are the biggest changes that have happened at Group One? The impact of technology, and the demands of technological advances The metamorphosis of skills required to work in finance The Group One market maker training program How has market making morphed over time? The challenge of weekly options: a double-edged sword. Why did mini options fail? What can we do to incent firms to stay in the business or even enter it new in 2018? The rise of the open outcry trading floor The cost and risk associated with connecting to so many venues What is it has been over the past year with VIX remaining so low yet continuing to do record volume?

In this episode, Mark is joined by Mike Beller, CEO of Thesys Technologies. They discuss: What is Thesys Technologies? What does Thesys Technologies do? CAT chat (consolidated audit trail) What is the status of the CAT? When will it go live? Security issues being a hangup Data management Quote updates yield data burstiness And more

In this episode, Mark is joined by Steve Tumen, CEO of Deep Systems. They discuss: Steve's background in finance and how did he start Deep Systems What does Deep Systems target? Can it be integrated with other systems? The Deep Systems three pillars of service Pushing the value proposition and optimal efficiency Looking for more efficiency Does the fragmented exchange landscape impact Deep Systems' effectiveness? The compliance issue Choosing what to put in the cloud Crypto, block chain, and more

In this episode, Mark is joined by David Hait, founder of OptionMetrics, LLC. They discuss: Is VIX irrelevant? The Pros and Cons of VIX, the Market's Fear Gauge Are the answers lurking in the VIX futures term structure? What would an ideal VIX look like? Single name volatility products? Skew analysis and volatility Findings and takeaways from ORC 2017 “The Risk Premium That Never Was: A Fair Value Explanation of the Volatility Spread” Thoughts on Bitcoin And more  

In this episode, Mark is joined by Craig Fuller, CEO of TransRisk and Paul Cusenza, Chairman and CEO of the Nodal Exchange. They discuss: Their backgrounds and how they came to finance What is TransRisk? What is the Nodal Exchange? How do they work together? What are trucking freight futures? Similarities to the energy markets How will the contracts settle? Portfolio margining What is the timing for releasing these futures? What has the early response been? Nodal's first foray into the options market And more...

In this episode, Mark is joined by Ian Rosen, CEO of StockTwits. They discuss: Ian's history in the financial services industry What is Stocktober Fest? What's new from StockTwits? Demographics of StockTwits users Flattening the onramp to investing What percentage of users are active options traders? How many people are discussing crypto? Bringing in new options traders StockTwits users level of interest in crypto

In this episode, Mark is joined by Jim Shinn, Predata's co-founder and CEO. They discuss: Jim's background Using big data to predict behavior The political VIX: PVIX Bitcoin, AI, and the future of fintech How do they analyze social media to predict behavior? Monitoring metadata from conversations How do they work with options traders? What is the PVIX predicting? Find out more at predata.com

In this episode, Mark is joined by Mark Casey, President and CEO of Apcela. They discuss: Mark's backgound in the financial services space What is Apcela? What sets Apcela's trading platform apart? The race to zero Cloud adoption, or lack thereof Improving the adoption of public cloud technologies The market data wars And more...

In this episode, Mark is joined by Frank Johnson, Managing Dand Kurt Smith, CFO, at Revenue-Share Capital They discuss: What was the genesis for Revenue-Share Capital? How did OptionScape influence Revenue-Share Capital? What differentiates Revenue-Share Capital from traditional venture capitalists? Generating income from cash flow, not profit Performing due diligence Start up interests: fintech and blockchain Who do they want to partner with?

In this episode, Mark is joined by Matt Gill, Director of Risk Advisory Services at RSM US LLP. They discuss: What is RSM? How to deal with the fluid regulatory environment Dodd-Frank Data privacy Cyber security A global view on data privacy regulation Choice Act/Volcker Rule System safeguards and regulator Crypto currency from an accounting point-of-view Today's Bitcoin event And more...

In this episode, Mark is joined by Jared Broad, Founder and CEO of QuantConnect. They discuss: The genesis of QuantConnect What is QuantConnect? Fast-tracking people's development Making data more accessible The challenge of the crypto market What kinds of algos are coming up for Bitcoin? What is the Broadcast tab? And more

In this episode, Mark is joined by Tom Watson, Head of Sales at Hanweck. They discuss: What is Hanweck's enhanced data feed? Going beyond implied vols and Greeks Real-time margin functionality The benefits of outsourcing Parallell processing capabilities Working with The OCC The fluid regulatory environment Filling a void in broker capacity And more

In this episode, Mark is joined by Nick LeMaina, Senior Vice President of Strategic Brokerage Services at TradeStation. They discuss: Who are the customers of TradeStation's Strategic Brokerage Services? What asset classes are their primary focus? How do their customers use options? What are the most popular tools on the TradeStation platform? The evolution of back-testing tools Commissions and fees What is TradeStation doing on the idea generation front? Optimizing the mobile experience Overnight trading

In this episode Mark is joned by Lanre Sarumi, Founder and CEO fo Riskbone LLC. They discuss: What is Riskbone RMS? What was the genesis of the product? What does it do? What are the primary products that CTAs are using on the platform? What is Level Trading Field? Research in the crypto market What would volatility skew look like on Bitcoin options if they were listed today? Will there be a crypto futures exchange in the future?