Options Edge Executi
ve Editor and Senior Contributor Michael Khouw is a veteran of the financial services industry whose derivatives trading experience began in the 1990s as a member and floor trader in the open-outcry pits of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange. Since then Mike has broad experience working as a strategist, analyst, portfolio manager and proprietary trader of equities, commodities and equity and index derivatives.
Mike is Co-Founder and CIO of Optimize Advisors, LLC, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor that uses proprietary artificial intelligence and quantitative techniques with the objective of providing superior risk-adjusted returns. Mike is also the co-author of “The Options Edge” (Wiley 2016) A comprehensive guide to understanding the value of options, optionality, volatility and strategy for both retail and institutional investors that includes practical real-life examples of do’s and don’t for everyone from options novices to seasoned practitioners.
Mike (along with his brother Jeffrey Khouw) is an investor in the artificial intelligence company Tradelegs, LLC which uses unique patent-pending models and specialized algorithm hybridization infrastructure and technology with ultra-powerful cluster-compute processing to identify provably optimal trade structures, hedges, and systematic investment strategies. The founding team of experts has developed and deployed similar hardened algorithmic products in the airlines, logistics and telecoms sectors, and have a track record of cracking optimization problems that were considered intractable or too hard to solve. Over 80% of the world’s telecommunications traffic is managed by the bandwidth optimization technology they developed. You may learn more about them at www.tradelegs.com/about/ Mike is co-founder and Chief Strategist at Optimize Advisors which deploys this technology for high-net worth and institutional investors. Mike has also advised several software companies that specialize in decision-support and execution for options traders and investors.
Mike was previously a Partner at Cantor Fitzgerald and Head of US Listed Equity Derivatives Sales & Trading, he served in the same role as a Principal and Managing Director at CRT Capital. Mike also previously held senior trader positions at Bluefin Trading, where he focused on energy futures and options trading, and Gateway Partners which focused on single-stock and equity index volatility arbitrage and correlation trading; both proprietary trading firms based in New York. Gateway Partners uncommon approach achieved returns of over 70%, 170% and 560% per year respectively in 1998, 1999 and 2000 before the trading operations were acquired by Knight Capital Group in 2001. Mike also worked as an analyst at Ivory Capital, a research-intensive, fundamental value-based investment firm headquartered in Los Angeles.
Since January of 2009 Mike has shared his insights as a contributor on CNBC’s Fast Money and Options Action, the first television show educating self-directed investors on the proper use of listed options. He also publishes articles and frequently speaks on a broad array of topics including trading strategy, market structure and regulation at investment conferences such as cboermc.com, investools.com, fia.org, optionseducation.org, Quinnipiac and as a keynote speaker at the Drexel University, Lebow School of Business.
Mike and his partner Mark Guthner, CFA offer advisory, consulting and educational services to institutional and high-net worth investors including banks, hedge funds, mutual funds, insurance companies, family offices, pension plans and RIAs on the effective use of options for hedging, enhancing risk-adjusted returns and systematic investment strategies.
Mike holds a BA from Tufts University and resides in Austin, Texas with his wife Holly and sons Sam and Tom.