About Us
optionMONSTER® provides actionable market insight, trading ideas, and investment education to meet the needs of all kinds of do-it-yourself investors. Our decades spent in the trading pits of Chicago give us the edge that can help you make better, more confident investment decisions. Investing is about making money and we?re here to help you do that!

Founded in 2006, our market analysis, free with registration, highlights the day’s trading activity. In addition to our free content, our trading advisory services including real-time blogs, email alerts, and newsletters help you identify promising trading opportunities. Free options education materials outline basic trading concepts, definitions, and strategies to get you started, and our live investing conferences, Invest Like a Monster, provide an up-close and intensive environment for sharpening your skills. Jon & Pete Najarian, along with Guy Adami host these conferences throughout the country.

Our family of companies also include tradeMONSTER®, a Barron's 4-star online-brokerage that combines the power and flexibility of industrial-strength software with the convenience and reliability of a browser-based platform. You can read more about our group below:

Our Crew


Jon NajarianJon 'DRJ' Najarian is a professional investor, noted media analyst and speaker, and cofounder of optionMONSTER® and tradeMONSTER®. Following a brief stint as a Chicago Bears linebacker, Jon launched his financial career at the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) in 1981, trading in the pits for 22 of the past 29 years. In 1989 he founded Mercury Trading, running the company for 15 years until 2004, when he sold his floor-trading operations to Citadel, one of the world's largest hedge funds. More recently, Jon - often known after his CBOE floor call letters 'DRJ' - has developed and patented trading applications used to identify unusual activity in stock, option, and futures markets, notably the Heat Seeker® program, which uncovers extraordinary buying patterns from among the 800,000 quotes per second that stream from America's stock, options, and futures exchanges. In addition to optionMONSTER.com, Jon's research and analysis is widely cited by leading financial media including the Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Reuters, Bloomberg, Dow Jones, FOX News Channel, CBS Radio, and CNBC. Jon is a CNBC contributor, hosts a daily radio show, and webcasts twice daily on CBOE-TV.



Pete NajarianPete Najarian is a professional investor, noted media analyst, and co-founder of optionMONSTER® and tradeMONSTER®. After a football career that included several seasons with the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Minnesota Vikings, Pete took up trading in 1992 at Mercury Trading. Two years later, he assumed responsibility for Mercury's risk and arbitrage and later led its entry onto the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). He also led Mercury's joint venture with M.J. Meehan, the third largest specialist firm on the NYSE. From 2000 to 2004, he served as president of Mercury, and helped execute its sale to Citadel, one of the world's largest hedge funds. He is the co-founder of Hedgehog stock, options, and futures trading platform and together with brother Jon ('DRJ'), co-developer of the Heat Seeker® and complementary programs for tracking unusual buying activity in stocks, options, and futures. Pete is a cast member of CNBC's nightly 'Fast Money' program.



Guy AdamiGuy Adami is a professional investor, noted media analyst, and editor of Advantage Point, a research service for self-directed investors. Guy launched his Wall Street career more than two decades ago with the well-regarded investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert, trading in the New York Mercantile Exchange energy and metal pits. Almost immediately he was promoted 'upstairs' to trade precious metals, a position that saw him travel the world, from South America to South Africa and much of Europe. Following the purchase of Drexel's commodity group by American International Group, he was named head gold trader on the company's bullion desk, where he forged lasting relationships with legendary investors Sir James Goldsmith and Kerry Packer. In 1996, Guy joined Goldman Sachs' noted commodities group, J. Aron, as vice president, where he worked for Gary Cohn and Goldman's current chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein. Next he was asked to head up the industrial / basic materials group of Goldman's US equity division. In 2003 Guy left to become an executive director at CIBC World Markets, and it was there that CNBC reached out to him with a 'blackboard' idea for what is now 'Fast Money,' a leading nightly television program in financial media. On joining optionMONSTER in 2008, Guy again teamed up with fellow 'Fast Money' cast member Pete Najarian and older brother Jon ('DRJ'), a CNBC correspondent.



Chris McKhann is an analyst and writer for OptionMONSTER based in Chicago. Previously he was at a large online broker where he was a Senior Instructor and Derivatives Product Manager. He has taught options trading in a variety of venues writing options commentary for Investopedia.com. He started his professional investment career as a broker, but he grew up in the industry as his father was a gold dealer and his uncle was the Vice-Chairman of the Bank of Boston.



David Russell is a reporter for optionMONSTER based in New York. Previously he was a producer for CNBC and a contributor to its online site. Before that, he spent more than five years at Bloomberg News covering the debt and equity markets. David began his career as a reporter in Venezuela in 1999 and served as a Marine Corps reservist in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He also contributes columns on economics and technical analysis to the web site greenfaucet.com.

Mike Bourdos is account executive extraordinaire. Mike worked as a loan officer in the mortgage business before moving into consumer banking as a branch manager. A longtime options trader, Mike helped Jon and Pete launch the InsideOptions™ service in 2003 and is responsible for all aspects of trader support.

Mike Yamamoto is the managing editor of optionMONSTER.com. He is an award-winning journalist with decades of experience in online and traditional media. Before joining the company he was executive editor for news at CNET Networks, where he covered the Internet and the technology sector. Outside the digital realm, Yamamoto has been the investigations editor of the Los Angeles Times Washington Bureau, city editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, and a news editor of the Long Beach Press-Telegram. He has also taught journalism as an adjunct professor at the American University in Washington and California State University at Northridge.


Dirk Mueller-Ingrand is a co-founder and chief executive of optionMONSTER® and tradeMONSTER®. With a background of more than 20 years' experience in global banking, corporate finance, and technology, Dirk has previously co-founded and/or served as chief executive of several startup companies. An active investor, he is executive chairman of LTR Ltd., a UK-based consultancy focused on the financial services industry. Dirk's career also includes representing a major activist investor in public shareholder disputes.

Kurt Oeler is vice president and general manager of optionMONSTER.com. Previously he was night editor and then director of editorial operations at CNET News.com, an award-winning technology news service, before starting a management consulting practice in online media. He sits on the Advisory Board of Knowledge@Wharton, the University of Pennsylvania's business review, and keeps up with one of his favorite sports at Gainline.us.

Michael Graf is manager of business development. Michael joined optionMONSTER® from Sapient, a leading marketing and technology consultancy, where he specialized in financial services practice. Prior to Sapient, Michael served as vice president for business development activities at Web Street, an online brokerage firm that was bought by E*Trade. Michael began his career in the financial services industry as a full-service broker.

Joe Canas is director of media technology. Previously he was senior portal strategist at Genentech, where he led web initiatives for the sales and marketing organization. Joe has also created award-winning information delivery programs, portals, Web applications and services for Nortel Networks, Siemens, Amdocs, and ZDNet.


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optionMONSTER® is based in Chicago, Illinois.


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