Michael C. Khouw

Michael C. Khouw is a 20 year veteran of the financial industry with broad experience as a strategist, analyst, portfolio manager and proprietary trader of equities, commodities, indices and related derivatives.

Mike is currently the President, Chief Strategist and co-founder of Optimize Advisors. He was previously a Partner at Cantor Fitzgerald and a Principal and Managing Director at CRT Capital. Mike also held senior trader positions at Bluefin Trading, LLC and Gateway Partners, LLC, both Proprietary Trading Firms based in New York, and as an analyst at Ivory Capital, a research-intensive, fundamental value-based investment firm headquartered in Los Angeles.

In his current roll Mike advises hedge funds, mutual funds, insurance companies, family offices and pension plans in the effective use of listed options for enhancing returns and managing risk.

Mike is also a business news contributor regularly appearing on CNBC's Fast Money weekdays and Options Action, Friday's at 5:30PM Eastern. He also frequently shares his insights through articles as a contributor for cnbc.com and Action Alerts Options at thestreet.com, and through frequent speaking engagements at conferences on a broad array of topics including the state of the market, trading strategy, hedging and regulation.

Mike is a Former Member of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Nasdaq/OMX, NYSE-AMEX, and the New York Mercantile Exchange. Mike holds a BA from Tufts University.