Kevin Cook

Kevin studied philosophy and education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and wanted to become a teacher. Instead, he found his way to Chicago's commodity exchanges in the mid-90's and discovered the world of futures and options. Standing next to pro options traders every day for two years was an incredible opportunity for him to learn the essential dynamics of probability, risk, and long-term trading success.

He used this knowledge to leave the trading floor and gain a spot as an electronic trader on a high-volume, currency arbitrage desk. As a high-frequency market maker for 9 years, Kevin was part of the ground-breaking team at the CME that provided deep liquidity to global banks and funds in all time zones in order to establish a solid link on Globex between currency futures and the underlying cash markets and he traded $50 to $150 million worth of currencies per day to do so. That puts the total mileage somewhere around $150 billion in foreign exchange during his tenure, equivalent to well over 1,000,000 futures contracts. He thinks it added 20 years to his age.

During that intense training ground amidst the titans of the interbank, Kevin also dove into a detailed study of trading systems and psychology—and the predominating odds of failure for most new traders. He gathered and organized key principles on the mental and mathematical "edges" of skilled discretionary and systems traders and then began sharing the results of his research in 2003 through writing and free seminars, coaching futures and stock traders to think with an emotionally-detached "probability mind-set" about risk and reward by replicating the option trader's approach to systematic rules execution and money management.

Kevin joined The Options News Network in 2008 to create engaging options education, news, and commentary. As a market analyst for PEAK6, he appears on CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN, and FOX Business to provide insight on equities, options, currencies, and commodities. Kevin recently joined TradersReserve as an FX editor writing a weekly column on his currency perspectives.

Archived Webinars
FX Turning Points: Capturing the Big Trends and Swings
12.17.10

Probability 101 and Position Sizing for Long Term Success
08.25.10

FX Trading: The Dynamic Inflation Hedge
06.11.09

View All Articles
How to trade the S&P 500 in “blah-shaped” recovery
07.23.10

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Earnings Trade: What’s the probability of a move?
07.14.10

Chinks in Bull-Market Armor as S&P 500 Moving Averages Signal More Downside
06.24.10

BP plc (NYSE:BP) Options Not Predicting Bankruptcy
06.14.10

SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: SPY) Iron Condors: How It Pays to Sell Volatility
06.04.10

Australian Dollar: canary for risk aversion to bounce with equities soon?
05.21.10

Euro Chart Update: Holding Pattern Before “Sell the News”
04.09.10

S&P 500 (SPX) chart levels: Surge through 1,200 then another mini-correction
04.01.10

Euro headed lower still
02.16.10

 
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Futures, options, and spot currency trading have large potential risk and traders should be well-educated before putting real money at risk. You must be aware of the risks and willing to accept them in order to invest in all markets. Risk capital is money that can be lost without jeopardizing ones financial security or life style. Only risk capital should be used for trading and only those with sufficient risk capital should consider trading. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. This website is neither a solicitation nor an offer to buy/sell a futures contract or currency.