Tucker’s MOOC Takes a Field Trip to Chicago

What better way to learn about Computational Investing that to visit one of the largest exchanges in the world, and one of the top online brokers?

I’m on the flight home from Chicago to Atlanta, reflecting on the last two days, I am so pumped!  My colleague (and erstwhile Graduate Assistant) Andrew Quitmeyer and I have just finished shooting an amazing set of interviews in Chicago.  We’ll be editing them over the next few weeks and adding them to the content of my online course Computational Investing Part I. Here are some stills from the interviews.

That’s the SPX pit at the Chicago Board Options Exchange, where options on the S&P 500 index are traded in an open outcry market. We taped a new “course intro” segment there. Love the flag. You can see the video here.

I interview Debra Peters of the CBOE.  We learned about how the options exchange has changed over time as computers began to take over many functions of the market.

Peter Lusk of the CBOE gives us a lesson on options.  Are options risky?  You’ll only know if you  take the class.

What sort of computing does it take to run an exchange? We visit the basement of the CBOE to find out. This is *one* of their patch panels.

Paul Jiganti of TD Ameritrade tells us all the details of how a customer order makes its way to the market and back. Most orders NEVER make it to an exchange. He explains why, and how this is actually good for the customer.

JJ Kinahan of TD Ameritrade tells us about the importance of good computing tools for the trader.

Finally, we get philosophical with Tom Sosnoff. Can a machine trader ever beat Tom at his own game?

Thanks to Andrew Quitmeyer for the fantastic camera work.