Accelerating Growth in Funds’ Use of Options

Keith Black has over thirty years of financial market experience, serving approximately half of that time as an academic and half as a trader and consultant to institutional investors. He currently serves as Managing Director, Program Director FDP Charter at the FDP Institute. During his most recent role as Managing Director of Content Strategy, Keith was responsible for Curriculum development at the CAIA Association. Previous to that, Keith was a valued team member at Ennis Knupp + Associates, where he advised foundations, endowments and pension funds on their asset allocation and manager selection strategies in hedge funds, commodities, and managed futures. Other experiences include commodities derivatives trading, stock options research and Cboe floor trading, and building quantitative stock selection models for mutual funds and hedge funds. Dr. Black previously served as an assistant professor and senior lecturer at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Keith has contributed to the CFA Digest, and has published in The Journal of Wealth Management, The Journal of Trading, The Journal of Investing, and The Journal of Alternative Investments, among others. He is the author of the book “Managing a Hedge Fund,” as well as co-author of the second, third, and fourth editions of the CAIA Level I and Level II curriculum. Dr. Black was named to the Institutional Investor magazine’s list of “Rising Stars of Hedge Funds” in 2010. Dr. Black earned a BA from Whittier College, an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, and a PhD from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and was a member of the inaugural class of both CAIA and FDP members.

As a portfolio specialist, Joseph focuses on our hedged equity strategy. He is responsible for communicating our investment process, positioning, and risk attribution to clients, consultants, and other stakeholders and investors in the approach. He contributes more than 25 years of industry experience. Before joining Calamos in 2019, Joseph served as the Director of Institutional Education and Business Development for The Options Industry Council (OIC). Previously, he was Vice President of Wealth and Asset Management at MoneyBlock, as well as Senior Vice President of Education for OptionsXpress. Joseph started his career as a Market Maker at the CBOT/Cboe. He received a B.A. in Communications and English from Marquette University and holds Series 4, 7, 63, 66 licenses.

Blair Hull founded Hull Trading Company in 1985 and served as the firm's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer before selling it to Goldman Sachs in 1999 for $531 million. Hull Trading Company leveraged technological innovations and quantitative models in the field of listed derivatives market making. At the time of its acquisition, the company traded on 28 exchanges in nine countries and moved nearly a quarter of the entire daily market volume on some markets, executed over 7% of the index options traded in the United States, 3% of the equity options, and 1% of all shares traded daily on the New York Stock Exchange. In 2013, Mr. Hull founded Hull Tactical, a registered investment advisor. Hull Tactical operates an actively managed ETF and a separately managed accounts program that utilizes advanced algorithms as well as macro and technical indicators to anticipate future market returns. In 2021, the company introduced an options strategy in the publicly traded product.

Matt Moran is Head of Index Insights at Cboe Options Institute. In this role, Moran is focused on the exchange's educational efforts for pension funds, Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs), mutual funds, and other institutional investors. He has traveled to more than 100 cities worldwide to educate investors and deliver financial presentations. Prior to joining Cboe, Moran served as Trust Counsel at Harris Bank and Vice President at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He is an associate editor of The Journal of Beta Investment Strategies and has written articles for several financial publications, including The Journal of Trading and The Journal of Alternative Investments. Moran holds MBA and JD degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.