Options A to Z^® is a website dedicated to one thing: Teaching investors the art and science of options trading.

It’s a simple sounding mission statement but combining the art and science is no easy task. It’s a thousand mile journey that takes time.

Are there shortcuts? Sure, many attempt to teach “systems” or “one size fits all” strategies. While a marked path is much easier for students to follow, it often leads to a financial dead end. The reason is that the instructor’s risk-reward tolerances are probably different from yours. 

If your risk tolerances do not match, your hard-earned dollars are being led down a destructive path. As the saying goes, “Build a machine that any fool can use and only a fool will use it.” It doesn’t make sense to attempt to build a financial decision making system that applies to all. We’re not going to leave breadcrumbs for you to follow.

Instead, we want to teach you how to make the decisions yourself. And to do that, you must realize that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one single step. We start by sharpening your core skills such as definitions, mechanics, and pricing theory, which is all done through clear, detailed online courses, videos, and webinars (live online classes). There are also lots of practice exams so you can check your progress and be confident you understand the material. That’s the science side.

Next, the art side teaches you how to apply the science. You’ll gain insightful tips and tricks of the trade handed down from real-life trading experiences. You’ll learn what works, what doesn’t and why. There are also helpful Q&A sessions as well as our Chalk Talk bulletin board for you to post questions and receive answers and opinions from all over the world. We also have Night Owls, which is a series of free live webinars.

At the end of the journey, the art and science finally meet and you’ll be in a position to make confident, informed decisions about the best ways to manage your money when faced with the daily uncertainties of the financial markets. You’ll know what to buy, when to sell, how to hedge, roll, or morph. You’ll know where. You’ll know why. The answers are easy once you understand the questions.

You’re the best person to answer those questions because nobody has the incentive to watch your money like you. And nobody trains you to watch it like us.

If you are new to options and not sure what they are or how they work, you’re invited to take our free 100-page online course Exploring the World of Options led by Professor Kismet^®, the wise market owl of Options A to Z. It’s packed full of information, online flash quizzes and videos. It’s your first step.

Knowledge is a risk-free investment. Let your journey begin. 

Bill Johnson started his financial career as a financial analyst for the American Automobile Association's (AAA) world headquarters in Heathrow, Florida in 1992. In addition to creating financial projections and risk assessments, he researched and reported on market data and interest rate hedging techniques.

In 1995 he was hired by Charles Schwab where he worked for six years on an active trader options team. He also worked on specialized technical analysis and fundamental analysis teams. He gained invaluable experience while working rotations for Schwab's trade support desk, risk reporting, and margins. He received a personally signed letter from Chuck Schwab for his active role with Berkshire Hathaway Class B Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Bill was also active in training hundreds of brokers. He was selected to write compliance-approved manuals and teach the corresponding weeklong courses in “Economics” and “Option Strategies, Pricing and Hedging” to Schwab's advanced brokers. 

In 2000, Bill took a new position as the Chief Options Strategist for 21st Century Investor, an independent investment research, education, and advisory service. He authored eight books on various financial topics including, options, single stock futures, hedging, and the Federal Reserve two of which were selected as supplemental texts at Binghamton University and Wingate University.

He wrote two online educational courses that enrolled more than 300,000 students worldwide. Bill was also a regular host of the 21st Century Alert Radio show, which aired daily on WNN Financial Radio 1470 AM.

In 2007, he became the Director of Education for the Options University where he wrote and published the 450-page book Options 101: From Theory to Application.

He has had articles published in Active Trader, Buy-Sell-Hold, SFO, Investor’s Observer, and Smart Money magazines and has been quoted in Barron’s. He was recently recruited as a speaker for the Option’s Institute Master Sessions at the Chicago Board Option’s Exchange (CBOE).

He was invited as a guest speaker for the 2005 Quantitative and Computational Finance Day (QCF) at Georgia Institute of Technology and made numerous appearances on WXELs television program Wealth & Wisdom.

Bill received a Master's Degree in Economics in 1996 and an M.B.A. in Finance in 1999 both from the University of Central Florida (UCF).