Pete Najarian, the "Pit Boss," is ranked one of the top 100 traders by Trader Monthly magazine, and is cofounder of optionMONSTER.com, a news and information site for options traders. Following a football career that included several seasons with the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Minnesota Vikings, Najarian took up options trading in 1992 joining his brother, Jon "DRJ" Najarian, at Mercury Trading, a market-making firm at the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). Two years later, he assumed responsibility for Mercury's risk and arbitrage and later led its entry onto the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
He also led Mercury's joint venture with M.J. Meehan, the third-largest specialist firm on the NYSE. From 2000 to 2004, Najarian served as president of Mercury, and helped execute its sale to Citadel, one of the world's largest hedge funds. During this period, Najarian chaired the Exemption Committee of the CBOE for three years and served as a floor official for eight terms.
More recently, he has been a founding member of One Chicago, an electronic exchange committed to becoming the global leader in futures on individual stocks, narrow-based indexes, and ETFs. He is the co-founder of Hedgehog stock, options, and futures trading platform and together with brother Jon, co-developed the Heat Seeker™ and complementary programs for tracking unusual buying activity in stocks, options, and futures. Najarian is one of the "Fast Money Five" on CNBC's "Fast Money," and also contributes to CBOE-TV, the exchange's popular webcast.
Najarian graduated cum laude from the University of Minnesota with a degree in genetic engineering.
