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Tom Sosnoff looked directly at the Chicago Board of Options Exchange executives and said the word that would haunt him forever: "Quickies." |
I was 24 years old, running the slideshow, and I watched one of the smartest guys in trading completely faceplant in front of the who's who of the options world. |
This was 2003, and Tom was pitching what would eventually become zero DTE options – the most revolutionary product in trading history. |
But he wanted to call them "quickies." |
I have never seen anything fall as flat as that joke did. The room turned on him instantly. The head of marketing said right to his face: "This is an absolutely brilliant idea. But the dumbest name we have ever heard." |
Another board member nudged his colleague and whispered loud enough for everyone to hear: "Not as stupid as Thinkorswim." Because at the time, our company name wasn't exactly Charles Schwab territory either. |
Tom couldn't read the room. He kept pushing: "Quickie options! You know, like a quickie!" |
The silence was deafening. |
From Disaster to Domination |
What Tom got wrong in presentation, he got absolutely right in vision. That disastrous "quickies" pitch became the foundation for what we now call zero DTE – zero days to expiration options that expire daily instead of monthly. |
Back then, when I started trading in 1998, options expired once a month. That monthly expiration Friday was like Christmas, New Year's, and Festivus rolled into one for market makers. We made so much money those days it was ridiculous. |
We used to joke: "If every week could be expiration week, it'd be Christmas every week." |
Guess what? Tom and Scott Sheridan, Thinkorswim's founders, took that joke seriously. Their slideshow didn't just propose weekly expirations – they outlined the entire roadmap. Weeklies first, then three times a week, then daily expiration. They saw the endgame from day one. |
The CBOE board loved the concept despite hating the name. They bought the idea – literally purchased it from us, though not for much money because nobody gave a crap about little old Thinkorswim back then. |
We just wanted expiration every week because it was a great time to be a brokerage firm. |
The Numbers Don't Lie |
Today, that "quickie" idea controls more money than most people can comprehend. |
Right now, even on this slow December 23rd, the SPX – a $7,000 product – has traded 2.4 million contracts. That's a trillion-plus dollars in notional value moving through zero DTE options daily. Everything else you trade – stocks, ETFs, whatever – is peanuts compared to this. |
Tesla trades 1.3 million contracts as a $500 stock? Cute. The SPX is moving 2.4 million contracts of a $7,000 product. Think about how much money flows through that machine. Billions of dollars a minute. |
When something moves that kind of volume, it doesn't just participate in the market – it becomes the market. Zero DTE options now drive price action across everything. Whether you trade them or not, you're already trading in a marketplace dominated by daily expiration. |
What Nobody Saw Coming |
The most important thing about Tom's vision wasn't just creating a new product – it was recognizing that speed doesn't hurt traders. Guessing does. |
Back then, we thought faster meant more dangerous. What we discovered is that daily expiration just punishes guessing faster than anything else. But if you have structure, if you understand risk-reward mathematics, if you know what you're doing – daily expiration becomes the greatest advantage in retail trading. |
The fear of zero DTE is earned, I won't pretend it isn't. It's fast, compressed, unforgiving. Mistakes show up immediately. But that's also what makes it so powerful for those who understand the game. |
From "Quickies" to Mastery |
Twenty-something years later, I'm finally teaching what that disastrous presentation started. |
Because it took this long to develop a methodology that works for retail traders – a way to harness what Tom envisioned without getting destroyed by the speed. |
The product that couldn't even get a proper name now represents the most sophisticated risk-reward opportunity available to individual traders. |
Every week I draw expected move lines on charts, knowing those lines represent billions of dollars betting on where the market will go. |
Tom's "quickies" became the backbone of modern options trading. And while I'll never let him live down that presentation, I've got to admit – the man saw the future when the rest of us were still living in the past. |
Sometimes the worst pitch creates the best product. Tom proved that brilliance doesn't always come with polish. |
Good thing, because twenty years later, I'm still not polished either. |
Twenty years after that disastrous "quickies" presentation, I'm finally teaching what we started. |
Click here to get all the details. |
To your success, |
Don Kaufman |
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