Have you checked out ONN.tv yet? A broad range of futures and options traders are turning to the new Options News Network as a valuable source of news, commentary, interviews, education and even entertainment.  Launched in May 2008, the network features a wide range of original Web-based video-on-demand programming that’s giving other business networks a run for their money.

It is a free website, www.onn.tv, is available around the clock, including a “Mark2Market” futures channel and an educational “Options Physics” channel.  Screenshot sat down with ONN.tv CEO Matt “Whiz” Buckley and Kevin Cook, host of several ONN programs and resident futures expert, for a closer look.

“We set out to build a media company solely dedicated to futures and options,” said Buckley, CEO of ONN.TV and PEAK6 Media, the parent company of ONN. 

With headquarters and studios in the former Chicago Board of Trade building, ONN regularly broadcasts from the trading floors of CME Group and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and conducts interviews from industry trade shows such as the recent Traders Expo in Las Vegas and the Futures & Options Expo in Chicago. The network primarily targets options traders of all skill and experience levels, as well as stock investors thinking about options or futures.

ONN currently creates at least 90 minutes of fresh content each day.  Buckley said plans are in the works for the network to move toward live webcasting during market hours.

A Navy fighter pilot for 15 years (hence, the nickname “Whiz”), Buckley taught himself how to trade retail options during his 10-year career on active duty. After taking on a grueling overnight schedule flying for Federal Express while in the Reserves, he joined American Airlines.  He was scheduled to fly his first commercial assignment for the airline on September 11, 2001, when he found himself flying combat air patrol missions instead

For a time, Buckley worked five jobs to make ends meet. Then he turned his attention to advising corporations how to apply military strategy and expertise to re-tool and enhance their business. That full-time consulting role and success with his clients ultimately led to an in-house management position, the creation of PEAK6 Media LLC and the launch of ONN. “We’ve seen an incredible response to the programming,” he said, “and because of our resources, talent and production quality, we’ve set the bar pretty high for any potential competitors. Most of the options content you seen now on TheStreet.com comes from ONN.tv programming.”

Buckley, who graduated from the Navy Fighter Weapons School, believes ONN programming is “top notch” because it not only presents data but digs deeper. One program he hosts, “Mad About Options,” takes the recommendations Jim Cramer makes each week on his popular CNBC program “Mad Money” and offers a host of options strategies both for those who believe in Cramer’s picks and for those who disagree. A month later, the program analyzes the strategies to see how they fared.

Cook is host to three of ONN’s channels and programs. “We’re creating a lot of valuable content on derivatives markets,” he said. “I see futures and options as two sides of the same coin, and many investors who’ve learned about stock options are interested in learning about futures trading.  With our futures channel, Mark2Market, we can offer greater depth than someone can find on any broadcast channel.” 

He said he’s having great fun with the programming and likes hearing “from old pros in this business who wouldn’t normally talk for the camera.”  Cook also hosts “Options Physics” and “Basics” for the network.

He didn’t picture himself as a financial trader or broadcaster when he studied philosophy and education, but he always wanted to teach.  He found his way to the Chicago derivatives exchanges in the mid-‘90s, learning all he could from traders and options market makers in his four years as a clerk. He was then immersed in the intricacies of the futures and interbank foreign exchange markets for nine years when he served as a market maker for CME’s Globex® Foreign Exchange Facility (GFX), established to bring tighter markets in FX futures.  He gathered and organized key principles on the mathematical “edges” of skilled discretionary and systems traders and began sharing the results of his research in 2003 through writing, seminars and coaching. He joined ONN.tv with the goal of building exciting options education for investors and traders.

“Our Options Physics program teaches that options are more intuitive than people think,” Cook said.  Traders can watch the channel to learn the fundamental probability and risk mechanics of options trading in ways they won’t find anywhere else. Some firms offer links to the channel on their company intranet to provide educational resources to their staff.

Buckley said ONN.tv is accessed in just about every country thanks to strong word-of-mouth growth, and the network recently launched a national advertising campaign that includes commercials on CNBC.