Brian Johnson

Trading Insights, LLC

Brian Johnson designed, programmed, and implemented the first return sensitivity based parametric framework actively used to control risk in fixed income portfolios. He further extended the capabilities of this approach by designing and programming an integrated series of option valuation, prepayment, and portfolio optimization models.

Based on this technology, Mr. Johnson founded Lincoln Capital Management’s fixed income index business, where he ultimately managed over $13 billion in assets for some of the largest and most sophisticated institutional clients in the U.S. and around the globe.

He later served as the President of a financial consulting and software development firm, designing artificial intelligence-based forecasting and risk management systems for institutional investment managers.

Mr. Johnson is now a full-time proprietary trader in options, futures, stocks, and ETFs primarily using algorithmic trading strategies. In addition to his professional investment experience, he also designed and taught courses in financial derivatives for MBA, Masters of Accounting, and undergraduate business programs - most recently as a Professor of Practice at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

He is the author of two groundbreaking books on options: 1) Option Strategy Risk / Return Ratios: A Revolutionary New Approach to Optimizing, Adjusting, and Trading Any Option Income Strategy, and 2) Exploiting Earnings Volatility: An Innovative New Approach to Evaluating, Optimizing, and Trading Option Strategies to Profit from Earnings Announcements.

He recently authored two in-depth (100+ page) articles on option strategy. The first, Option Income Strategy Trade Filters, represents the culmination of years of research into developing a systematic framework for optimizing the timing of Option Income Strategy (OIS) trades. The second, Option Strategy Hedging and Risk Management, presents a comprehensive analytical framework and accompanying spreadsheet tools for managing and hedging option strategy risk in real-world market environments.

He has also written articles for the Financial Analysts Journal, Active Trader, and Seeking Alpha and he regularly shares his trading insights and research ideas as the editor of https://www.traderedge.net/.

Mr. Johnson holds a B.S. degree in Finance with high honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA degree with a specialization in Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Email: BJohnson@TraderEdge.Net

Experience:

Proprietary Trader

• Proprietary Trader in options, futures, (indices, energy, metals, meats, grains, softs and currencies), stocks, and ETFs using both systematic and discretionary trading strategies.
• All models are based on technical and fundamental research and are used to implement both directional and non-directional strategies.

President of Carolina Capital Advisors, Inc.

• Developed neural network forecasting, risk management, and valuation systems for institutional investment advisors.

Vice President and Principal at Lincoln Capital Management

• Founded Lincoln Capital Management's fixed income index business
• Created specialized risk control and valuation algorithms and used those tools to build the business to over $13 Billion in institutional assets in ten years - becoming the second largest manager of US dollar denominated fixed income indexed assets.
• Responsible for all fixed income index and enhanced index portfolio management and trading

Trust Investment Officer & Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at Harris Bank

• Institutional Fixed Income Portfolio Manager

Education:

The University of Chicago - Booth School of Business

• MBA
• Specialization in Finance

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• BS in Finance
• High Honors

Publications:

Option Strategy Risk / Return Ratios: A Revolutionary New Approach to Optimizing, Adjusting, and Trading Any Option Income Strategy

• The risk/return ratios introduced in this book allow traders to evaluate, compare, adjust, and even optimize any option income strategy, on any underlying security, in any market environment.
• Author: Brian Johnson
• Published March 29, 2014

Exploiting Earnings Volatility: An Innovative New Approach to Evaluating, Optimizing, and Trading Option Strategies to Profit from Earnings Announcements

• Exploiting Earnings Volatility introduces an innovative new framework for evaluating, optimizing, and trading option strategies to profit from earnings-related pricing anomalies.
• Author: Brian Johnson
• Published April 7, 2015

Managing Yield Curve Risk in an Index Environment

• Introduced the first parametric approach used to quantify and manage risk in fixed income portfolios
• Authors: Brian Johnson and Kenneth Meyer
• Published November 1989 in the Financial Analysts Journal

Modeling Implied Volatility (Active Trader ceased publication; article no longer available)

• This technique for estimating the expected changes in options implied volatility before and immediately after the release of quarterly earnings can also help you identify undervalued and overvalued options.  It also can be used to estimate the forward term structure of implied volatility.
• Author: Brian Johnson
• Published June 2011 in Active Trader

The Science of Selling Options (Active Trader ceased publication; article no longer available)

• The article explains how to use directional volatilities to find the best strike prices for selling out-of-the-money vertical spreads.
• Author: Brian Johnson
• Published September20012 in Active Trader

 Option Strategies for Bull-Market Reversals (Active Trader ceased publication; article no longer available)

• This article evaluates a number of different option strategies for capitalizing on market pull-backs after sustained advances.
• Author: Brian Johnson
• Published January 2013 in Active Trader

28 Additional (non-financial) articles published

• Belvoir Publications, Inc.