Jon NajarianJon NajarianTRADEMONSTER.ai

Jon Najarian, ‘‘DRJ,” was a linebacker for the Chicago Bears before he turned to another kind of contact sport — trading on the Chicago Board Options Exchange. He became a member of the CBOE, NYSE, CME and CBOT and worked as a floor trader for some 25 years.

In 1990, he founded Mercury Trading, a market-making firm at the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), which he sold in 2004 to Citadel, one of the world’s largest hedge funds.

Jon was a 16-year contributor to a variety of CNBC programs, including Worldwide Exchange, The Halftime Report, Fast Money, and Power Lunch. Today, he is a professional investor, money manager and media analyst.

Jon has earned a reputation in the industry as an options trading expert and pioneer. He developed and patented trading applications and algorithms used to identify unusual activity in stock, options, and futures markets.