Matthew Buckley Check6-llc.com
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Greetings Investors Observer community!

My name is Matthew “Whiz” Buckley and I am honored to be joining the team and a great financial site.
I’ll start with a brief introduction and my mission objective for this column.

Where does “Whiz” come from? In a prior life, I flew the F/A-18 Hornet for the US Navy. I did 2 deployments to the Persian Gulf onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Kitty Hawk and flew 44 combat sorties over southern Iraq. I also graduated from the Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN). After leaving active duty I joined a reserve fighter squadron and headed to the airlines. September 11th, 2001 was my first scheduled flight as an American Airlines pilot. Instead of heading to Dallas/Fort Worth International, I raced out to my reserve fighter squadron and went from flying in an airliner that day to possibly shooting one down. Along with an Air Force F-16 squadron, we established a combat air patrol over the southwest US. In the aftermath of the attacks I lost my airline career and decided to head into the business world.

So my call sign is “Whiz” and if you’re passing through Chicago maybe I’ll tell you over a beer the story of how I “earned” it.

I’ve been trading stocks and equity options for over 15 years. While I was on active duty I decided to jump into trading. The timing could not have been better…and worse. It was the mid-90s and it seemed that if you could throw a dart at the Wall Street Journal stock page you could make money. That is until the Internet bubble popped and I learned some hard lessons. Determined to never get caught unprepared again, I got smart on equity options and learned how to employ various strategies to maximize returns and minimize risk.

In the spring of 2008 I launched the Options News Network, www.onn.tv, and also hosted 2 of the most popular programs, “Mad About Options” and “The Options Cocktail.” Prior to that, I was a managing director at a leading equity options trading firm based in Chicago. I recently completed a book on leadership and execution based on my experiences on the front lines and in the front office called “From Sea Level to C Level,” scheduled to be published next month. 

I’ve lead high performing teams in complex, rapidly changing, and sometimes hostile environments around the world. In my experience, the key to executing successfully is to create a high-performing team that is aligned around a solid strategy. The people in the organization are well trained and seek constant improvement by employing what I call a “corporate battle rhythm.” The people on the team employ mutual support by looking out for each other and they’re disciplined. They pay attention to detail and have a vested interest in the performance of the organization.

Businesses that succeed in doing these things are appropriately rewarded and as investors we can capitalize on their success as well. Conversely, businesses with weak leadership, poor plans, and average teams get punished. If the front office is a clown car, it’ll eventually appear on the bottom line and in the stock. We will also capitalize here.

The objective of this column is to take a deep dive into the leadership of companies and evaluate these critical factors. Where I see strong leadership and execution with solid product or services, we’ll take a look at possible long positions. Where I see weakness and threats coupled with other problems, we’ll take a look at possible short positions. As many of you are well aware, sometimes even with solid planning and good intelligence, the random missile can still reach out and touch you and make it a bad day. But we’re going to attempt to minimize those situations and strive to win.

There are some great opportunities to target as we transition through the eye of this storm and I look forward to getting underway.

Until next time, happy hunting!

Matthew "Whiz" Buckley is the Managing Partner of Check6 LLC, a business-consulting firm specializing in leadership development, risk management, and strategic planning for Fortune 500 companies and related organizations. Whiz flew the F/A-18 Hornet for the U.S. Navy. He's a graduate of TOPGUN, has close to 400 carrier landings, and flew 44 combat sorties over Iraq. He transitioned to the business world after he was scheduled to fly his first flight as an airline pilot on 9/11. Instead, he ended up flying combat air patrol over the U.S. He rose rapidly though corporate America, starting as Managing Director of Strategy at PEAK6 Investments, to CEO of the Options News Network. He is an internationally recognized speaker and combined his unprecedented experiences in the military and corporate America in the writing of From Sea Level to C Level. You can follow Whiz on Twitter.