ABOUT THE AUTHOR 
erik Kobayashi-Solomon, a veteran from the investment banking and 
hedge fund world, is the founder and principal of IOI, LLC a financial 
consultancy for individual and institutional investors. In addition to 
publishing an institutional investor-focused subscription product, Erik 
runs option and investment “boot camps” and consults on risk control, 
option strategies, and stock valuations for individual and institutional 
investors. 
Before starting IOI, Erik worked for Morningstar in its stock research 
department for over six years. At Morningstar, he first managed a team of 
semiconductor industry analysts before becoming the coeditor and driv-
ing force of Morningstar’s OptionInvestor newsletter and serving as the 
company’s Market Strategist. 
In addition to coauthoring a guide to fundamental investing and 
option strategies used in the Morningstar Investor Training Options 
Course and popular weekly articles about using options as a tool for in-
vestment portfolios, Erik was the host of several popular webinars such as 
“Covered Calls A to Z” and “Hedging 101. ” His video lecture about avoid-
ing behavioral and structural pitfalls called “Making Better Investment 
Decisions” was so popular that he was invited to be the featured speaker at 
several investment conferences throughout the United States. In addition, 
he represented Morningstar on television and radio, was interviewed by 
magazines and newspapers from Dallas to Tokyo to New Delhi, and was 
a frequent guest contributor to other Morningstar/Ibbotson publications.
Erik started his career in the world of finance at Morgan Stanley 
Japan, where he ultimately headed Morgan’s listed derivatives operations 
in Tokyo. After returning to the United States, Erik founded a small hedge