Our Experience, Your Goals — A Winning Combination 

Jay Pestrichelli is co-founder and managing director of ZEGA Financial. He specializes in developing successful hedging strategies to protect investors’ equity positions while driving maximum returns.

Jay has over 20 years of experience in the financial markets. Prior to launching ZEGA, he spent 12 years managing and growing the online brokerage business for TD Ameritrade. During this time, he led this business unit to become #1 in trade volume among U.S. brokers. Before joining TD Ameritrade, Jay was Vice President of Customer Support for Datek Online, where he oversaw customer relations for many of Datek’s 2.4 million active trading clients. He also instituted Datek’s first CRM system.

At ZEGA, Jay leads the development and execution of the firm’s investment strategies, which are designed to help investors successfully navigate volatile and uncertain markets through innovative hedging strategies. Some of these strategies include HiPOS (High Probability Options Strategy), Buy & Hedge and ZBIG. In 2018, ZEGA’s HiPOS strategy posted an 11.5% return, compared to 4.5% decline in the S&P 500.

ZEGA’s founding principles grew out of the bestselling book Jay co-authored entitled “Buy and Hedge, the Five Iron Rules for Investing Over the Long Term.” His book highlights how to bridge the complicated nature of options investing with the needs of the everyday investor.

Outside of ZEGA’s day-to-day work for its clients, the firm actively supports multiple not for profit organizations throughout the year. Some of these organizations include the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Samaritan’s Feet, CIA Officers Memorial Foundation, and Decoding Literacy.

Jay has been a regular contributor on NASDAQ Trade Talks and the TD Ameritrade Network and is a regularly quoted in top news outlets including Bloomberg, TheStreet, MarketWatch, US News and World Report, Fox Business and CNBC.

He is an active golfer, sailor, traveler, and NY Giants fan. He resides in West Palm Beach, Florida with his wife and son.

 Michael McGrath joined ZEGA Financial in 2023. In a career spanning 25 years in financial services, Mike has constantly been at the forefront of financial innovation. 

Joining the nascent online brokerage industry in 1999, Mike spent over 15 years spearheading growth and launching industry-leading, and industry-first, products.  After leading operations and trading teams at Datek Online, he led the strategic launches of web platforms, trading applications, ETF offerings and the first mobile trading app in the Apple App Store in 2008, while at TD Ameritrade. Mike joined JP Morgan in 2016 and helped launch and expand digital wealth platforms before becoming the Managing Director of Advisor and Service Platforms. 

At ZEGA, Mike is responsible for oversight of all operations and focused on driving further growth and product expansion. 

Outside of work, Mike is avid golfer and reader. He supports a number of local charities including the York Street Project and the Purple Feet Foundation, He served as a Director on the Board of the Wall Street & Technology Association from 2018-2023. He resides in Red Bank, New Jersey.

Scott's tenure in the options trading space spans over 40 years, having started his professional journey in 1983 becoming an independent market maker on the CBOE. 

During his 20-year career on the CBOE, Scott specialized in merger arbitrage, index trading, program trading, managing a hedge fund and different market maker trading groups. From 1999 to 2002 he was part of a designated primary market  (DPM) responsible for market-making in over 25 different equities to accommodate retail order flow. In 2003 Scott started a retail advisory firm within ThinkOrSwim advisors trading risk-defined option spreads for over 1000 retail clients as a registered investment advisor (RIA). In 2010, started the Advisor Services trade desk in Chicago overseeing advisor trading for TD Ameritrade and was also responsible for option educational content specifically tailored for investment advisors. 

During the merger between TD Ameritrade and Schwab, Scott was responsible for overseeing the conversion of millions of advisor clients' accounts, along with the day-to-day responsibilities of running the advisor trading platform and trade desk, as well as all advisor services options education. His teams also built out the first option trading related to the competitive risk quote process for Schwab.

John McDevitt, CFA from Tidal Investments LLC currently serves as Chief Compliance Officer bringing deep experience in developing and implementing regulatory compliance and credit risk management controls.  John is known for his ability to effectively communicate technical regulatory and legal requirements in a clear, understandable framework that is actionable at executive levels and is backed by the vast compliance guidance and legal resources of Tidal Investments LLC.  

Mr. McDevitt has both an MBA from Drexel University's LeBow College of Business and a Bachelor of Science in Finance from West Chester University.  He is is also a Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder from the CFA institute.

Edwin Berrios joined ZEGA Financial in May 2024 as Chief Technology Officer.

Prior to joining us he held positions as Sr. Director of IT and VP of Information Technology for 777 Partners and their portfolio of companies including Signal Financial Holdings,  a consumer legal finance group in the litigation finance vertical where he was responsible for managing technology operations, IT processes and procedures to support business needs and enterprise growth, the implementation and execution of new/upgraded information systems, design, implementation, management and support of technology infrastructure as well as enterprise cloud-based business solutions.

Prior to that, Edwin worked at First Data Corporation (now Fiserv), where he was a key part of business technology leadership and implementation teams tasked with the development, deployment and support of secure, innovative and accelerated payment network business solutions and integrated platforms including ACH, eComm, merchant mobile, security & fraud for large corporations, financial institutions and high-value portfolios of merchant processing banks in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Mr. Berrios has forged a successful career in high technology for over 30 years in startups and Fortune 500 companies working across many industry sectors including systems and networks integration, non-profit world standards organizations, international banking, industrial manufacturing and fintech.

Mr. Berrios earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Fordham University in New York.

Brett manages the daily trading for ZEGA accounts, specializing in options trading and hedging.  He also works with the group to develop strategy for the firm, in turn helping our clients maximize their gains and minimize their risk. 

Brett has worked in the investment world since 1997.  He started his journey as a local market maker on the floors of the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange.  The second half of his career was strengthening his knowledge of retail and institutional brokerages, working at TD Ameritrade in multiple roles including leading margin and trade desks. 

Brett is a graduate of the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.

Brett and his wife reside in Omaha where they enjoy raising their four children, watching Liverpool play on the weekends, and enjoying the outdoors. 

Jeff joined Zega to focus on managing trading and reporting in the ETF portfolio.  He has more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, primarily with TD Ameritrade.  He has worked in trading, risk management, and compliance/supervision roles, and has worked in both the retail brokerage and registered investment advisor spaces.

 Jeff lives in the Omaha area with his wife, three kids and their dogs.  He enjoys time by the pool and playing golf whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Quinn joined ZEGA to focus on managing the trading and reporting of the Exchange Traded Funds. He brings experience from a financial technology startup firm where he traded equities, mutual funds, and options across multiple custodians. He has nearly 10 years of experience in the financial services industry with expertise in relationship management, liquidity and cash forecasting, and the financial markets. He worked predominantly in the banking industry before moving into asset management.

Quinn studied at Florida State University where he received his Bachelors and Masters in Finance. He plays golf regularly and competes in all fitness events he can find. He resides in South Florida with his wife and two corgis.

An options industry veteran, Chris brings over 25 years of experience in the financial markets to Zega.  After graduating from Villanova University in 1999 with degrees in both Economics and Finance, Chris started in the industry as an options market-maker on the trading floors of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange.   He brings trading and brokerage experience to the team, having worked for OptionsXpress,  TD Ameritrade, and Charles Schwab, with both client-facing and internal trading positions on the retail and institutional sides of the business.

Chris is a member of Zega's trading team for both the managed accounts and ETF side of our business.  

When not working, Chris enjoys cooking, running, mountain biking, and hanging out with his daughters and German shepherd.