Summary

Overview

Work History

Education

Skills

Timeline

Christopher Louis Hopkins

Chicago,IL

Summary

Analytical finance professional with over seven years of experience across derivatives trading, market surveillance, and financial markets, complemented by a strong analytical mindset and growing technical expertise. Progressively promoted throughout my career at TD Ameritrade/Charles Schwab, where I developed deep expertise in options, futures, and capital markets while leading high-performing teams and mentoring trading professionals. Seeking to leverage my background in capital markets, derivatives, and data analysis to support portfolio management and investment research.

Overview

years of professional experience

Work History

Trade Surveillance Analyst

Interactive Brokers

Chicago, IL

01.2026 - Current

Conduct approximately 150 market surveillance investigations per month across equities, options, futures, ETFs, and fixed income securities by analyzing automated surveillance alerts for potential market manipulation, insider trading, suspicious profitability, and other abusive trading practices.
Analyze trading activity across retail and institutional accounts ranging from under $100K to multi-billion-dollar portfolios using advanced Excel functionality, including pivot tables, Boolean search logic, charts, and data visualization techniques to identify anomalous trading patterns and support complex regulatory investigations.
Evaluate trading activity surrounding earnings announcements, corporate events, and significant market movements by synthesizing transaction data, account history, and market activity to assess potential violations of securities regulations and firm policies.
Developed an interactive Excel dashboard utilizing Boolean search logic, dynamic formulas, pivot tables, and data visualizations to streamline investigation tracking; the dashboard was adopted by a team of 8 analysts to improve workflow visibility and project management.
Prepare comprehensive investigative case documentation and Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), presenting analytical findings and supporting evidence for regulatory review and decision-making.

Manager, Derivatives (People Leader)

Charles Schwab

Chicago, Illinois

01.2024 - 09.2025

Led and mentored a team of 12 licensed trading professionals supporting active traders across options, futures, foreign exchange, and equity markets, improving adherence efficiency by 9%, service level containment by 12%, and reducing broker errors by 34%.
Coached trading representatives on complex derivatives products, risk management concepts, and trading best practices while serving as the primary escalation resource for sophisticated client scenarios.
Partnered with technology teams to investigate recurring order routing and trading platform issues, implementing process improvements that reduced resolution times by 18% and improved trading operations.
Increased customer satisfaction by 23% through coaching, dispute resolution, and continuous process improvements while leading a team that achieved a 29% increase in business lead referrals with a 64% conversion rate, consistently ranking in the top 10% of trader teams.
Led cross-functional initiatives during the TD Ameritrade–Charles Schwab integration, collaborating with business and technology partners to support a seamless transition of trading operations and client service.

Senior Derivatives Trader

10.2022 - 01.2024

Served as a subject matter expert supporting approximately 30 daily client inquiries involving options, futures, foreign exchange, and other complex financial instruments, while improving client ease-of-resolution scores by 16%.
Applied options pricing concempts to educate clients and internal trading representatives on Black-Scholes valuation concepts, option Greeks, implied volatility, theoretical pricing, futures pricing, and advanced multi-leg options strategies to support informed trading decisions.
Guided clients in evaluating trade structures and portfolio risk using Thinkorswim Risk Profile and ThinkBack, interpreting profit/loss scenarios, volatility assumptions, and historical strategy performance.
Earned recognition as a trusted subject matter expert, mentor, and internal resource by coaching fellow traders on derivatives, market structure, and complex trading concepts while maintaining zero broker errors and only one manager escalation.
Consistently ranked among the team's top performers through exceptional technical expertise, analytical problem solving, and client service.

Trader Specialist II (Derivatives)

05.2021 - 10.2022

Retail Trader Specialist I

06.2020 - 05.2021

Commercial Recruiter

RHM Staffing Solutions

Oak Brook, Illinois

09.2019 - 03.2020

Generated $2,000 of recurring, weekly profit within my first two months.
Drove business development by securing 12 meetings with potential clients, successfully presenting service offerings and negotiating sales agreements with favorable bill rates.

Junior Broker

National Securities Corporation