Tom Sosnoff

Sosnoff was born in New York City and grew up in Hartsdale, New York. His mother taught art and his father practised labour law. He worked as a caddie at a local golf course as a teenager. Sosnoff earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University at Albany, SUNY in 1979. A recession limited job prospects when he graduated, so he accepted a position at investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert. After six months he left New York to join a group of traders going to the CBOE; their venture failed, and he became a clerk on the trading floor. Sosnoff later raised about US$100 000 from an investor to trade options on his own and within two years bought out his backer. In 1988 he teamed up with fellow trader Scott Sheridan.

Market making and thinkorswim

During the 1980s Sosnoff and Sheridan traded as market makers on the CBOE through the Sosnoff Sheridan Group. They used their own capital to launch the online brokerage thinkorswim in 1999. In January 2009 TD Ameritrade agreed to acquire thinkorswim for about US$606 million in cash and stock; the sale closed later that year. After the merger Sosnoff joined TD Ameritrade as senior vice‑president for trading and strategic initiatives.

tastytrade, tastylive and dough

In August 2011 Sosnoff and long‑time colleagues Kristi Ross and Scott Sheridan launched tastytrade, a daily financial‑news network that teaches options trading through live on‑air trades and comedy sketches. Broadcasting from a Chicago brownstone, the network rapidly expanded to eight hours of live content per day. A 2011 Wall Street Journal report said tastytrade had raised US$20 million in venture capital. In 2014 Silicon Valley venture firm Technology Crossover Ventures invested US$25 million in the network’s parent company, dough, Inc., to expand on‑air talent and technology.

According to a 2011 report summarised by Market Realist, Sosnoff used much of his US$84 million proceeds from the sale of thinkorswim to fund tastytrade’s launch.

In January 2014 the group released dough, a mobile educational trading platform. Dough and tastytrade were later combined under dough, Inc., which used the TCV investment to fuel international expansion.

Sosnoff resides in the Chicago area. Public filings indicate that he and his family established the Sosnoff Charitable Foundation in 2021, a private foundation registered in Illinois. He frequently appears at trading‑education tours and events such as Chicago Ideas Week, Techweek and various university programmes. Tax filings for the Sosnoff Charitable Foundation list two of his children—Case Sosnoff and Cole Sosnoff—as directors.