Upon graduation from the University of Southern California with a B.S. in Business Administration, Mr. Gebhard acquired his Series 6 & 63 securities licenses and worked as an account executive with a mutual fund and insurance group. He then turned his efforts to the futures markets, earning his Series 3 commodities futures license with an options specialty firm. He subsequently worked at two other futures brokerage firms before co-founding Altavest in 1997.

After several years Altavest developed a large client base of options traders. The Altavest team saw a need to make complex option spread trading simple. They then developed ThetaTrader, which pre-selects complex multi-legged option trades on stock indexes and automatically manages risk and reward. The ThetaTrader technology allowed for the creation of a unique 6-leg option spread structure called a Dragonfly. ThetaTrader also utilizes an integrated Trade Alert functionality wherein to respond to an alert, the client only needs to touch "Accept" or "Reject" on their smart device.

Mr. Gebhard enjoys spending time with family on adventurous outings, along with vintage automobiles, bike riding and church activities. He also volunteers as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council for La Sierra University’s Zapara School of Business.

Mr. Starnes is a graduate of Rice University and has earned an MBA from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. For over 30 years, Mr. Starnes has been involved in the futures industry, active in every aspect of brokerage operations. For clearing firms in Chicago he has provided support services to a broad range of independent brokerage operations. He brought one of the industry’s first electronic trading platforms to market and was the first to provide retail order connectivity straight through, first to the trading floor and later to the CME’s Globex platform. As a special projects manager, he has worked with a variety of vendors and providers in IT, Compliance, Clearing, and much more.

For over 10 years, Mr. Starnes has worked with the founders at Altavest to bring to life the trading technology that is the foundation of the service we provide to our customers. We co-ordinate trading strategies with order management and account visualization in a unique way to enhance and clarify the customer experience.

When Mr. Starnes is away from the markets, he enjoys spending time with his wife and playing golf.

Mr. Armbruster earned graduate and undergraduate degrees in Business/Accounting from the University of Kansas. Prior to entering the futures industry, he worked for Trans World Airlines performing compliance and financial audits of the airline’s global operations. He has been Series 3 registered with the National Futures Association since 1994. He co-founded Altavest in 1997 along with Erik Gebhard. Mr. Armbruster is involved in all operational aspects of the Company. In addition to advising individual clients, he is also involved with the ongoing build-out of Altavest’s proprietary options trading platform, ThetaTrader. ThetaTrader includes our proprietary Risk Thermal Indicator (RTI) as well as interactive Trade Alerts. Mr. Armbruster recognizes that recent advances in mobile and web-based technologies gives Altavest the tools it needs to provide a unique experience to individual investors. His goal is to empower the individual investor with direct access to the same strategies and risk management tools employed by major institutions. Direct access means giving clients a web-based hands-on approach to managing their alternative investment without having to rely on (and pay) an Investment Advisor.

Due to their inherent complexity, multi-legged option strategies were once off-limits to all but professional traders. Thanks to Altavest’s ThetaTrader, and the cooperation of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Altavest offers individual access to an alternative marketplace in a user-friendly format that requires only a few minutes a day for self-directed clients. ThetaTrader is designed to simplify option spread trading on stock index futures contracts and can be used for both long and short volatility strategies. Altavest also offers AVSystems, a platform that allows individual investors to research and employ the power of automated trading algorithms.

When he is away from the markets, Mike enjoys spending time with his family, training for competitive cycling events, and of course, Jayhawk basketball.