What tastylive does

tastylive is a US-based financial media company that produces daily live and recorded programming on options, futures, forex, and crypto trading for self-directed retail investors. Its content stack includes on-air personalities and shows such as "The Skinny on Options," "Research Specials," "Best Practices," and "Macro Voices," distributed across YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and an ecosystem of daily newsletters ("From the Crow's Nest," "The Lede," "Macro Voices"). The company is headquartered in Chicago and operates with 51-100 employees under the umbrella of IG US Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of UK-listed IG Group Holdings plc. Founded by Tom Sosnoff and Kristi Ross, the firm originated as tastytrade, Inc., was backed by TCV in 2018, and was rebranded to tastylive, Inc. in 2022 to distinguish the educational media entity from the affiliated tastytrade brokerage brand.

The core product is free, ad-and-affiliate-supported educational content; tastylive does not charge subscription fees and does not execute trades directly. Revenue is generated primarily through a marketing-services agreement with tastytrade (the affiliated retail brokerage), with additional affiliate economics across tastyfx (forex) and tastycrypto (digital assets). Content is produced from a Chicago production studio and amplified through partnerships with CME Group and Cboe Global Markets, positioning tastylive as the top-of-funnel media layer that converts engaged viewers into funded brokerage accounts inside the broader IG Group ecosystem. The company has historical M&A activity (acquiring Seed Futures LLC in 2017, Quiet Foundation and Ki edit + design in 2012) that expanded its asset-class and creative capabilities.

Technology footprint is conventional media: live-streamed video production, podcast distribution, email newsletter infrastructure, and consumer-facing web and mobile applications for content consumption. There is no disclosed AI/ML capability, proprietary model, or data flywheel; quantitative research is conducted through statistical backtesting (e.g., options strategy studies) rather than machine learning. Customer concentration risk sits on the revenue side: tastylive's monetization is structurally dependent on the single affiliated tastytrade brokerage channel, although the underlying audience is a large, distributed base of individual retail traders with no named enterprise customers.

Name

tastylive

Legal name

tastylive, Inc.

Website

https://tastylive.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

tastylive is a US financial media company producing daily live programming on options, futures, forex, and crypto trading for self-directed retail investors. It monetizes via a marketing-services agreement with affiliated brokerages tastytrade, tastyfx, and tastycrypto within the IG Group ecosystem.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Operations

Revenue model

1. Marketing Agreement with tastytrade: tastylive has a marketing agreement with tastytrade (a registered broker-dealer) whereby tastylive recommends tastytrade's brokerage services and receives compensation. This is the primary revenue mechanism for the company.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

tastylive is a financial media network that produces and distributes free live and on-demand trading shows, educational content, market news, and email newsletters focused on options, futures, forex, and cryptocurrency markets. The company generates its primary revenue through a marketing agreement with its affiliated broker-dealer tastytrade, under which tastylive recommends tastytrade's brokerage services in exchange for compensation. The broader offering also spans related sub-brands tastyfx (forex) and tastycrypto (digital assets).

Product overview

tastylive is a financial media network offering a platform-plus-content architecture centered on options and futures trading education. The core offering consists of the tastylive media platform (providing live shows, on-demand content, and market news) complemented by related brokerage brands: tastytrade (self-directed brokerage for securities, options, and futures), tastyfx (forex trading services), and tastycrypto (cryptocurrency trading). The platform also includes value-added services such as the Cherry Bomb and Cherry Picks newsletters, trading concepts education modules, and a help center powered by Freshdesk.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• tastytrade: A registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA, NFA, and SIPC, offering self-directed brokerage accounts to customers. A wholly-owned subsidiary of tastylive, Inc.
• tastyfx
• tastycrypto

Products and services

• tastylive Financial Media Network A free financial media network providing live streaming shows, on-demand video content, market news, research, and educational content focused on options, futures, forex, and cryptocurrency trading. The platform targets self-directed retail traders and do-it-yourself investors and serves as the customer acquisition channel for the affiliated tastytrade brokerage under a marketing agreement.
• tastytrade Brokerage A self-directed online brokerage platform offering trading accounts for securities, options, futures, and futures options. Previously known as tastyworks, Inc., it is a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA, NFA, and SIPC, and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of tastylive, Inc.
• tastyfx Forex Trading A forex trading service operated by tastyfx, LLC, a CFTC-registered Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer (RFED) and Introducing Broker (IB) and Forex Dealer Member of the NFA (NFA ID 0509630). Offers retail forex trading and is part of the tastylive ecosystem, with content anchored by the Forex Focus show.
• tastycrypto Cryptocurrency Platform A cryptocurrency trading platform and newsletter provided by tasty Software Solutions, LLC, a separate but affiliate company of tastylive, Inc. Delivers weekly crypto trading strategies, market insights, and news through a Substack newsletter and crypto trading services.
• Cherry Bomb Newsletter A daily pre-market insights and trade ideas email newsletter authored by Chief Market Strategist Tom Preston, delivered to subscribers' inboxes with actionable market commentary before the trading day begins.
• Cherry Picks Newsletter A weekly data-driven market research and trade ideas email newsletter authored by Head of Research & Development Michael "Dr. Data" Rechenthin, providing subscribers with quantitative, research-driven trade ideas.

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core and moderate.

• tastytradecoreGTM or Marketing Partnertastylive has entered into a marketing agreement with tastytrade (a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA, NFA, and SIPC) whereby tastytrade pays compensation to tastylive to recommend tastytrade's brokerage services. tastytrade was previously known as tastyworks, Inc. tastytrade is a wholly-owned subsidiary of tastylive, Inc.
• Cboe Global MarketsmoderateStrategic or Co-development PartnerCboe is featured in Market Measures show and various content. tastylive broadcasts live from Cboe facilities and covers Cboe products extensively in educational content.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Stocktwits: Stocktwits is a social trading platform where retail investors share trade ideas and market commentary. It is comparable to tastylive's community ecosystem dimension, intersecting with tastylive's active options/futures trader audience around real-time idea sharing.
• Warrior Trading: Warrior Trading is an emerging player in retail day-trading education, offering courses, live trading rooms, and YouTube content targeting active traders. It overlaps with tastylive's active options and futures trader segment through a more course-and-mentorship-driven monetization model.

Direct peers

• Zacks Investment Research: Zacks provides investment research, stock rankings, earnings analysis, and market commentary to retail investors. It is comparable to tastylive in monetizing data-driven financial research and trading ideas through subscription and content channels serving active self-directed investors.
• Investopedia: Investopedia is a leading financial education platform offering trading concepts, market explainers, and tutorials to retail investors. It is directly comparable to tastylive's concepts-and-strategies content library and educational positioning around derivatives, options, and broader market topics.
• The Motley Fool: The Motley Fool is a financial media and education company providing investment analysis, stock recommendations, and premium advisory services to retail investors. It is comparable to tastylive in offering content-driven retail investor education across multiple asset classes, with both free and paid offerings.
• Seeking Alpha: Seeking Alpha is a crowd-sourced financial analysis platform delivering investing research, market commentary, and trading ideas to self-directed investors. It parallels tastylive's audience of do-it-yourself traders consuming third-party content to inform active trading decisions.
• Benzinga: Benzinga is a financial media company delivering trading news, market analysis, and education content to retail traders. It is directly comparable to tastylive as both target active self-directed traders with real-time market commentary, education, and trading-idea distribution across newsletters and video.

Broad incumbents

• TradingView: TradingView is a broad incumbent charting and social trading platform with a large global user base of self-directed traders. It is comparable to tastylive as a destination platform for retail traders consuming market analysis, ideas, and community content, though it is much broader in scope.
• Yahoo Finance: Yahoo Finance is a broad incumbent consumer finance platform providing news, data, and original video content to retail investors. It overlaps with tastylive's audience of self-directed investors consuming market news, video, and trading ideas at scale.
• Bloomberg: Bloomberg is a broad incumbent financial media company with global coverage of markets, trading, and economics. It is comparable to tastylive at the level of market commentary and trading-oriented content distribution, though Bloomberg serves institutional and professional audiences primarily.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/tastyliveshow
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@tastyliveshow
• Facebookfacebook.com/tastylivecom
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/tastyliveshow
• Instagraminstagram.com/tastyliveshow

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Subsidiaries3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A3 records

Investments3 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about tastylive