GUEST: JIM DOWNS, CEO, Connamara Systems WHAT IS CONNAMARA SYSTEMS  ORIGIN OF THE NAME? WHO IS A TYPICAL CUSTOMER? THERE ARE MANY PLAYERS IN THIS SPACE WHO OFFER DIFFERENT ELEMENTS OF YOUR OFFERING. WHAT SET’S CONNAMARA SYSTEMS APART? YOU CAN ACTUALLY PROVIDE THE BACKBONE INFRASTRUCTURE OF AN EXCHANGE WITH EP3? DO YOU ALSO PROVIDE THE MATCHING ENGINE OR IS THAT PROVIDED BY THE CLIENT? YOU ARE THE BACKBONE FOR SANDOR’S AFX? YOU’VE BEEN IN OPERATION FOR YEARS. WHY DECIDE TO START GETTING THE WORD OUT NOW? REAL TIME MARKET DATA - PROHIBITIVE COST? ISSUES AND CHALLENGES TO THE INDUSTRY

Options news you can use for Monday, April 15, 2019.

VOLATILITY REVIEW SPIKES - 12.25, down 0.5-points from last show VIX Cash - 12.3, 0.7-points lower than last week VVIX - 85, 6-points higher than last show. We saw the expected pop but not the expected move in VIX/VXX VIX Options - ADV: 530k, Total 11.1m (8.41m Calls, 2.65m Puts) VXXB - 26.6, 1.4-points lower than last show       VOLATILITY VOICEMAIL Question from Jim Daily - Just to clarify. Are they really staying with $VXXB? There’s no name change coming? Comment from Jack Heneka - Hi, greetings from Europe! Question from Curious George - RE: VXEFA silly prints. My question is: VXEFA has had some ridiculous intraday spikes. Yesterday O-11.8, C-11.4 with a High 25.5? Can you weigh in on what is causing that and what CBOE might do to eliminate these nonsensical prints? Also, really enjoyed your coverage of SPIKES. Are they going to do anything in EAFE or EEM? Thanks for all the good work you do! Question from Allen Y. - I get that if i buy vix options i can hedge them with vix futures. If i trade spikes options can I also hedge them with VIX futures or do I have to do some sort of spy straddle? It seems from my initial review that vix futures are closely correlated enough to get the job done.     CRYSTAL BALL Last week: Mark L. - 13.25 Mark S. - 12.37 Simon - 12.65 Next week: Mark L. - 12.75 Mark S. - 12.37

Topics this week include: Equities Russell eMini Gold Crude Oil

Options news you can use for Friday, April 12, 2019.

TRADING BLOCK  LYFT Options Update: Rumors of Uber IPO hitting stock and driving LYFT volume - 61k on the tape so far today. Most active indices - VIX: 384k, SPY: 845k, SPX: 323k Most active equity options - AAPL, TSLA, BAC, EBAY, BA, AMD, X, FB, NVDA, BBBY TSLA, AMZN, AMD and AAPL - no surprises, often on the list of most traded.   ODD BLOCK Mystery put update in Tesla Inc (TSLA) Size put love in eBay Inc (EBAY) Call write JetBlue Airways Corporation (JBLU) Call love in Weight Watchers International Inc. (WTW)   MAIL BLOCK The Broker Madness final is upon us! Vote today! TD Ameritrade vs tastyworks. Question from Zack Maenpaa - Hi, long time listener, first time questioner. If you’ve covered it already can you point me to where in case I  have missed it. But what is going on at the $15 May (monthly) strike in COTY. Daily size opening transactions for two weeks now? Trying to figure out what they are trying to do here. Sorry if you receive this message more than once. I kept clicking submit on the website and nothing happens.  Many thanks. There is the share purchase offer, but thats at $11.65, not way up at the 15 strike. Question from a Fidelity Customer - I’m thinking about selling covered calls on a stock that my father left to me and I don’t want to sell the shares, is this a good way to get some extra income?   AROUND THE BLOCK Bank Earning coming up, JPM and WFC tomorrow and BAC next week. Macro headlines: China, Trade tariffs and Euro tariffs. This week in the market: Apr 12 - Import and Export Prices Apr 13 - Consumer Sentiment

Options news you can use for Thursday, April 11, 2019.

With it being in the news a lot lately, let's take a look at a diagonal call spread in Boeing before their earnings report on April 24.  You can find more in The Options Playbook, which is always available on OptionsPlaybook.com, in on the Amazon Kindle edition.  Do you have a question that you want answered on a future episode? Send them to Brian at [email protected], or to the Options Insider at [email protected]. 

BITCOIN BREAKDOWN What a week! BTC up nearly $1100 from last show ($4127). Bitcoin led the market-wide charge on April 2, surging over 20% in a single hour. Recent Bitcoin activity on Akuna. CME Group Bitcoin Futures reported record trading volume on April 4 - https://cointelegraph.com/news/cme-group-bitcoin-futures-reported-record-trading-volume-on-april-4 Google searches for ‘Bitcoin’ hit highest total since November.       THE ALTCOIN UNIVERSE Top 10 coins by market cap: Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, EOS, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Stellar, Cardano, TRON, Bitcoin SV       CRYPTO QUESTIONS Question from WDBL - Will we have weeklies in the Bitcoin options anytime soon? Question from Frank - What do you guys think of this article? Do you ever use the commodity volatility indices in your analysis? - https://www.investing.com/analysis/oil--gold-vs-oil--gold-volatility-indices-200307186 Question from Lebex - Is there some reason why listed #crypto derivatives went on the futures side first? Would have loved to see a security with options listed on it to start as it would be more appealing to a wider audience.

Options news you can use for Tuesday, April 9, 2019.

TRADING BLOCK VIX - 13.3 Boeing cutting production, down around 4%. TSLA - Jefferies cuts price target to $400 from $450, up 1%. LYFT options update - $72.75, 15k today, ADV: 64k, Total 86k (54k Calls, 32k Puts) Most active equity options - GE, AAPL, SNAP, BA, TSLA, AMD, BABA, FB, NVDA, CVE       ODD BLOCK Call love in (BP) Upside call roll in Lowes (LOW) Upside call overwrite in AGNC Investment Corp (AGNC)       STRATEGY BLOCK Uncle Mike Tosaw discusses out of the money gamma       MAIL BLOCK Broker Madness!!! Final 4 voting continues until the end of today. Question from Fidelity Customers - What should I know before trading options on the VIX/volatility products?       AROUND THE BLOCK This week in the market Apr 9: JOLTS Apr 10: CPI, FOMC Minutes Apr 11: Jobless Claims, PPI Apr 12: Import and Export Prices Apr 13: Consumer Sentiment

HOST: Mark Longo, The Options Insider Media Group Interview with Blu Putnam, Senior Economist, CME Group Mark talked with Blu during the FIA Boca Conference where Blu delivered a keynote address on FX. Mark asked Blu: Why focus on FX? For our listeners who couldn't attend the conference, give us an overview of your remarks. You gave a global FX rundown. What are some of the highlights Speaking of FX, Brexit - Yay or Nay? Regarding the trade war deal, are you optimistic? Why or why not? Give us an update on your book. Talking about rates, have the recent comments out of Europe make you more confident in your prediction about no rate hikes for 2019?

Options news you can use for Monday, April 8, 2019.

VOLATILITY REVIEW A week of mild rallies, trade war progress and dwindling recession fears killing volatility. Non-farms did not spark any volatility. SPIKES - 12.8, down nearly 1.5-points from last show VIX Cash - 13, 1-point lower than last week VVIX - 79, 8-points lower than last show VIX Options - ADV: 523k, Total 10.0m (7.68m Calls, 2.32m Puts) VXXB - 28, 1.5-points lower than last show LYFT extremely volatile post IPO.       VOLATILITY VOICEMAIL Comment from T Mal - I don’t do those for a credit 1x2, might as well reduce the distance between the strikes and pay a little Question from White Leo - When do you think we’ll see new inverse volatility tradeable products hit the market? I miss the old XIV days. Comment from Mark Brandt - Embrace the coming Volpocalypse Question from PBWO9 - Hello to my favorite vol show. Thx for keeping me company on the train every week. Love it! 5 stars on all platforms from me. My q - I know you’ve talked a lot about the feb “VIXocalypse” from last year and the meltdown of the inverse volatility products like xiv. Now with the benefit of hindsight do you think that the prevelance of inverse products made the volatility spike much worse than it otherwise would have been. Also is the inverse true and now that those products are dead are we somewhat insulated from a repeat of vix spiking back up to 80. Question from Jim Daily - Just to clarify. Are they really staying with $VXXB? There’s no name change coming?     CRYSTAL BALL Last week: Mark L. - 13.75 Andrew - 13.20 Simon - 13.25 Next week: Mark L. - 13.25 Mark S. - 12.37 Simon - 12.65

Topics this week include: Gold Silver Copper Ferrous Metals Crude Oil

TRADING BLOCK LYFT options trading today Tesla off 64 handle on the day       ODD BLOCK Call love in BorgWarner Inc. (BWA) Call love in Dana Inc (DAN) - review from 11/8 Call love in Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (BR)       MAIL BLOCK Broker Madness Round 3 - The Final Four! TD Ameritrade vs. Fidelity Investments Interactive Brokers vs. tasty works Question from Joe and Linda - My question is for Trey: Being that you are the “Chart” guy...  I have had some success with The ADX, 50/200 SMA and Bollinger Bands. My question relates to time frame for those. Should I set the time for the option? Meaning, should I set those for 2 week view if I plan to sell a credit spread 2 weeks out, or keep it 6 months, 1 year, etc? I have been using the straddle for those time frames but was looking for another point of ref. Thanks.     AROUND THE BLOCK

Options news you can use for Thursday, April 4, 2019.

THE HUDDLE Question from Harold Dsouza -  Hi Brian. Let me start off by saying I am a big fan of your options playbook radio podcasts. I think you are an excellent teacher. I have been meaning to reach out to you for a long time now. I am 41 yrs old and have been very intrigued by the stock market since I was a kid. I have also had an innate fear of losing my hard earned money which has kept me away from venturing into the market all these years. I have finally overcome my fear and have decided to slowly wade towards the deep end. I have been educating myself for about 4 months now, getting comfortable with the market terminology and its workings. I've been reading books on stocks & options trading and listening to podcasts. Absorbing as much as I can. I have had a financial advisor  who has been handling my portfolio for the past 6 yrs and honestly I have seen very little gain in my accounts over these years. After listening to your podcasts I am motivated and I believe with the right guidance and education everything is achievable. I have decided to take control of my finances. I have been listening to your podcasts starting from day 1 and listened to them over and over again until i understand the concept. Some of them i'm struggling with, but i am determined to get there. I like the way you break it down into bite sized digestible chunks. My money has been sitting in my trading account for over 3 weeks now. I am a little anxious to take the first step which is picking the right stock. I am still conservative with my money. Hence I am looking primarily at DJI & S&P500 stocks. My focus at this point is to pick right stock that is on it's way up and sell covered calls on those stocks taking advantage of the current market rally while as the same time getting some residual income. Once I am comfortable I will be looking at handling my finances in its entirety. I need some guidance on how to pick those stocks. I am reaching out with the hope that you could provide some guidance or point me in the right direction to help me get started and achieve my goal. I am currently on podcast # 32, I don't know if you have covered this in your later podcasts. I don't know if my approach is right. I am just going with my understanding of what I have been reading and observing and listening. Much like a well read frog in a well..lol. Look forward to hearing from you. Best Regards, Harold Question from Joe and Linda - I have  been knee deep with you guys for the last 14 months and can’t thank you enough for the wealth of information you provide. One of my favorite quotes: “ Your generosity is only exceeded by my gratitude.” I have a long commute to work in the morning and have managed to listen to all 240+ of the Options Playbook, all of the Bootcamp, 90% of the OIC stuff as well as in and out of the Options Advisor and Futures show. Also haven’t missed Options Block for the last few months… I have a few questions: - I purchased Dan’s Trading Options Greeks book and was wondering if he had an audio version. Could easily listen to it on my morning commute. - I seem comfortable with Bollinger Bands, ADX Charts and Volatility Charts, but I am having trouble nailing down a consistent time frame. Should I set the chart for the time I am interested trading or is the 6 month better, 1 year, 2 year....? - Should support and resistance lines reflect 100 lines for better accuracy? 250? Thank You so much for all your help, looking forward to the future with you guys. Going to be successful enough to be able to travel Thank You guys in person! Thanks Again! Question from Jarryd Smith - I have a question for the podcast. What is meant by 'the tent'? For example, stop the trade when it exits 'the tent'. Let's use an ATM Butterfly. Is it the ending 'tent', when at the end of the trade it would a max-loss? Or the end of the trade that would still be a profit? Or something else? For example, if I had a 100/150/200 ATM Butterfly on for $25, would I exit if it hit 100 or 200? Or 125/175? Or something else? Thanks! Question from Thomas Weber - If I am short a deep in the money call in SPY (delta near 1), what are the odds I will be assigned the Thursday night before Friday expiration?   Do you have a question that you want answered on a future episode? Send them to Brian at [email protected], or to the Options Insider at [email protected]. 

Options news you can use for Tuesday, April 2, 2019.

CRYPTO HOT SEAT Guest: Brian Liston, COO of Seed CX What happened to the original cannabis/hemp mission of Seed? What was it like building out this platform during the turbulent past 12 months for crypto? What sets Seed apart? Which liquidity providers are supporting your platform at launch? Is cyber security the #1 question you receive from institutions these days? What’s coming from Seed CX in the coming months?     BITCOIN BREAKDOWN BTC up $180 from last show($3952). Bitcoin price posts biggest quarterly gain since late 2017 SEC postpones decision on Bitwise, VanEck Bitcoin ETF proposals     THE ALTCOIN UNIVERSE Top 10 coins by market cap - Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, Cardano, TRON, Bitcoin SV.       CRYPTO QUESTIONS Question from Neal S. - Do you guys buy that bitwise data about most crypto volume is fake? Question from Nickel Tim - Does the death of Cboe crypto open the doors for other exchanges to fill their shoes? Is this more of an opportunity than it is the death knell of crypto futures?

TRADING BLOCK Lyft options coming on Thursday. Cboe Global Markets Plans Listing of Options on Lyft, Inc. (LYFT) Most active indices - VIX: 181k, SPY: 1.4M, SPX:  662k Most active equity options - AAPL, BAC, AMD, MSFT, JD, COTY, FB, TSLA, F, BA Earnings: Tuesday - Gamestop Thursday - Duluth Trading Company   ODD BLOCK Options palooza in SPDR S&P Oil & Gas (XOP) - review from 2/11 Opening put love in California Resources Corp (CRC) - review from 11/26 Opening call love in Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) - review from 11/26   STRATEGY BLOCK Colin Songer discusses three different ways a trader might use delta.   AROUND THE BLOCK Round 2 of Broker Madness continues!! Vote today!

Options news you can use for Monday, April 1, 2019.

VOLATILITY REVIEW A week of mild rallies is killing volatility. Latest Brexit fail is not spooking the market. SPIKES - 14.1, nearly 3-points lower than last show. VIX Cash - 14, 2.5-points higher than last week. VVIX - 87, 11-points lower than last show. VIX Options - ADV: 549k, Total 9.37m (7.18m Calls, 2.19m Puts). More 1x2 call spread today. VXXB - 29.5, 2.5-points lower than last show. CRYSTAL BALL Last week: Mark L. - 14.25 Mark S. - 12.37 Simon - 13.55 Next week: Mark L. - 13.75 Mark S. - 13.20 Simon - 13.25

Options news you can use for Friday, March 29, 2019.

TRADING BLOCK Most active indices - VIX: 119k, SPY: 1M, SPX:  444k Most active equity options - AAPL, FB, AMD, LULU, COTY TSLA BAC, NVDA, GE, AMZN Earnings: Monday - Winnebago Industries, Redhat Tuesday - Cronos Group (marijuana stock) Wednesday - Lennar, Lululemon       ODD BLOCK Put love in (PAH) - review from 1/24 Opening Feb call love in (LEN) - review from 12/6 Size call love in Knight-Swift Transportation (KNX)       MAIL BLOCK Broker Madness continues!! Round 2: TD Ameritrade vs Schwab, Fidelity Investments vs TradeStation, Ally Invest vs Interactive Brokers, E*Trade vs tastyworks. Cast your vote today!       AROUND THE BLOCK This Week in the Market: Mar 29 - Personal Income, New Home Sales, Consumer Sentiment

Topics this week include: Metals: Gold, Copper Crude Oil Equities: Eurodollar Ags   FUTURES OPTIONS FEEDBACK Question from Jack T - Is it better to slip or slide when you’re trading skew? Question from Tarry - Maybe include a paying the rent report on the TWIFO program or in the Quikstrike reports? Would be cool to know which names are paying the rent each week.  

Host: Eric Cott, Options Industry Council Guests:  Michael Khouw, Optimize Advisors & Jon Narjarian, Najarian Family Office, tradeMONSTER, CNBC   Is there a FINANCIAL STORM brewing? Does it mean continued VOLATILITY? What are some options strategies for the advisor and client?   - Inaugural start for CWC series - Sharing some ideas for FAs and RIAs to think about in this volatile environment - Talking about what happened on February 5, 2018 and October 2018 in terms of VIX and market gyrations - Some things for advisors to consider and how to read the "tea leaves" with these indexes, etc. - Is option volatility a factor when individual investors, institutions and FAs choose a particular strategy?

Options news you can use for Thursday, March 28, 2019.

Let's take a look at our Nexstar fig leaf trade from last week. Then let's discuss an out of the money long call spread on Boeing.  You can find more in The Options Playbook, which is always available on OptionsPlaybook.com, in on the Amazon Kindle edition.  Do you have a question that you want answered on a future episode? Send them to Brian at [email protected], or to the Options Insider at [email protected]. 

Jermal Chandler, an instructor at Cboe Options Institute discusses his unique journey from chemist to trader. Then, he and host Joe Burgoyne will help to break down Ratio Spreads, Front Spreads and Backspreads. Later in the show, Joe will answer your listener questions.

OPTIONS 101 Iron Flys vs. Iron Condors What is an iron butterfly? What is an iron condor? Why/when would you use each? Why/when would you not use each? THE BUZZ Recent market recap: The rise & fall of volatility Earnings volatility breakdown. Alternative strategies to capture alpha in volatile markets.   OFFICE HOURS Question from Andrew Dodson - Let me see if I have this straight re: delta hedging or “gamma scalping” - even though I’m not sure why it’s scalping gamma and not delta. Let’s say you buy a straddle with a long 10 delta. Then the underlying rallies 1 point so you sell 10 shares to make yourself flat again? Then you wait to see if the underlying drops again so you can buy back those 10 shares at a point lower? Is that the gist of it? What do you do if the stock continues to rally and you continue to get long deltas? And why the heck isn’t it delta scalping?If it was gamma scalping you’d be hedging the rate of change of your delta over that 1 point swing in the underlying? Question from Keving - Why doesn't anyone put out the earnings straddle analysis similar to the analysis from the so called analysts? Then we can all fixate on whether a name outperforms its straddle as opposed to beating the whisper number. I think that's more valuable. Why don't more people know about this stuff.

HOST: MARK LONGO, THE OPTIONS INSIDER MEDIA GROUP  CRYPTO HOT SEAT SKEW INTERVIEW WITH EMMANUEL GOH GUEST: EMMANUEL GOH, CO-FOUNDER OF SKEW, A START-UP CRYPTO OPTIONS EXCHANGE  Website: http://www.sk3w.co/ Twitter: @skew_markets CRYPTO QUESTIONS SEGMENT QUESTION FROM BEN TODD: Are there any legal ways to trade BTC options in the U.S.? QUESTION FROM UNDERKILL: Is the cboe killing btc futs the death knell for options as well? QUESTION FROM CHARLES Q.: Has the ICO market quieted down along with the core crypto markets or is it still the wild west out there?    

TRADING BLOCK VIX - 16.5, up 3-points from last show Earnings: Monday - Winnebago Industries, Redhat Tuesday - Cronos Group (marijuana stock) Wednesday - Lennar, Lululemon Wall Street set for lower open. Apple's 'Show Time' event.         ODD BLOCK Call love in PagSeguro Digital Ltd (PAGS) Call overwrite in Viacom, Inc. Class B(VIAB) Lits puts in Newmark Group Inc (NMRK)       STRATEGY BLOCK Trey Jarrell discusses credit spreads.       MAIL BLOCK It’s Broker Madness time!!! Round One continues.       AROUND THE BLOCK This Week in the Market Mar 26: Housing Starts, Consumer Confidence Mar 27: International Trade Mar 28: Jobless Claims, GDP Mar 29: Personal Income, New Home Sales, Consumer Sentiment

Options news you can use for Monday, March 25, 2019.

Options news you can use for Friday, March 22, 2019.

VOLATILITY REVIEW SPIKES - 16.87, nearly 5-points higher than last show VIX Cash - 16.5, nearly 4-points higher than last week VVIX - 98 - 18-points higher than last show VXXB - 32, nearly 4-points higher than last show VIX Options - ADV: 569k, Total 8.71m (6.65m Calls, 2.06m Puts) A strong selloff sparked by weak economic data in US & Europe. Europe's stock volatility gauge hits six-week high as weak data stirs worries         VOLATILITY VOICEMAIL Question from Brew Master 3 - What does all of this mean for the vol market? Is this a problem for new vol players and products trying to get into the space? Comment from Mark Brandt - Sold the 32d 15/11 put spread to buy the 21 calls for a nickel. Liking it! Question from Nico Lee - There are so many questions swirling around VIX right now. How do we avoid these types of problems in the future so people can have faith that the volatility space isn’t rigged against them.       CRYSTAL BALL Next week: Mark L. - 14.25 Mark S. - 12.37 Simon - 13.55

TRADING BLOCK Most active indices: VIX - 110k, SPY - 1.3M, SPX -  363k Most active equity options: AAPL, MU, AMD, BAC, NVDA, FB, NFLX, AMZN, COTY, DIS Earnings: Monday - Tilray (TLRY), Lumber Liquidators (LL), Overstock.com (OSTK) Tuesday - Michaels (MIK), China Telecom (CHA), FedEx (FDX) Wednesday - General Mills (GIS), Guess (GES), Micron Technology (MU), Williams-Sonoma (WSM) Thursday - Nike (NKE) Friday - Hibbett Sports (HIBB), Tiffany & Co. (TIF)       ODD BLOCK Put love in Nordstrom, Inc. (JWN) Lits puts in Apple Inc. (AAPL) Put love in Barclays PLC (BCS)       MAIL BLOCK It’s Broker Madness time!!! Vote for your favorite at theoptionsinsider.com Match-ups this round: TD Ameritrade vs. SogoTrade, Schwab vs. LightSpeed Trading, Fidelity Investments vs. Merrill Edge, TradeStation vs. Trading Block, Ally Invest vs. Firstrade, Interactive Brokers vs. TradeHawk by Tradier, E*Trade vs. Robin Hood, eOptions vs. Tastyworks Question from JDog - Why don’t you guys talk about unusual index activity? Question from Bob Lasy - What would you say is the #1 go-to options strategy? Is it just buying a call or is it something more elaborate?       AROUND THE BLOCK This Week in the Market Mar 22: Existing Home Sales, Treasury Budget

Topics this week include: Equities/RVX Crude Oil Metals/Gold Ags       FUTURES OPTIONS FEEDBACK Question from Frank C. - There are so many Russell options products - can you break down the main differences between the offerings on the different exchanges? Question from Level F - How far out can I trade RUT options? Looking for 2-3 yrs.

Options news you can use for Thursday, March 21, 2019.

On today's episode, we use a figure leaf or leveraged covered call in Nexstar Media (NXST).  You can find more in The Options Playbook, which is always available on OptionsPlaybook.com, in on the Amazon Kindle edition.    Do you have a question that you want answered on a future episode? Send them to Brian at [email protected], or to the Options Insider at [email protected]. 

Options news you can use for Wednesday, March 20, 2019.

CRYPTO HOT SEAT Guest: Josh Green, Head of Trading, Digital Asset Capital Management What was it like running a crypto fund in 2018? What is a digital asset fund? How is the ICO Fund performing these days? Tell us about your options fund. What are your thought on the laugh of crypto options in the US? Where is the space going?       BITCOIN BREAKDOWN BTC up nearly $150 from last show to $3853. BTC last week was the lowest since Nov 14. Bitcoin Price Analysis: Slow Grind Could Lead to Short Squeeze - https://www.nasdaq.com/article/bitcoin-price-analysis-slow-grind-could-lead-to-short-squeeze-cm1116516 Cboe puts the brakes on bitcoin futures - https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/cboe-puts-the-brakes-on-bitcoin-futures-1809048       THE ALTCOIN UNIVERSE Top 10 coins by market cap - Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, TRON, Bitcoin SV, Cardano.       CRYPTO QUESTIONS Question from Ben Todd -  Are there any legal ways to trade BTC options in the U.S.? Question from Underkill - Is the Cboe killing bitcoin futures the death knell for options as well? Question from Charles Q. - Has the ICO market quieted down along with the core crypto markets or is it still the wild west out there?  

TRADING BLOCK A fairly quiet day in the market. Most active indices - VIX: 329k, SPY: 1.2M, SPX: 500k Most active equity options - AAPL, COTY, FB, BAC, TSLA, GE, BA, AMZN, NFLX, ACB Earnings: Monday - Tilray (TLRY), Lumber Liquidators (LL), Overstock.com (OSTK) Tuesday - Michaels (MIK), China Telecom (CHA), FedEx (FDX) Wednesday - General Mills (GIS), Guess (GES), Micron Technology (MU), Williams-Sonoma (WSM) Thursday - Nike (NKE) Friday - Hibbett Sports (HIBB), Tiffany & Co. (TIF)       ODD BLOCK Call overwrite in Boston Scientific Corporation (BSX) More call overwriting in USA Technologies, Inc (USAT)  Call love in Fidelity National Information Services Inc (FIS)       STRATEGY BLOCK This week Trey Jarrell discusses portfolio hedging.       MAIL BLOCK March Madness is back! Vote for your favorite options firm today!       AROUND THE BLOCK This Week in the Market: Mar 18 - Housing Market Index Mar 19 - Factory Orders Mar 20 - FOMC Meeting Mar 21 - Jobless Claims, Fed Balance Sheet Mar 22 - Existing Home Sales, Treasury Budget

HOST: MARK LONGO, OPTIONS INSIDER MEDIA GROUP CO-HOST: MARK SEBASTIAN, OPTION PIT CO-HOST: SHELLY BROWN, MIAX OPTIONS CO-HOST: SIMON HO, T3 INDEX VOLATILITY REVIEW SEGMENT SPIKES 12.07 -  5 PTS. LOWER THAN LAST SHOW VIX CASH 12.70 - 17.50 - NEARLY 5 PTS LOWER THAN LAST WEEK VVIX 80.5 - 10.5 PTS LOWER THAN LAST SHOW VIX FUTURES CURVE FRONT MONTH: .7 PT PREMIUM TO CASH 2ND MONTH: OVER 2PT PREMIUM TO CASH HOT VOLATILITY TRADES SIZE TIME SPREAD/RISK REVERSAL TODAY 360K CONTRACTS IN ONE TRADE - A NEW VIX WHALE? VOLATILITY VOICEMAIL QUESTION FROM ARAMANI: I can’t find spikes on my tos screens. Is it live there?   CRYSTAL BALL WHERE WILL VIX/SPIKES BE THIS WEEK? MARK: 14.75? Andrew/Sebastian: 13.75? SIMON: 15.25?     WHERE WILL VIX/SPIKES BE NEXT WEEK? MARK: 13.25? Andrew/Sebastian: 12.37? SIMON: 11.5?    

HOST:  MARK LONGO, THE OPTIONS INSIDER CO-HOST: ANDREW GIOVINAZZI/MARK SEBASTIAN, OPTION PIT CO-HOST:  MIKE TOSAW, ST. CHARLES WEALTH MANAGEMENT CO-HOST: BRIAN ISABELLE - FIDELITY’S TRADING STRATEGY DESK TRADING BLOCK SEGMENT FAIRLY QUIET DAY IN THE MARKET VIX : 13.3 - DOWN 1.5 FROM LAST SHOW MARK/ANDREW REVIEW? MIKE REVIEW? BRIAN REVIEW? MOST ACTIVE INDICES VIX: 494K- ADV 533K SPY: 780K- ADV 2.5M SPX:  366K - ADV 1.19M QQQ: 256K -  ADV 654K IWM: 73K - 350K ADV ODD BLOCK SNAP PRE-EARNINGS CALL HARVESTING MAIL BLOCK QUESTION FROM FIDELITY CUSTOMER: “With SPY going ex-dividend tomorrow, do I have a greater risk of early assignment?      

EQUITIES WHAT’S NEW IN EQUITIES AT CME GROUP? - Micro E-Mini Equity Futures – Launching May 2019  We also discussed crude oil, metals, ags, CME bitcoin futures on this episode.

Comment from Analog K71 - Hi Brian! I know that you are not making recommendations, but your diagonal spread on Pepsi was a perfect call! The short call expires almost perfectly with the underlying stock at 1.16, now my long calls are entirely risk free and possibly worth something! Just wanted to give you a tip of the hat! Thank you Question from Da Poet - What does it mean when an options is delta skewed? Question from Holscreen - Is it safe to say that a large amount of the options business is devoted to paying for puts? Question from Duffy - How do you handle the fixed-time aspect of trading options? Question from Stipe 3 - Is it safe to say that most professional option traders are short premium and long theta? Question from Merrick - Can I have a copy of the playbook? Also does Brian do any live events?

Join OIC host Joe Burgoyne and long-time OIC instructor, Bill Ryan as they discuss the short put and other bullish strategies that might be more challenging to implement in a volatile market.