Originally published January 30, 2018 Trading Block: VIX is back into the 13 handle. Earnings this week: Wednesday - FB, Microsoft Thursday - Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Alibaba The ORATS earnings report for 1/29/2018 Odd Block: More Jan 2019 50 "Catastrophe" puts in Tesla Motors (TSLA). Size call diagonal in Anheuser Busch Inbev NV (BUD). Near-term call paper in Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL). Mail Block: Options question of the week Earnings Season is upon us once again! It's time for #Tech to put its best foot forward. Which big #tech names are you looking to sling some #options on this week? Amazon ($AMZN) Microsoft ($MSFT) Alphabet ($GOOGL) Facebook ($FB) Listener questions and comments: Question from Michael Smith - Any recommendations on where I can find help on calculating implied move into earnings? Around the Block/Economic Reports this Week: Jan 30: Consumer Confidence Jan 31: Chicago PMI, FOMC Meeting Feb 1: Jobless Claims Feb 2: Unemployment, Consumer Sentiment, Factory Orders

Trading Block: A look back at the year in trading The worst holiday week ever? Dow rallies 1,000 points, logging its biggest single-day point gain ever 2018 YEAR END REVIEW MVP of the Year: Now we've got quite the horse race to see who will be crowned the most valuable company by the end of the year. Amazon was briefly number one today, but closed in the second spot. Now we have: MSFT at 860.43 billion market cap. - NOW 753B AAPL at 877.04 billion market cap. -  NOW 721B AMZN at 866.63 billion market cap. - NOW 693B Mail Block: Options question of the week. The final #QOTW for 2018 is a big one! Time to play along w/ #VolatilityViews and dust off your #CrystalBall. Quite simply - where do you think $VIX will close for 2019? Bonus points: Reply/DM/Email w/ your specific pick. Closest (within 1pt) will win Fabulous Prizes. Low: 8-11.99 Normal: 12 -16.99 Elevated: 17- 23 Very Elevated: > 23 Around the Block: What to look forward to in 2019?

Options news you can use for Friday, December 28, 2018

2018 Year-in-Review: Ags/Soybeans Nat Gas Equities/Russell Metal/Gold Cyrpto Futures Options Feedback: Listener thoughts and musings Question from Jamal A. Lee - Thoughts on chance of BTC options listing in 2019? Question from Shasha3 - Biggest surprise of 2018? Any crazy expectations for next year? Question from Tarles - Concrete plans to bring back RVX in 2019? Seems like market makers would be interested in more volatility offerings these days? Question from C Tauck - Is this market whipsaw enough to make people rethink purely passive investing? Maybe they will consider an active allocation or perhaps even hedging themselves in 2019? Question from BBoy2 - What is the technical definition of a skew trade? Question from Burns - Is buying a call actually the best way to get long stock in this market?

Options news you can use for Thursday, December 27, 2018

Huddle up, listeners! We're taking your questions, including: I've been lured in by the ongoing selloff in crude and have been thinking about a stock replacement in USO. Should I even bother? Is there a price where it's no longer worth it? What about timing? And more.... Does Ally allow people to close short positions below 10 cents without a fee? Are there any types of trades that, without brokerage fees, would be great trades? 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].

Ed Modla of OICs Investor Services team joins Joe Burgoyne to break down the Iron Butterfly and what investors may want to consider when utilizing this complex credit strategy. Then on Profiles & Perspectives, Joe interviews OICs Vice President of Education, Paul Finnegan. 

In this episode, Mark is joined by Evan Schnidman, Founder and CEO of Prattle. They discuss: The Prattle origin story Real-time sentiment analysis Why social analysis is insufficient Causal language over causal relationships Who are the intended users? Sentiment alerts What did Prattle say about the recent Fed meeting? Any surprising take-aways from their analysis? Predictions for 2019? Is there a Prattle platform for retail traders? And more...

This episodes co-hosts are: Matt Amberson, Principal, Option Research & Technology Services Chris Hausman, Portfolio Manager, Managing Director of Risk, Swan Global Investments Jon Cherry, Global Head of Options, Northern Trust Capital Markets 2018 Options Year-In-Review Tricks of the Trade: Advocating for the value of options to clients The Buzz: Barron's names top 1,200 advisors of 2018 Office Hours: Listener questions and comments Question from Liam Hardy - Thoughts on options sellers hedge fund blowing out from recent nat gas spike? Is this just another example of getting greedy selling options without appropriate risk management? Question from Neville T. - What are your predictions for the options market for 2019?

Options news you can use for Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Volatility Review: A look at last week from a volatility perspective. VIX Cash - 26.5, nearly 4-points higher than last show. VVIX - 105, 8-points higher than last show Mnuchin Blames Volcker Rule, High-Speed Trading for Volatility VIX Options - ADV: 575k down nearly 20k from last show. Total 5.50m (4.23m Calls, 1.27m Puts) VXX - 46, 6.5-points higher than last show. SVXY - 43, almost 3 handles lower than last show. Volatility Voicemail: Options question of the week Which upcoming volatility product are you most excited about trading in 2019? Or are you content to stay with the original despite lingering issues? SPIKES Realday/RealVol Voldex/Skewdex I'll stick with VIX Comments, questions, and musings: Mark Twain on Volatility - "October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February." -Mark Twain Comment from Pat Hennessy - There are a total of 6,600 $VIX Dec puts that will be ITM if the VIX settles above 24. 1.66 million VIX puts will expire totally worthless. This represents over 64% of all open VIX puts. Thanks for playing. Better luck next time. Question from JLVC - What's the vol crew predicting for 2019? Question from Sangfrois - Why no options on $TVIX? Crystal Ball: Wild and reckless prognostication Last week: Mark L. - 19.25 Mark S. - 27.25 This week: Mark L. - 23.45 Mark S. - 28.85

Options news you can use for Monday, December 24, 2018

Options news you can use for Friday, December 21, 2018.

TRADING BLOCK Fed raises rates again - hints at slower raises to come, but not enough for the markets. Chair Powell pretty much says the Fed doesn’t need to respond to Trump or the market. Most active: SPY - 3.54M (ADV 3.72M) VIX -  177k (584K ADV) Earnings Highlights: Thursday - Conagra, Nike Friday - Carmax           ODD BLOCK Tesla put summary Call love in (PG) Call love in (EXEL) Put love in (GNW)           MAIL BLOCK #Options #QOTW - Which upcoming #Volatility product are you most excited about trading in 2019? Or are you content to stay with the original despite lingering issues? - #SPIKES - #Realday/ #RealVol - #Voldex/ #Skewdex - I’ll stick with $VIX   Comment from StockCats - 6 trading days left in the year… Comment from TinSoldier - RE: Disney - Stock buybacks are not happening, but you have to be blind not to see future growth in every business segment(media, parks, studio) Comment from Danny_Desert - RE: Disney - I can give a couple trillion why it won’t. Comment from Koopus - Recent market jolts is when fake & bloated stocks like TSLA will race to the bottom! Comment from PaulDrew2006 - Uncle Mike’s comment that this is a market for crazy people - Not really, smart people will be buying a sale Comment from Scott Somer: 10,000 Jan 18th $XLF 22 puts have traded….$SPY STILL has 5 dollar expected move in Dec 21 cycle.         AROUND THE BLOCK  

Topics this week include: Rates Crude/WTI Equities/Russell Metals/Gold Futures Options Feedback: Listeners take over Comment from MailManDan5 - I'm a buyer at $2,250. Know that market all too well. If it wants to fiddle down there I'll play ball, else it's not a great time to get back into crypto. Hopefully too many people didn't waste their time in 2018 on what was clearly a 2017 boon. Little piece missing here. Gold is rising now that #BITCOIN is falling. Little switch up in store of value happening here. Any bigger investors that decided to take the crypto plunge still playing it like it's a stock - it goes down enough and then pull out and reinvest elsewhere Comment from Giorgio - Volatility in the Euro/USD futures options is making OTM puts very cheap. Time for a quick risk reversal? Comment from Austyn41 - Good shows today. The experienced and animated host makes it very entertaining and interesting to listen to.

Now that the Fed has spoken, the market is reacting. This is a good opportunity for a front spread. You can find more in The Options Playbook, which is always available on OptionsPlaybook.com, in on the Amazon Kindle edition. Specifically: The Fed has spoken What's a front spread? Using AAPL as an example Where is APPL now? Selecting strikes Selecting an expiration date Max risk and max gain 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, December 19, 2018

Trading Block: Looming government shutdown spooks the market. Most active today: SPY - 2.1M (ADV 3.44M) VIX - 326k (603K ADV) Earnings Highlights: Monday - Oracle (after bell) Tuesday - Darden, Navistar, FedEx Wednesday - Rite Aid, General Mills Thursday - Conagra, Nike Friday - Carmax Odd Block: Tesla put summary, opening call sale in (ONB), opening call love in (CG) and put love in Macy's (M) Strategy Block: Uncle Mike Tosaw discusses 1256 contracts and wash sales. Mail Block: Options qusetion of the week Which upcoming volatility product are you most excited about trading in 2019? Or are you content to stay with the original despite lingering issues? SPIKES Realday/RealVol Voldex/Skewdex I'll stick with VIX Listener question: Question from CodeLife10 - What is your thought on JPM tomorrow? Around the Block: What's on the radar for the pre-holiday week?

Options news you can use for Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Volatility Review: A look back at the week from a volatility perspective What exactly is afoot? VIX cash International volatility trends: France for the win! Volatility opportunities 1-by-6 fever? Aggressively naked Take the money and run Volatility Voicemail: Options questions of the week Everyone loves trading AAPL Options. So the open interest is always very high. But a few interesting options dominate the rest. What do you think is the largest open position in AAPL right now? No cheating - try to use your #SpideySense. Jan 2020 200 Call Jan 250 Call Dec 180 Put Jan 100 Put Listener questions and comments: Question from F96 - Is there a listed equivalent to trading a variance swap? If not what's the closest approximation? Question from T-Bags - Which new volatility product are you most excited about for 2019? Crystal Ball: Wild prognostication Last week: Mark L. - 18.65 Mark S. - 23.00 This week: Mark L. - 19.25 Mark S. - 27.25

In this episode, Mark is joined by Jared Broad, Founder and CEO of QuantConnect. They discuss: What is QuantConnect? Who is using the platform? What are the most popular markets/products with QuantConnect users? The move from Brooklyn to Seattle What are Alpha Streams? What is the Algorithm Framework? The LEAN platform And more...

Options news you can use for Friday, December 14, 2018

Trading Block: A mixed day today after a crazy week. Most active today: SPY - 1.62M (ADV 3.44M) VIX - 332k (603k ADV) Earnings Highlights: Monday - Stitch Fix Tuesday - Dave & Busters, American Eagle Outfitters Wednesday - Vera Bradley, Peak Resorts Thursday - Costco, Adobe And, Apple falls after Chinese court bans sale of most iPhones Odd Block: Tesla put summary, put breakdown in General Electric Company (GE), call sale in Tenet Healthcare Corp (THC), and call love in Liveramp Holdings Inc (RAMP) Mail Block: Options question of the week Everyone loves trading $AAPL #Options. So the #OpenInterest is always very high. But a few interesting #Options dominate the rest. What do you think is the largest open position in $AAPL right now? No cheating - try to use your #SpideySense. Jan 2020 200 Call Jan 250 Call Dec 180 Put Jan 100 Put Listener questions and comments: Comment from Austyn41: Good shows today. The experienced and animated host makes it very entertaining and interesting to listen to. Question from Bjorn L. - You still liking apple 150 puts here? Comment from Mark Brant - Bought AAPL 8d/15d Calendar Straddle for $1.40! On a nice streak with this strategy. Multi bagger profit potential if you get lucky. I have come to favor +EV plays that have big upside but uncertainty per trade. Question from Max Lee - What do you think about stock replacement in SPY here? How far out would you go? Around the Block/This Week in the Markets: Dec 14 - Retail Sales, Industrial Production

WWoO 57: Panel - How Do You Know When to Hedge? Many investors continue to wonder how long the bull market will last. After all, it began almost a decade ago. So does it make sense to consider hedging? Join OIC for a lively panel discussion, moderated by OIC Sr. Investor Services Specialist Mark Benzaquen, to learn how professional investors think about hedging.

Topics this week include: Soybeans Crude Oil Nat Gas Equities Metals/Gold Crypto/Bitcoin Winners: KC Wheat, Iron Ore, Palladium Losers: Nat Gas, Rough Rice, E-Mini Russell 2000 Futures Options Feedback: Listeners take over Question from JLN7 -Is it safe to write calls in nat gas again? Question from Mainev -Didn't quite catch the logic of the guest last show re: equities strangles. How would selling strangles help you rebalance your equities portfolio? Thx for this. Also enjoying Options Playbook. Question from Neal J. - Does put-call parity work the same for futures options as it does for equity options? Thank you for all your free content. Question from Brandon Elliot - Have any good rules of thumb when trading the term structure in seasonal products like corn? Question from Oytrate - What is a reason that someone would write ITM covered calls? Seems like a waste of time to me since you're capping all of your upside. Comment from Kelly Lef - Thought the user tip to exercise deep ITM calls to save on the spread was a good one. So I checked a few of my stock replacement positions that had gone ITM. Turned out the spreads were fairly similar to the spread on the underlying stock index so the any savings were pretty small. Not really worth the hassle to go through the exercise process. Maybe I'm just trading a more liquid index than that listener or am I missing something?

When the market conditions are right, it can be a good time to trade a butterfly in the S&P 500. Now is the time. You can find more in The Options Playbook, which is always available on OptionsPlaybook.com, in on the Amazon Kindle edition. Specifically: As of this recording, the VIX is higher than last week, but down a bit on the day A review of last week Where is the market now? Let's do another 20-point wide butterfly Selecting strikes What does it cost? What's the maximum gain? What about the hedge? And more... 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, December 12, 2018

Options news you can use for Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Trading Block: Another day, another selloff Most active today: SPY - 2.71M (ADV 3.44M) VIX - 299k (603K ADV) Earnings Highlights: Monday - Stitch Fix Tuesday - Dave & Busters, American Eagle Outfitters Wednesday - Vera Bradley, Peak Resorts Thursday - Costco, Adobe MVP of the Year: Now we've got quite the horse race to see who will be crowned the most valuable company by the end of the year. Amazon was briefly number one today, but closed in the second spot. Now we have: AAPL at 877.04 billion market cap. AMZN at 866.63 billion market cap. MSFT at 860.43 billion market cap. Odd Block: Tesla put summary; March put love in Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc. (SKT); puts lighting up in HD Supply Holdings Inc (HDS), and; call love in Hydrogenics Corporation (HYGS) Strategy Block: Uncle Mike Tosaw discusses cash as a position. Mail Block: Options question of the week. Everyone loves trading $AAPL #Options. So the #OpenInterest is always very high. But a few interesting #Options dominate the rest. What do you think is the largest open position in $AAPL right now? No cheating - try to use your #SpideySense. Jan 2020 200 Call Jan 250 Call Dec 180 Put Jan 100 Put Listener questions and comments: Comment by Austyn41 - You've been nuggeted! Question from RTS3 - Mark said he used to trade Activision a lot. Outside of trading it, do you also play their games? If so what's on your playlist these days? Also the Rock Lobster is a cool nickname. B52s? Around the Block/This Week in the Markets: Dec 11 - PPI Dec 12 - CPI, Treasury Budget Dec 13 - Jobless Claims Dec 14 - Retail Sales, Industrial Production

Volatility Review: A look back at the week from a volatility perspective. VIX Cash - 22.65, 3.25 higher than last show VVIX - 97, 3-points higher than last show VIX Options - ADV: 594k - up nearly 50k from last show Hot VIX options today: 10000 VIX Feb 13th 17.0 Puts $1.025 3999 VIX Dec 12th 30.0 Calls $0.10 42800 VIX Dec 19th 40.0 Calls $0.14 37700 VIX Jan 16th 32.5 Calls $0.562 Plus: VXX - 35.5, 1-point lower than last show SVXY - 46, almost 4 handles lower than last show Volatility Voicemail: Listener questions and comments Question from DaNincompoop - Are the futures really backward if it's just the cash that's higher? Question from Charles Pierce - When does VXX make the switch to VXX B? Question from ELanc3 - Over-under on when we'll see the next crop of new inverse volatility ETFs? Crystal Ball: Wild prognostication ensues Last week: Mark L. - 17.65 Mark S. - 16.49 This week: Mark L. - 18.65 Mark S. - 23.00

Options news you can use for Monday, December 10, 2018

Trading Block: A look back at the week in trading Tariff Man spooks the market…again. Exchanges were closed on Wednesday, December 5 in observance of a National Day of Mourning for the late George HW Bush. Netflix blew $100M on Friends reruns for one year! Most active this week: SPY - 3.01M (ADV 1.43M) VIX - 476K Earnings Highlights: Tuesday - Dollar General, HP Wednesday - Five Below Thursday - The Kroger Co., Broadcom, Michaels, Ulta Friday - Big Lots Odd Block: Tesla put summary, opening Dec put love in Signet Jewelers Ltd. (SIG), opening Jan put love in Teradyne, Inc. (TER), and opening Feb call love in Lennar Corporation (LEN) Mail Block: Listener questions and comments Question from Daleon - Hey! I'm something of an options noob but I'm learning from listening to you guys. Still haven't pulled the trigger on my first trade. My question - what's the best and easiest starting point for noobs? I mostly have SPY in my portfolio right now. Is it selling calls on SPY? Am I correct that those calls would be considered covered? Fun show. Also liking the playbook program. Around the Block/This Week in the Markets: Dec 7 - Unemployment, Consumer Sentiment

Options news you can use for Friday, December 7, 2018

Today's special guest co-host is Russell Rhoads, Formerly Dr. VIX and current Head of Derivatives Research at the Tabb Group. Topics this week include: Crude Oil/WTI Nat Gas Equities Metals/Gold/Copper Ags/Soybeans Futures Options Feedback: Listeners take the reins Question from Elleneals - Given the skew setup in equities with calls being cheaper than puts from a vol perspective why would you ever buy a collar? Why doesn't everyone always sell the skew and use bullish risk reversals? The market seems to be set up for it.

When the market conditions are right, it can be a good time to trade a butterfly in the S&P 500. Now is the time. You can find more in The Options Playbook, which is always available on OptionsPlaybook.com, in on the Amazon Kindle edition. Specifically: Where is the S&P 500 index right now? Buying a December 7 butterfly Selecting strikes What is the total risk? What do we want to happen? What's the maximum upside? What is the market forecast? What to do if the market moves against us? Capital requirements And more... 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 Thursday, December 6, 2018

Trading Block: Exchanges closed on Wednesday, December 5 in observance of a National Day of Mourning for the late George HW Bush. Earnings Highlights: Tuesday - Dollar General, HP Wednesday - Five Below Thursday - The Kroger Co., Broadcom, Michaels, Ulta Friday - Big Lots Also: Oil selling off - WTI Crude back in the $40 handle. Bitcoin crushed - BTC threatening 4000. Odd Block: Tesla put summary, possible opening call sale in (GPOR), put love in (PVG), and put love in (BEL). Strategy Block: Uncle Mike Tosaw discusses purchasing long delta in options. Mail Block: Options question of the week AAPL continues to take a beating - recently dropping below $175. We know many of you LOVE to trade $AAPL and this selloff creates opportunities. Looking ahead to Jan 2019 expiration- which trade would you prefer to make in AAPL right now? Sell Jan 150P for $1.65 Buy Jan 150P for $1.65 Sell Jan 200C for $1 Buy Jan 200C for $1 Listener questions and comments: Comment from Mark Brant: Bot a million DOGE because it was cheaper than BTC. Spikes off lows take about 60 days to show up. For free on Robinhood! Short put spreads USO OIH came in nicely! Andrew and Mark miss a lot of VIX trades because their bias is down. My bias is up. Always looking at the 16 delta Calls! NG RR is on fire! Eurodollar HV much lower than IV as per usual. Around the Block/This Week in the Markets Dec 3: Construction Spending Dec 5: Productivity and Costs, Beige Book Dec 6: Jobless Claims, Factory Orders Dec 7: Unemployment, Consumer Sentiment

Options news you can use for Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Volatility Review: A look back at the week from a volatility perspective. VIX Cash - 19.4, almost unchanged from two week ago VIX - 94, 12-points lower than last show VIX Options - ADV: 546k, Total 6.77m (4.81m Calls, 1.95m Puts) VXX - 35.5, 1-point lower than last show Crypto crushed below $4k recently Volatility Voicemail: Options question of the week: AAPL continues to take a beating - recently dropping below $175. We know many of you LOVE to trade $AAPL and this selloff creates opportunities. Looking ahead to Jan 2019 expiration- which trade would you prefer to make in $AAPL right now? Sell Jan 150P for $1.65 Buy Jan 150P for $1.65 Sell Jan 200C for $1 Buy Jan 200C for $1 Listener questions and comments Comment from Pete Yarbro - I'd sell this strangle. Question from EELC5 - What's the lowest volatility can get in the SPX? Comment from Nilai - I like Mark's idea for an erosionator in VXX. Would be something interesting to watch. Kind of like a smog report or tide report but for VXX. Crystal Ball: Wild and reckless prognostication. Two weeks ago we asked people to guess where VIX would close on 11/30 by the end of the show. Answer: 18.80 Mark L.: 18.15 Mark S.: 15.25 R Ray: 19.70 -.9 Richie Rich: 17.1 Alex P: 17.50 William Valentine: I'm going with 16-ish. (I'll define the margin of -ish next Friday). Ophir Gottlieb: 19.23 - Vol is too cheap for a number of names and buying one-two day straddles is printing money. This is one of the best trading environments for vol in 5 years. MRTOPTICK: 19.87 Neil Wales: 18.1 - .7 ConTango: 15.09 Andrew Giovinazzi: 15.91 David Lincoln: 16.50 Jim Carroll: I'll take 14.90 cuz bears will take a break before they try again...Just wanted to take the under! Come at me!!!!!! Matt Thompson, CFA: 18.71056 Cmcapone: Kind of late, but for the 11/30 prognostication contest, put me down for 18.80. This week: Mark L. - 17.15 Mark S. - 16.35

Options news you can use for Monday, December 3, 2018

In this episode, Mark is joined by Thomas McInerney, Chief Product Officer at Open Finance Network. They discuss: Focusing on a subset of tokenized securities Tokenizing illiquid securities Blockchain transfer of tokens What is Open Finance? Who are early users of the platform? What else do they offer? Getting liquidity providers on board Regulatory worries And more...

Options 101: Replicating Equity Exposure using Options The Buzz: What do informed financial advisors need to know? Finra Proposes Higher Position Limits for ETF Options Contracts Nine ETF index options contracts have been selected for a doubling of position limits if SEC approves FINRA's proposal. Office Hours: Listener questions and comments Question from Charles Vera - Greetings AO crew (Mark, Chris, Matt, Eric and new entrant John). Love the show and have been listening for over a year and have caught up on most of the back catalog. I have two questions - one options related and one somewhat off topic but I just wanted to pick your brains. 1.) How much capital should I plan to set aside when selling puts for my clients? I'm looking at selling 5-10% OTM spy puts on a monthly or tri-monthly basis? But it seems like the margin requirements for this strategy are all over the place. Do they just vary by broker or is there some rule of thumb I should consider when tying up capital to sell puts? 2.) Do you think the recent market volatility will cause the Fed to reconsider its roadmap for raising rates in the near future? There aren't too many other developed economies that are putting the brakes on like the U.S. right now. Thanks again. Really appreciate all that you guys do. Question from Steve Giannakopoulos - Seems right that you can write 1 put option when you already own 100 shares of the underlying stock. Brokerage can lock and keep the 100 shares as collateral instead of holding cash as collateral. It doesn't happen though. Why? You could have your long 100 shares forced sell at the put option strike price if it's ITM and you get assigned. I read what you said, I just don't understand it. Thank you though. Question from SX78 - Now Trump is weighing in on this earnings call thing. Does this suddenly have legs? What will this mean for volatility going forward? Question from Liznder - If you had to start over with learning about and trading options what would you do differently?

Trading Block/Earnings highlights from the week: Tuesday - Salesforce Wednesday - Box Thursday - TD, GameStop, HP Clothing Retailers: Burlington, Chico's, J Jill, Guess, Express, Abercrombie & Fitch Plus, Oil sells off - WTI Crude back in the $40 handle. Bitcoin getting crushed - BTC threatening 4000 Odd Block: Tesla put summary, Dec lifts puts in (VOD), opening put love in (AEO), and opening call love in (IQV) Mail Block/Options question of the week AAPL continues to take a beating - recently dropping below $175. We know many of you LOVE to trade AAPL and this selloff creates opportunities. Looking ahead to Jan 2019 expiration- which trade would you prefer to make in AAPL right now? Sell Jan 150P for $1.65 Buy Jan 150P for $1.65 Sell Jan 200C for $1 Buy Jan 200C for $1 Listener questions and comments Question from Leot - Is Apple a good candidate for stock substitution here? If so how would you set it up? Question from Burns - Is buying a call actually the best way to get long stock in this market? Around The Block/This Week in the Markets Nov 29: Jobless Claims, Personal Income and Outlays  

Today's guests are Jeff White, Executive Director, Energy Products & Services at CME Group and John Seguin, Former CME Member and Head Futures Coach for Market Taker Mentoring. Topics this week include: Nat Gas WTI Crude CME OPEC Watch Tool Equities Crypto Futures Options Feedback: Listener questions and comments Comment from Georgio - We need some options on #CMEG BTC futures. Comment from Mark Brant - Nat Gas skew is still way to the calls but a risk reversal could be on the horizon! Question from ChevCR - Is there ever a time when equity call skew is higher than put skew?

Options news you can use for Friday, November 30, 2018

How can stock investors use options? You've come to the right place. You can find more in The Options Playbook, which is always available on OptionsPlaybook.com, in on the Amazon Kindle edition. Specifically: A review of the AAPL collar from two weeks ago What about capital gains? Remember we had a small credit Where are we now? What about additional risk? What's an alternative? Using an example with FB Using a FB option as a surrogate for stock Setting up the trade Selecting expiration and strike Remember, one option for every 100 shares of stock 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 Thursday, November 29.

Options news you can use for Wednesday, November 28, 2018