Option Block 355: Bleeding Out Into the Pillow

The Trading Block: A bit of a bloodbath on the street. Dire world news out of Ukraine and Israel/Palestine. Yellen's comments reverberating around the market. A 33% spike in the VIX. Microsoft slashing jobs. U.S. House passes spending bill with Dodd-Frank changes.

The Odd Block: Opening put buy in Currency Shares Canadian Dollar ETF (FXC), short puts with stock trade in Gerdau SA (GGB), big block of puts traders in Janus Capital Group Inc. (JNS), and buying puts in Entergy Corp. (ETR)

Mail Block: Questions and comments from you, our listeners

• Comment from Jake - I just wanted to let you guys know that I can’t go a week without getting my fix of lobsters, bubble pipes, fancy hats and of course Mark’s baritone pipes. Keep the shows coming. It makes my week fly by.
• Question from Series 7 - Hey Mark and his all-stars. I know you guys have touched on a stock being hard to borrow impacting the pricing of the options. But I’m still confused. Can you break it down for me please? Thanks. I know I’ve come to the right place.
• Question from Connor Mac - If I own a stock and I write an in-the-money call against it is that the same thing as selling the stock? If so what price am I selling the stock for? The strike price? If not am I increasing my probability of my stock being called away before expiration by selling an in-the-money call?

Around the Block: Thursday earnings: Morgan Stanley, Google and IBM.