Option Block 173: Economists Do Not Have a Clue Trading Block: A mild rally on the day, VIX cash moving in lockstep with the market again. EA lawsuit pounds Zynga - THQ came out with earnings. Knight getting "rescue" bid from a bunch of customers including TD Ameritrade, and the stock has been a roller coaster ever since. Bernanke says economists don't have a clue about individual well-being. Oil up slightly. Odd Block: Unusual and interesting activity in Tumi Holdings, Inc. (TUMI) andChimera Investment Corp. (CIM). Xpress Block: Alex Jacobson gets the OX hot seat today, and discusses the secret project, Idea Hub, which he and his team have been working on recently, deep within the super-secret labs at Option Xpress. Around the Block: Disney earnings tomorrow, Nvidia 8/9, Priceline 8/10.

Option Block 172: Mini Crash Crush Trading Block: VIX essentially unchanged on the day. Discussing its underperformance again as traders again showed a willingness to unload vol going into the weekend. Mini-crash crushes a number of stocks (Citi, Bank of America, etc.) and annihilates KCG. CBOE earnings this morning - net income up from 2011 despite weak options volume across the board. Facebook breaks a significant floor at the $20 handle. Trading after Apple earnings. Odd Block: Bears Pouncing on Hewlett-Packard Options (HPQ); opening call buyer in E*Trade (ETFC), and LeapFrog Call Volume at 1,713% of average; currently $10.22.Xpress Block: Sean Fitzgerald takes the OX hot seat, and discusses a recent VIX vertical spread, and trading options. Around the Block: Activision (ATVI) after the close, also watching EA. LinkedIn (LNKD) after the close. Web 2.0 is really looking like a bust all around, where's Web 3.0?

Option Block 171: Another Raucous Live Show Live and unscripted, this episode doesn’t follow the normal Option Block layout, but it’s spectacular nevertheless. Most major indices closed relatively unchanged on the day. Despite that, it was still a pretty busy day on the desk. Crop report. Unusual put buying in Home Depot…could it be in preparation for August earnings? Apple testing $600 again. Mini contracts. VIX of Apple and Google. Regulators dropping the ball. SpongeBob Square Pants (seriously). The trust factor. Bounty hunters. The problem with publicly traded exchanges. Conflicts of interest. What’s coming up in economic numbers, news, etc.

Option Block 170: Options for Earnings Trading Block: A broad rally in most names, yet Ford, EA and others getting clobbered. Where's the love? Facebook after the bell, hovering down a bit. Zynga disappoints again. Apple knocks it out of the park, but it’s not good enough. This is the way to "miss" earnings. Amazon after the bell. Netflix striking again. Chipotle has been clipped well over 30%. Odd Block: Unusual and interesting activity today in Facebook (FB) and Owens-Illinois Inc. (OI). Xpress Block: John Grigus is back in the OX hot seat and discusses raising margin requirements in grains. OX has decided to no longer offer the products of the Hong Kong Futures, Montreal, and the London Metals Exchanges after August 31. Close your contracts. Around the Block: One last look at Facebook, Amazon. The Eurozone coming in again for the weekend. GDP tomorrow. More earnings next week.

Option Block 169: Synthetic Puts and the Fudge Factor Trading Block: A selloff across the major indices today, amid concerns about financing in Spain. IMF is about to stop payments to Greece, thus increasing the odds of insolvency by September. VIX gets weekend back and then some. Even McDonald's can't make money in this environment - down about 3% after recent earnings. Odd Block: Unusual and interesting activity today in BCE Inc. (BCE) a Canadian telecommunications company, Logitech International (LOGI), and Under Armour (UA). Xpress Bock: Sean Fitzgerald once again takes the hot seat and discusses what came across the OX desk today. Large orders on the Russell, IWM, VXX and SPX weekly 1275 puts. Spikes in Apple and Google. Listener Mail: Hello Options Crew, I was wondering what technical indicators you use when trading on multiple time frames, both day and swing, other than basic support and resistance levels. I know there is a tendency for more novice traders to get into a state of indicator-itis but I have good success with the McClellan oscillator. What are your experiences with indicators and what have you found the best for certain market conditions you analyze? I am still rather confused with tick and trin. Thanks for the insight and keep up the good work. (Via the Options Insider forum by OptionsVoodoo) Facebook Aug 23 Puts for $.45 or Zynga Jul 5 Puts for $.35 - which to sell? (Via Twitter from TDuffee) Downside in buying DITM calls 2 months out and selling the common against it? How often no initial pop after 20 trades? (Via Twitter from Greg Persky þ@raider250) Around the Block: A big week ahead: The calm before the Apple storm. Facebook earning on 7/26. Ford 7/25 - Before the bell. Others: Amazon - 7/26, Netflix - 7/24, Tesla Motors - 7/25, and Zynga - 7/25 - Caterpillar, Whole Foods, Boeing, Crocs, Cheesecake Factory and Buffalo Wild Wings.

Option Block 168: Scalping GOOG Time Spreads Trading Block: Lots of earnings after the bell - Google up, Microsoft meh, and Chipotle earnings down. Is this the rise of Qdoba? A mild rally across the board, accompanied by a mild vol sell-off. A bit of a rally in Ford. Odd Block: A straddle swap in USL, plus upside calls in Anglogold AU.Xpress Block: Sean Fitzgerald discusses Google and Chipotle, which were both very active on the OX desk today. A lot of rumor and speculation at Amazon. Oil topping the futures markets. Strategy Block: Mark Sebastian gets to host his first strategy block today and talks a little bit about the news of a big deal with Walgreens and Express Scripts and how someone made out handsomely, using options. Around the Block: A quick update of earnings. Upcoming names include Netflix and Apple on 7/24, and Zynga on 7/25.

Option Block 167: TVIX Apocalypse

Trading Block: VIX failed to do much today. TVIX still lighting up the tape, a surprise to all of us. Some activity going on in the Facebook Aug calls and puts. Retail sales down 5% in June. JPM “Hedge Loss” now $5.8B -- always the same old story. PFG Best still spiraling into the toilet, the story seems to have taken Chicago by storm.

Odd Block: Unusual and interesting activity in Intersil Corp. (ISIL) and PPL Corp. (PPL).

Xpress Block: Sean Fitzgerald discusses American Express on the upside, and Groupon on the downside.

Listener Mail: Implied vs Realized vol for credit spreads

When considering volatility levels in opening a credit spread, which should have more weight in that consideration - implied vol or realized vol? Or, do both need to be considered in relation to each other? BTW, love the shows. Where else can one listen in on discussions regarding options, movie reviews and the mating habits of aquatic life? (Via the Options Insider forum from Phil, thepostguy)

Around the Block: A lot of Fed talking this week, what's Bernanke going to say? Watching corn futures. Yahoo announcing new CEO. Earnings, Earnings, Earnings!

Option Block 166: Calendar Strangle Swap Trading Block: PFG Best madness; the Chicago based options brokerage firm reeling after their CEO, Russ Wasendorf, attempted suicide after charges of fraud and a missing $200M+ in customer funds. How did the NFA miss this? Another day, another mild selloff that weakens toward the close. The Apple pre-pre earnings. Odd Block: Interesting and unusual activity: A size calendar strangle in VIX options. Strategy Block: Mike Tosaw leads the Strategy Block this week and discusses the ratio repair strategy. Listener Question: Should I sell the Ford Aug 9 puts for around $.30 and buy Ford Sep 10 calls for about $.15 - do you like this risk reversal? (Via Twitter from Dougman) Around the Block: The earnings fiesta begins! A tech day on 7/19: Google, Microsoft, Nokia, AMD (and the other Apple, Chipotle) Apple 7/24, Bank of America 7/18, Citi 7/16.

Option Block 165: I Make Liquidity Trading Block: Another day, another mild selloff. VIX getting the weekend/holiday back, plus a little more. Oil/Commodity rundown - the hot, dry weather has had a big impact of the ags, especially corn. Activision on the block. Odd Block: An unusual activity review for Materials Select Sector SPDR (XLB), Research in Motion, Ltd. (RIMM), and Horizon Pharma, Inc. HZNP (HZNP). Xpress Block: John Grigus gets the floor over at the OX desk and discuss the recent grain market and what to remember if you want to start trading ag futures and options. Mail Block: Option Block, I wanted to know what way you found is the best to explain to common folk that you trade options for living -- I find it very difficult to answer the common question of "what do you do for a living?". Even my most successful attempts I am always met with rather blank stares -- or worse if they have a sliver of knowledge they think that I just buy low and sell high common stock which I think most options traders find unsophisticatedly insulting. Please help me with your infinite wisdom. (Via the Options Insider forum by: optionsvoodoo) Around the Block: Earnings season is back! Google on July 12, Citi on the 16th. Apple running pre pre-earnings. Keeping an eye on Activision and EA.

Option Block 164: Independence Day Slowdown Trading Block: Apple lurking near $600 again before earnings. RIMM in the toilet and ended up blowing past weekly ATM straddle after all. Ford also taking a beating. June numbers are out and options volume down 13% overall from last year. Avg. daily volume down 8.47%, equity option volume down 13%, and overall equity options ADV down 9%. OCC announced that cleared contract volume reached 329,891,797 in June, dividend trades made up 3.8% of industry volume in June 2012, almost 15% of PHLX's options volume came from dividend trades, about 7% for NYSE ARCA. New exchanges in the mix - NASDAQ launched OMX BX options. ISE files for second exchange license. Floor traders suing CME. Odd Block: Interesting and unusual activity in Material Select Spider (XLB) and McMoran Exploration Co. (MMR). Xpress Block: John Grigus holds down the OX seat and talks about this slow week. Watching the move in crude oil. Tomorrow starts the website release training courses. A walking limit and other new features to the site coming out soon. Around the Block: A slow holiday week. Be careful on the short gamma in the next four days. Chinese internet stock is very cheap. Non-farm payroll on the horizon