The Option Block

Option Block 188: Diversify. Diversify. Diversify

Trading Block: The market's reaction to Wednesday night's Presidential debate. Review from the Morning Star conference. (Spoiler: Options exposure and education is still significantly lacking.) HPQ, SLV & GLD, ACT.

Odd Block: Upside purchased in Sachs (SKS); calls active as Dell pushes to new lows (DELL)

Xpress Block: New-comer Dave Vitamonis gets the OX hot seat today and discusses interesting trades and size orders that came across the desk. The metals market is heating up.

Stragegy Block: Uncle Mike Tosaw discusses diversification and mutual funds.

Around the Block: Non-Farms tomorrow, a big event. Apple earnings 10/25.

Option Block 187: It’s That Time of the Month

Trading Block: VIX cash getting some weekend love back. Monthly volume numbers are in, and according to ISE, dividend trades made up 8.8% of industry volume in September 2012. Apple closing down 1%. Will Uncle Mike ever get out? Groupon = garbage? Premium selling candidate? Risk reversals? Is Activision lining up for more bullish risk reversals? Ford is hovering at the 10-handle. How do you position RIMM from here?

Odd Block: Is FLIR Systems (FLIR) ready to pop 11%; puts sold on Celldex Therapeutics (CLDX), and; short-term protection purchased on Wells Fargo (WFC).

Xpress Block: John Girgus takes the reins in the Xpress Block and talks about what came across the OX desk today. Weekly options coming out soon. Approval passed for mini weekly options.

Listener Mail: The inmates are running the asylum.

• Email from Ejay Singh, Mumbai, India “I appreciated your discussion of early dividend exercise on the last show. You mentioned the dividend and assignment risk on Spy, but does this also apply to SPX? Thanks very much for a fantastic options program. You guys really are unique in the world of options, and if Mark ‘Voice of Options’ Longo ever wants to do a radio show or an options presentation here in India, I'd be happy to help arrange it. You have a large audience around here.”
• Comment from Thompson on Dividend Trade Bungle. “This guy was a serious idiot. How could you do a trade like this without even knowing how to properly execute the dividend trade? How can the exchanges continue to allow this behavior? Aren't errors like this just feeding into the belief that options are a risky, and highly-rigged, game? It's absurd!”

Around the Block: Non-farms, probably the largest event coming up on the horizon. Marriott earnings on 10/3, Family Dollar 10/2, Monsanto 10/3. Keeping on eye on Europe.

Option Block 186: RIMM Time Spreads and SPY Dividends

Trading Block: A broad rally, thanks to Spain's spending cuts. RIMM earnings after the bell. It closed today at $7.14. Mark ponders the weekly/Oct 6-7-8 iron fly. Jobless claims hit a two-month low.

Odd Block: Implied volatility mover in Regions Financial (RF); volume signals in Deckers Outdoors (DECK), and; Coca Cola Enterprises (CCE). Love piling in for some size in Yahoo!, Inc. (YHOO), and a lot of call love in Medtronic, Inc. (MDT).

Strategy Block: Given last week's debacle with the SPY dividend play, when do you exercise a call to capture a dividend?

Around the Block: RIMM earnings summary. It was almost up to $8.50 in the after-hours. Looking ahead to the weekend. Apple. Non-farms payroll numbers 10/5. The market's reaction to the upcoming presidential debates and election.

Option Block 185: Dividend Trade Blowup

Trading Block: VIX getting some of the weekend back courtesy of some selloff love. It's been a while since we've have a 1% down day. A big whoops with dividend trades for Merrill Lynch occurred Friday. Facebook taking it on the chin - down about 9%. Apple closing today down about 1.5%.

Odd Block: Some significant size going up in XLF; Oct 100 puts going up before earnings in Factset Research Systems Inc. (FDS), and; it’s off to the upside races in Proctor & Gamble (PG).

Xpress Block: John Grigus takes the OX hot seat today. A slow day on the desk, but Apple was the hottest topic. Closing out and dividend risk.

Around the Block: Initial claims and new home sales this week. Nike and RIMM earnings 9/24.

Option Block 184: BNNY vs. FB vs. GRPNTrading Block: A mild selloff and a mild VIX rally, yet another 0.0% day! Groupon the only green on the screen. At last, Grigus is rolling in dough! BNNY blows FB out of the water.Odd Block: Calls active as Dollar Tree pops (DLTR); J.C. Penney craters resulting in unusual puts activity (JCP), and; a quick review on Jefferies Group, Inc. (JEF). Xpress Block: Sean Fitzgerald gets the OX hot seat today, and rolls through his list of interesting activity and notable trades. Know your dividends! Jobless claims ignored, and down. Listener Mail: Letting the listeners take over.

• When are they going start the option mini's. I trade Apple and can only trade two contracts. Also premarket options?
• Even the option guys are talking about FB, is that good or that bad?
• Buying $EWZ CALLS Oct 57s $1.40. Do not ignore. Or ignore, that's fine too. Groupon Oct 6 calls for $.20 - or Oct 4.5 puts for $.20 - pick your poison.
• I don't know how it's possible for someone to call themselves a money manager without knowing multiple ways to manage money. Mark, was this buy-side guy not familiar with the concept of cost basis when he decided to just dump the stock rather than buy a put?

Around the Block: Tomorrow looking like another slow day. The gang is keeping an eye on potential movement in the next few weeks. Take this slow time to visit the new features available at TheOptionsInsider.com

Option Block 183: Bernanke PutsTrading Block: Most of the major indices giving back some of the QE3 love, after an abnormally odd Friday. QE3: good, bad or ugly? A rundown from the options conference last week. Is Grigus still on the Groupon love train?Option Block: Shares of Linn Energy (LINE) are trading low; traders look for increased vol on Pan American Silver Corp. (PAAS), and; LEAPS calls active on IAMGOLD (IAG).Xpress Block: John Grigus gets in OX hot seat to talk about what's been coming across the desk today. Crude oil had over 13,000 contracts go up in less than a minute. Grains also lighting up the tape.Around the Block: Post-QE3 and post-Apple malaise? When will the next shoe drop? Home sales on the 19th. Oracle and AutoZone earnings also on the 19th.

Option Block 182: Setting Low Expectations for EmploymentTrading Block: The bulls were definitely in charged today, the market seemed to like what Big Ben had to say this week. Vol rundown, volatility has come in. What happened with Apple after their product announcement? The initial claims and jobless report numbers, again today we had more claims and fewer jobs than expected. Xpress Block: Sean Fitzgerald gets in the OX hot seat today to discuss the day at Options Xpress. The phones were blowing up with clients lining up with some rather large trades given the bullish trend recently.

Odd Block: All the junky calls purchased in the 17th Level Nov XLF - 2000+ contracts went up in the Oct 17 - some size degenerate premium buys.Strategy Block: Mike Tosaw talks about "being nimble in the marketplace," meaning being ready for large movements even if you have a high probability trade. Next, the baton is passed to Andrew to discuss European debt, the equity market and positive looking trade structures.Around the Block: New and existing home sales, and housing starts come out next week, but shouldn't have a big impact on the market. Looking for the September job numbers at the beginning of next month.

Option Block 181: Apple OverlordTrading Block: A mild down day on the Street. VIX off to the races. Positioning after the jobs number. Apple pullback ahead of Wednesday event. Intel lowers guidance and is promptly down 3%. Odd Block: Calls active as Talisman Energy appoints new president and CEO (TLM); block trade fever in Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF); and Leap Frog puts flying out the door (LPF). Xpress Block: John Grigus takes the reins of the Xpress Block today and discusses the buzz around Amazon. Spoiler alert! Calls are on the rise. Around the Block: Fed on Wednesday, waiting to see if the Bernanke put is exercised. Apple also on Wednesday.

TRADING BLOCK

Finally a day of action after an unchanged last couple of weeks. Apple destroys Samsung in jury verdict - $1B Verdict - Samsung won basically no judgements - Interesting that the judge disallowed a samsung media player from 2006, that looks just like the iPhone! Groupon can't catch a bid.

ODD BLOCK

Huge Blocks of Calls Trade on EMC - Chasing Deltas

Puts Active on Seagate Technology (STX).

Shield, which has been included since the S&P was created in 1957, has been booted and will be placed by Lyondell Basell, a Dutch chemical company.

XPRESS BLOCK

Sean Fitzgerald discusses a few of the trades that have come across the OX desk recently. ETFs, Spiders and other trades.

LISTENER MAIL

FORUM POST: New OX goodies for Canada?

POSTED BY: Sean Conrad

I love the sound of the new OX goodies that were announced on the last Option Block. This functionality could really help me - but I can't see it. Now that I think about it I've never seen OX Social either.

I hail from Ottawa here in Canada - am I going to have access to these tools? If so - when? I remember hearing that OX social would be rolled out in stages to Canada and other International clients but I don't think that happened - what's going on?

Is there some reason why we can't just use the US site and tools for our accounts?

AROUND THE BLOCK

Not many earnings rolling into the long weekend, except for market mover. Avoid the holiday Vol crush. How do you play Vol?