Trading Block: Earnings!

• Friday - Foot Locker
• Best Buy reaffirms guidance - renews concerns about the inroads of Amazon.
• Monday review: Intuit - 191.30, ATM straddle: 11, approx.7%
• Gap Inc. (GPS) - 33, ATM straddle: 2.60, approx. 8%
• Netlifx vs. Disney - Who will come out ahead in the long run?

Odd Block: Big selloff in Petroleo Brasil (PBR). Size opening risk reversal in iShares JPMorgan USD (EMB). Call buyer giving up the ghost in Deutsche Bank AG (DB).

Mail Block: Options question of the week

Holiday Weekends are notoriously tough for VIX traders. The markets love to crush Volatility going into these events. So we thought we'd poll the savvy VIX traders in our audience - where do you think VIX will OPEN on Tues 5/29?

• Here: 12-14
• Higher: 14-16
• Lower: 10.5-12
• Much Higher: >16

Listener questions and comments:

• Question from Scott Somer - When doing earnings trades do you ALWAYS default to nearest Friday expiration.
• Question from Charlotte - How about that move in WWE? You buying calls like crazy?
• Question from Justin - I know you guys hate cheapie options trading but your comments about HMNY got me thinking. I could sell the June ½ straddle for about .25. If I could do that again in July then in two months I could have the stock almost for free. A free stock is even better than a cheap stock.
• Question from LTTW - HMNY AUG .5 strad is currently around .25-.30. I agree it makes no sense to buy that when the stock is .46 but I'm liking selling this straddle to get the stock for .16 by Aug exp. Maybe even work a .01 or .05 bid for some 1 calls further out on a ratio in case stock recovers aggressively?

Around the Block/Economic Reports:

• May 25 - Durable Goods, Consumer Sentiment

If you are interested in what the Federal Reserve has to say or has been saying, this is the week for you. Not only are the notes from the last meeting going to be released on Wednesday, several Fed presidents will be talking this week including three on Monday and on Friday.

Trading Block: Earnings!

• Tuesday - Kohl's
• Wednesday - Lowe's, Target
• Thursday - Best Buy
• Friday - Foot Locker
• Intuit - $191.30, ATM Straddle: $11, approx. 5.7%

Odd Block: Call palooza in PayPal Holdings Inc. (PYPL). Rolling calls in Union Pacific Corporation (UNP). Cheapie calls in Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. (NOG)

Strategy Block: Uncle Mike Tosaw discusses how to profitably buy OTM calls

Around the Block/Economic Reports:

• May 23 - New Home Sales, FOMC Minutes
• May 24 - Jobless Claims, Existing Home Sales
• May 25 - Durable Goods, Consumer Sentiment

If you are interested in what the Federal Reserve has to say or has been saying, this is the week for you. Not only are the notes from the last meeting going to be released on Wednesday, several Fed presidents will be talking this week including three on Monday and on Friday.

Trading Block: Featuring special guest host Greg Stevens, VP of Product Development for Options at Fidelity.

Earnings!

• Tuesday - Home Depot
• Wednesday - Cisco, Macy's
• Thursday - Walmart, Applied Materials, JC Penney, Nordstrom
• Friday - John Deere
• AMAT - 54.30, ATM straddle: 2.25, approx. 4%

Odd Block: Line in the sand puts in Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (TEVA). Call love in General Electric Company (GE). Roll/stupid in Mylan NV (MYL).

Mail Block: Options question of the week.

CME Group just announced a new Ether index this week - expanding the universe of Crypto indices. But, at the end of the day, we all want more tradeable products. Which derivatives product would you like to see next in the Crypto space? Bitcoin Ether Ripple LightCoin

• Bitcoin Options
• Ether Futures
• Ripple Futures
• LightCoin Futures

Listener questions and comments:

• Question from Litnic - What is the best "secret" options indicator that you use that isn't widely known or followed?
• Question from Brian P. - What's your favorite underlying to trade options on?
• Question from Alexi K. - How large do you think the universe of readily tradeable options is for the investing public?
• Question from QZ98 -Do you trade options on stocks below 5? What's the cutoff? 1

Around the Block: What are the all-stars keeping their eyes on?

Trading Block: Earnings!

• Tuesday - Home Depot
• Wednesday - Cisco, Macy's
• Thursday - Walmart, Applied Materials, JC Penney, Nordstrom
• Friday - John Deere

Odd Block: Crazy call palooza in Caesars Entertainment Corp (CZR). Bullish risk reversal in QUALCOMM, Inc. (QCOM).

Strategy Block: Uncle Mike Tosaw discusses what skew is.

Mail Block: Options question of the week

CME Group just announced a new Ether index this week - expanding the universe of Crypto indices. But, at the end of the day, we all want more tradeable products. Which derivatives product would you like to see next in the Crypto space? Bitcoin Ether Ripple LightCoin

• 73% - Bitcoin Options
• 13% - Ether Futures
• 7% - Ripple Futures
• 7% - LightCoin Futures

Listner comment:

• Shared from Sonic Merlin - My Monday SPY puts.

Around the Block/Economic Reports:

• May 15 - Retail Sales, Business Inventories, Treasury International Capital
• May 16 - Housing Starts, Industrial Production
• May 17 - Jobless Claims

Trading Block: Earnings!

• Thursday - Nvidia
• NVDA - ATM straddle: 17, approx. 6.5%

Odd Block: More Jan 2019 50 “catastrophe” put in Tesla Motors (TSLA). Crazy option palooza in Helios and Matheson Analytics (HMNY). Line in the sand puts in HP Inc. (HPE). Call trade in Nabors Industries Ltd. (NBR).

Mail Block: Options Question of the Week

VIX is back in the mid-teens but the Volatility space is hotter than ever. This is breathing new life into old Volatility products as they try to elbow their way into the VIX spotlight. Which do you think has the best chance of hitting it big with traders?

• 23% - RealVol- S&P Realized Vol
• 16% - VolDex -S&P ATM Vol
• 29% - Spikes- aka SPY VIX
• 32% - None: There's Only 1 VIX

Around the Block/Economic Reports:

• May 11 - Import and Export Prices, Consumer Sentiment

Trading Block: What's moving the options market?

• Options Volume for April: OCC announced that total cleared contract volume in April reached 405,853,179 contracts, a 27% increase from April 2017 volume of 320,547,848 contracts and marking the highest April on record.

Earnings!

• Tuesday - The Walt Disney Company
• Thursday - Nvidia

Odd Block: Bullish paper opening in Coty Inc. (COTY). Rolling calls in Marathon Oil Corporation (MRO). Near ATM earnings calls in Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (FOLD).

Strategy Block: Uncle Mike Tosaw discusses when it might be better to use verticals or diagonal/calendars.

Around the Block/Economic Reports:

• May 8: JOLTS
• May 9: PPI
• May 10: Jobless Claims, Consumer Price Index, Treasury Budget
• May 11: Import and Export Prices, Consumer Sentiment

Originally Posted January 24th, 2017

Trading Block: The Trump Effect: President Donald Trump is set to unleash a cascade of stock-market anxiety - The day of reckoning for the Wall Street is here. McDonalds (MCD) earnings today. Friday close - $122.26; ATM Straddle - $3.52, approx. 3%; Open down $.75, Traded as low as $2.44; No more love for all-day breakfast.

Odd Block: Calls and puts trade in Morgan Stanley (MS), calls trade in Home Depot Inc (HD) and calls trade in Lending Club Corp (LC)

Mail Block: Questions, Comments, Polls, and more

Options #QuestionOfTheWeek

Earnings Season awakens! How do you play earnings using options? Are you an Earnings #Jedi or #Sith?

• 41% - Dark Side (Short Premium)
• 26% - Light Side (Long Premium)
• 25% - No Side - Avoid earnings
• 08% - Other (Reply/DM w/ideas)

Options #QuestionOfTheWeek - Lots of earnings on the horizon. Which company will outperform their earnings straddle by the largest margin?

• Alphabet - $GOOGL
• Microsoft - $MSFT
• Intel - $INTC
• Starbucks - $SBUX

Listener questions and comments

• Comment from Steve Place - CREE it is always CREE
• Question from Chris - Is there a way to subscribe to your posts as they go up on the website so you can get notified via email or mobile phone? Thanks, Chris
• Question from Fundconcept - Do you think activist investors opportunities will rise considering their experience with mkt volatility?

Around the Block/Earnings Highlights this Week:

• Tuesday - Alibaba Group, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, 3M, Kimberly-Clark
• Wednesday - Boeing, Abbott Labs, eBay, Qualcomm, AT&T
• Thursday - Alphabet, PayPal, E-Trade, Microsoft, Southwest, Caterpillar, Intel
• Friday - Honeywell 

Trading Block: Earnings!

• Monday - McDonalds
• Tuesday - Apple, Snap Inc.
• Wednesday - Tesla
• Thursday - Activision/Blizzard, WWE
• Friday - CBOE

Odd Block: Jan 2020 50 "catastrophe" puts in Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA). Closing/rolling paper in ILG Inc. (ILG). Buying a put stupid in PowerShares DB US Dollar Index (UUP). Crazy put-paoolza in Sea Foods Co (DF)

Strategy Block: Uncle Mike Tosaw discusses ways in which to look at covered calls in a channeling market.

Around the Block/Economic Reports:

• Apr 30: Personal Income, Chicago PMI
• May 1: Construction Spending
• May 2: FOMC Meeting
• May 3: Jobless Claims, International Trade, Factory Orders
• May 4: Unemployment

Trading Block: Earnings:

• AMZN - 1460, ATM straddle 90, approx. 6%
• MSFT - 92, ATM straddle 4, approx. 4%
• INTC - 51.38, ATM straddle 2.40, approx. 5%
• GOOGL - ATM straddle 54, approx. 5%

Odd Block: More Jan 2019 50 "catastrophe" puts in Tesla Motors (TSLA). Apr 12.5 Puts in CNH Industrial NV (CNHI). Line in the sand puts in L Brands Inc. (LB). Line in the sand puts in Dicks Sporting Goods Inc. (DKS).

Mail Block: Options question of the week

We dig up many strange options positions at the Options Insider. Some seem credible while others are just head scratching. Which of the following open options positions do you think has the best chance of actually becoming a winner?

• 49K TSLA Jan 2019 50 P
• 197K VXX Jan 2019 10 P
• 65K GLD Jan 2019 200 C
• 146K SPY Dec 2019 150P

Listener questions and comments:

• Question from BTavares -Hey great show. I'm looking at this chart from FT and it makes me wonder if I should concentrate my trading in the last 30 minutes of the day to increase the liquidity for my options trades. I wonder if this also applies to less-liquid options names.
• Question from Yancy - I heard Tom Sosnoff say on your interview show that there are 20 active names and 75 tradeable names in the options market for retail and that's about it. Do you concur?

Around the Block: What's on the radar for the all-stars?

Trading Block: VIX down. Vol futures down. Gold vol is very low. 10-year yield at 3%. Metals get the crap kicked out of them.

Earnings: GOOGL - ATM straddle: 54, approx. 5%. More tech earnings to come.

Odd Block: More Jan 2019 50 "catastrophe" puts in Tesla Motors (TSLA). Puts trade in Chicago Bridge & Iron Company (CBI). Calls trade in D. R. Horton Inc. (DHI). Puts trade in CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. (CBL).

Strategy Block: Uncle Mike Tosaw discusses hedging during earnings.

Mail Block: Options question of the week

VIX is back in the mid-teens. Are you buying this Volatility reprieve or is this merely calm before the storm? Quite simply - Where do you think VIX will end the week?

• 24% - Here: 16-18
• 19% - Higher: 18-20
• 18% - Even Higher: 20-25
• 39% - Lower: 14-16

Options Flash Poll: The proposed third exchange from @MIAXexchange will raise the total number of U.S. Options Exchanges to 16. Is this a good thing for the options market? Is it the straw that finally breaks the camel's back? Or are you too busy getting great fills to care?

• 44% - More Exchanges the Better
• 22% - Please Make It Stop
• 34% - Don't Care: I get filled

Listener feedback:

• Question from LNC - SVXY calls suck now. What about selling the puts? Is there any juice in those or have they been drained as well by the bid redo last week?

Around the Block: GOOGL post-earnings. Andrew wants to let it all out. SVXY makes him angry. Will tech earnings produce a higher SPX?