Articles from the Experts
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 Option Block 182: Setting Low Expectations for Employment 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. |
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Option Block 181: Apple Overlord |
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Option Block 180: A Whimper Not A Scream Trading Block: Finally a strong rally across the board. Vol and VIX rundown. CBOE announced at RMC Europe that they are hoping to trade VIX futures around the clock next year. Amazon announces new Kindle devices today, including Kindle Fire HD and new Kindle Fire for $159. Apple poised for a big announcement next week, looking for the new iPhone and perhaps the Mini-iPad. Ford on an upwind today, up about 3.5%. Odd Block: Calls active as BMC Software pops (BMC); large block of calls cold on Morgan Stanley (MS); a pre-earnings bullish bet initiated on retailer, Men’s Wearhouse, Inc. (MW). Xpress Block: Sean Fitzgerald grabs the OX hot seat and discusses the day in trading. Happy customers over at OX, after several weeks of no volume. Trades in Ford, BAC, GLD and SPX. Strategy Block: Mike Tosaw is back with the Strategy Block, to discuss and share a story about money management. Around the Block: Non-farms on Friday, what will the response be? German constitutional court ruling next week. Apple product announcement next week. |
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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? |
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Option Block 178: Apple: Cheap? Expensive? Cheap Expensive? Trading Block: A slow Friday. Looking at the spread between VIX cash and the VIX futures. What is causing the build-up in premium? Looking at the November elections. Xpress Block: Sean Fitzgerald gets the OX hot seat today and discusses the lack of volume this last month and the interesting orders from today on Salesforce.com. The Fed and QE3. Strategy Block: Today's strategy block is hosted by Mark Sebastian, who, using Apple as an example, discusses the idea of cheap and inexpensive and how to use realized volatility when you trade. Around the Block: A slow week predicted before Labor Day. Keeping an eye on the employment report. |
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Option Block 177: Moving 0.0%, or Wait and See Trading Block: Today the market was literally unched across the board, sitting at 0.0, playing the "wait and see" game. Apple hitting new milestones, now the most, now the most valuable company on the planet. Corn rundown, quiet recently. Odd Block: Put Volume Spikes on Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), and options traders sell volatility on the VIX. Xpress Block: John Grigus takes the OX hot seat, and talks about what been going on at the OptionsXpress desk. A lot of people coming into Facebook after it dropped below $20 on Friday. Trading Groupon. Listener Mail: Low vol, month and strike selection, plus Alpha indexes. Hi Option Block gang. With AAPL vol being quite low, I'm looking at what sorts of trades might keep me vol positive and long directional beyond being a simple call purchase. I'm thinking call back spread - am I nuts or does this make sense? If I am on the right track, could you share how you might go about selecting the right term and strikes? I am thinking to keep this out about Oct to give it time to work directionally for the big win, and maybe capture potential gains as it runs up into iPhone 5 announcement. Looking at the open this morning I may have missed the boat on that one... wow. Your thoughts? P.S. Have you thought about an app? (Via the Options Insider forum by Sean Conrad) Options Block Crew, In my endeavour to listen to all options insider radio network broadcasts ever released in podcast form I came upon an interview that was done on alpha indexes. This was the first I had heard of them and I wondering if you could go over any specific options strategies or spreads that are particularly nuance to how this product is constructed. (Via the Options Insider forum by OptionsVoodoo) Around the Block: Dell earnings tomorrow after the close. Employment report on the 7th. |
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Option Block 176: Groupon Garbage Trading Block: A mild rally across the Street. S&P vol getting squeezed of all its juice. Cisco knocks it out of the park post-earnings. Groupon garbage post-earnings. Cosi trading at a depressed level. Facebook south of the 20-handle. Odd Block: Protection swapped on Novartis (NVS); large blocks of calls rolled on the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the (DJX) and (DIA) options; Wednesday review: Huntsman International LLC Jumps; calls active (HUN). Xpress Block: Tim Navabi returns to the OX driver’s seat, and talks about his new position as a New Trader Consultant. Around the Block: Waiting to VIX to come back in. Earnings winding down, Europe winding up? |
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Option Block 175: Groupon Volatility Bonanza Trading Block: Groupon rallies into earnings, an absolute roller coaster today. No weekend back for VIX cash, toying with the 14 level. Odd Block: General Electric (GE) sees massive call activity. From black to red: Traders buy puts on The Blackstone Group (BX). The winners and losers in Focus Media's (FMCN) buyout offer. Xpress Block: John Grigus takes today's OX hot seat and discusses corn crops and the USDA report, as well as the website, idea hub and new products. Around the Block: Cisco earnings on 8/15 and retail sales tomorrow. |
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Option Block 174: Doing Whatever It Takes
Trading Block: Another mixed day on the street: a stale, unchanged market today. Keeping our eye on Nvidia. Zynga making more headlines by firing their COO. ETrade ousts its CEO.
Odd Block: Calls active after E*TRADE ousts CEO.
Xpress Block: Sean Fitzgerald runs through a couple of use question for the OX crew: Why are Groupon options at a 100% margin commitment at OX? Why is OX showing my estimated commissions for closing out a short position for $.01 at full price? Also, unusual activity in Logitech.
Listener Mail: Puts Deep in the Money & Confused About Bid Price
Hi, I would like help please with a trade I made selling puts. I sold $90 puts (at a price of $9.00) exp Sept 2012 and they are now deep in the money currently trading at $53. When I sold the puts the share price was $130. I realize I have these 2 choices, a) buy back the options, b) accept the shares. However if someone can advise how to ease the pain of either of these and recommend a strategy for future put selling trades to provide some downside protection it would be much appreciated. (Via the Options Insider forum by helphelp)
I am trying to understand what the difference is between these two put options and why their bid values are so different. Both are UNG Jan13 puts with strike price 18. Thanks for help. (Via the Options Insider forum by akaspro)
Around the Block: Cisco earnings 8/15, Groupon earning 8/13. |
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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. |