Articles from the Experts
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Trading Block: China lowers annual growth target by half a percent, enough to send the bears into an uproar. Apple sells-off. Yelp has quite the surge to the upside, following the launch of its IPO. Metals/commodity rundown. Odd Block: Unusual activity in Pandora (P) and Baker Hughes, Inc. (BHI). Xpress Block: John Grigus talks about the Apple sell-off. A lot of calls in silver recently. Around the Block: Non-Farms. Pandora earnings tomorrow. |
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Option Block 130: Nothing Short of Titillating Trading Block: The VIX cash limbo strikes again - how low can it go? Greek deal in place since the last show. A lot of movement has continued in oil over the past few sessions. Sears posts huge Q4 loss, yet stock up 20% on news of spinning off assets. Tons of activity in SHLD options -- 23k ADV vs over 100k today. Odd Block: Unusual activity for Odd Block newcomer TRW Automotive Holdings (TRW) Listener Mail: U.S. Index Options I am looking to short strangles on either the Dow Jones Industrial Index or the S&P 500. I not from the U.S. so not really familiar with the options industry here and am having trouble selecting the right options to trade. I've looked at the websites of CBOE and CME to try to figure out the right options, but the number of different contracts available has left me totally confused. Can someone guide as to which is the right contract to trade if I want to take monthly positions by selling OTM strangles. Also, is it better to trade the Dow or the S&P 500? Around the Block: Getting close to some moving averages in silver, we could see some more upside ahead. Earnings season is slowing down since its heyday a few weeks ago. |
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Option Block 129: How Do You Know When You're Being Stupid?
Trading Block: Markets up, VIX down. Interesting activity in the VIX futures. Massive retail growth in weeklys. The Michael Myers market.
Odd Block: Unusual activity in Morgan Stanley (MS) and Kellogg (K).
Listener Mail: A listener has a college-age son with $10,000 to invest. They want to know if they're foolish to think if they can make money over time, and possibly even beat the S&P?
Strategy Block: Uncle Mike asks, "How do you know when you're being stupid?"
Around the Block: GM earnings before the open. Earnings next week in: RDN, Garmin. AAPL chat. CPI number out on Friday. Tim's keeping an eye on copper. |
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Option Block 128: Funky Backspread Trading Block: A decent selloff in VIX cash, but is the unknown still lurking? Greece stumbling toward salvation, but the worst is not over yet. Apple over 500 — up 2%. What's been causing this move to the upside? A few earnings after the bell: LPSN, SGEN. Odd Block: Unusual activity in NetApp, Inc. (NTAP), Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (LYV), and Seattle Genetics, Inc. (SGEN). Xpress Block: Tim Navabi helps to explain "Estimated Commisions" when closing out short positions. Around the Block: Upcoming earnings: Zenga - 2/14 (The love following Facebook's IPO continues), GM 2/16, Marriott -2/15, NVDA - 2/15 and TESLA - 2/15. What's the best way to incorporate weeklies into ones’ current model? |
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Option Block 127: Predicting Facebook’s First Day Closing Price Trading Block: Apple is back to the races following the Nortel patent news -- up 10% post earnings and vol popping to the upside. Groupon down 14% - AGAIN. Cisco earnings were decent, but is the worst over? CBOE announces record volume numbers - stock shrugs in response. Activision out after the bell - now trading close to $13. LinkedIn after the bell as well. Tis the season to trading earnings long premium. Odd Block: Unusual activity in IROBOT, (IRBT) AMDOCS LTD - (DOX), and a RENN review from Jan 30. Xpress Block: Jon Grigus talks Facebook, its upcoming IPO, and poses the question "What will Facebook's closing price be on the first day of trading?" LISTENER QUESTION If a brokerage says the fee for option assignment is $20, is that per share, per contract (100 shares) or per order? So if I have 10 contracts of 100 shares each, do I pay 2000, 200, or 20 assuming they are all assigned? Around the Block: Upcoming earnings: GM 2/16 - Marriott 2/15 - NVDA 2/15 - TSLA 2/15. A final rundown of the earnings that came out today. |
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Option Block 126: VIX: You Don't Have To Go Home, but You Can't Stay Here
Trading Block: VIX creeping up off concerns of Greek debt weighing on the market again. Greece reportedly eliminating 15,000 jobs. NYSE/Deutsche Boerse deal was killed last week by the EU – there will be no mega combination of three different options exchanges. Odd Block: Unusual activity in: Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), and Solarwinds Inc. (SWI). Xpress Block: Tim Navabi discusses recently active and popular names out on the trading floor. Listener Mail: I want to be long the VIX or VX, what is the best way to do this? I want to be long the VIX, but not get the decay and rebalancing from T-VIX of VXX. I've never made a VX deep call with an option or future. Please let me know the best way to be long the VIX without the problems from VXX and T-VIX. Thanks so much, any help is appreciated. Around the Block: A big earnings week ahead: Disney 2/7 AMC; Cisco 2/7 AMC; CBOE 2/9 BMO; Activision 2/9 AMC; Groupon 2/8 AMC; LinkedIn 2/9 AMC. |
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Option Block 125: When Squishy Becomes a Technical Term Trading Block: Is it too risky to actively short volatility in this environment? Andrew thinks that, from a volatility point of view, all things are pointing in the same direction. Earnings plays. What's the deal with Amazon? Chipotle, or stealth Apple, is nothing but classy. Andrew gives taqueria recommendations in San Francisco. All is right in the world, so it's time to buy stocks. Odd Block: Unusual activity in Zynga, Inc., Facebook is spreading the love. Xpress Block: John Grigus discusses the IPO process, and the confusion around when the stock will actually trade. Tax season updates on 1099's. Around the Block: Non-farms payrolls released on Friday before the open. Andrew suggests an ADP indicator. Earnings still coming out: Activision, CBOE, CSCO, Groupon. |
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Option Block 124: Confessions of a Juice Buying Junkie Trading Block: It was a calm day in volatility, given that it has been beaten up recently. What effect does Greece's financial woes has on our market anymore? The precious Metals market pulls back, affected by China. The yellow Wiggle is out: Australia is in turmoil! The biggest kids brand is in the toilet, sold Wiggles sold!!! Scalping tech Vol. Odd Block: Unusual activity in Pfizer Inc. (PFE), Cell Therapeutics Inc. (CTIC) (an odd block special!), and RenRen Inc. (RENN). It looks like Facebook love is spreading to RENN. Mail Bag: The weekly butterfly risk and reward I've seen recommendations to make profit equal to risk, instead of trying to get the peak profit on butterflies - I totally agree with this. Now the question I have is: What should be the relationship of debit to risk? I lean toward making my debit the full risk and leaving enough upside to make a 1-to-1 return. And in my example below I have - if I can buy 10 contracts for a debit of $0.80, my peak profit in this example will be $3.50, my maximum loss would be $0.80 and a profit taking of +$0.80 versus a scenario where I buy 20 contracts on a debit of $0.80, my peak profit is $3.50, my maximum loss is $0.40 and a profit taking would be $0.40. So risking the same amount to make more contracts to make possibly less but also having less loss on the downside. Since weekly have so much gamma risk, it makes sense to me to define max risk as the debit instead of worrying about exiting if the market is moving quickly. What do you think? Other ideas? Around the Block: Earnings: Amazon coming out after the close tomorrow. Numbers: Non-Farms on Friday, this week we might see some numbers pop. For more information on Mark’s webinar with ICE on weekly options, please click here: https://icewebinar.webex.com/icewebinar/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=661422660. |
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Option Block 123: Like a Virgin Trading Block: Apple blows the doors off earnings again – long premium going into earnings was the way to play it. JC Penney up $6.50 today, but is it best to still keep a short position? Netflix on the comeback trail? Odd Block: Unusual activity in Deutsche Bank AG (DB) and DeVry Inc. (DV). Xpress Block: Tim Navabi breaks down the recent activity at OX. Have the recent round of earnings and a move to the upside started to lure back degenerate premium sellers back to Netflix? Have people continued to dive back into the short end of Google? Strategy Block: In this rare opportunity, Mark Sebastian takes over the strategy block to discuss what he thinks about the VIX. Around the Block: Keeping an eye on Ford and Apple - again. Very interesting to see oil still around the 100 mark - gold and silver are also moving. Earnings: Jan 31 - Amazon, Feb 1 - Chipotle (stealth Apple), Exxon Mobile & UPS - next week. For more information on Mark’s webinar with ICE on weekly options, please click here: https://icewebinar.webex.com/icewebinar/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=661422660. |
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Option Block 122: Option Block After Dark |