The Option Block

Trading Block: Today we feature special guest host Lex Luthringshausen founder and CEO of Tradehawk, powered by Option Eyes. Headlines of the day: What trade war? SPX up over 1% intraday. VIX is back into the teens. Earnings Highlights: Tuesday - Target Wednesday - Dollar Tree, Costco Thursday - Kroger Friday - Revlon, Big Lots Odd Block: More JAN 2019 50 "Catastrophe" puts in Tesla Motors Inc (TS...

Trading Block: Trump's trade war is spooking the market. SPX off nearly 2%. VIX is back into the 20s. Equity Markets: It's worth noting that at a forward P/E ratio of just over 17x for the S&P 500, valuations do not appear to be stretched. The great SVXY debacle. The numbers are in for February, and they were good (surprise). Odd Block: More Jan 2019 50 "Catastrophe" puts in Tesla Motors Inc. Puts...

Trading Block: Earnings Highlights Monday - Fitbit Tuesday - Macy's, Lumber Liquidators, Priceline.com, Weight Watchers, Papa John's Wednesday - Valeant, Lowe's, Mylan, Crocs Thursday - Best Buy, Kohl's, AMC Entertainment, Barnes & Noble, Nordstrom Friday - JCPenney, Foot Locker In other news: Warren Buffett: 'We've bought more Apple than anything else' in the last year Nearly half of 2017's Crypt...

Trading Block: Half-time report for earnings: INTU - $173, ATM straddle - $10.50, approx. 6% GDDY - $55.45 , ATM straddle - $4.30, approx. 7.8% Odd Block: More Jan 2019 50 "Catastrophe" puts in Tesla Motors Inc. Puts roll in iShares S&P 500 Index Fund (XSP) Size 1x2s in ILG Inc. (ILG) Strategy Block: Mike Tosaw discusses the 1x2 ratio call spread Around the Block: What are we looking at for the up...

Trading Block: Is the VIX "Whistleblower" just more noise or it there some teeth this time? Volatility's awakening spurs record long position in VIX futures. Strategy Block: Discusses legging into OTM vertical call spreads Odd Block: More JAN 2019 50 "Catastrophe" puts in Tesla Motors (TSLA), long-term put love in Community Health Systems (CYH), and calls trade in Radian Group Inc. (RDN). Mail Blo...

Trading Block: One week later, how is everyone doing? SPY is back in rally mode. VIX back in the mid-20s. It's been a wild week for CBOE. Stock took a hit, threatened $100, now rallying up 4%. Earnings this week include APRN, before the bell tomorrow. ATM straddle $0.65, approx. 20%. Volatility's awakening spurs a record long position in VIX Futures Odd Block: Review from 2/8: Someone unloading ca...

Trading Block: A review of the week to date. VIX back up over 30 S&P is back in selloff mode despite decent earnings. We are all now living in a post VIX/Monday selloff world. Everyone is attacking the "Frankenproducts" like XIV and SVXY. VXX was briefly back above its post-split levels. Earnings are getting lost in the macro maelstrom - TSLA, CMG, TWTR, SNAP, ETC Earnings Highlights: NVDA: ATM St...

Trading Block: Dow loses over 1,000 points on the day. SPX opened at 2,683 on Jan 2. VIX cash now threatening 35! XBT below $7000; good thing for "uncorrelated assets." Earnings Highlights this Week: Tuesday - GM, Snap Inc., Walt Disney Company Wednesday - Tesla, ICE Thursday - Twitter, Nvidia, Activision/Blizzard Friday - CBOE Odd Block: From last Monday: Near-term call paper in (CL) Mail Block:...

Trading Block: Earnings! Wednesday's big names: FB, MSFT. Thursday's big names: AAPL, GOOGL, AMZN, BABA. OCC cleared contract volume increased 42% in January; highest January for cleared volume, highest month ever for index options. Odd Block: TSLA options tracker. Review from Monday's near-term call paper in CL. Strategy Block: Uncle Mike takes us to strategy school. Mail Block: Options question...

Trading Block: VIX is back into the 13 handle. Earnings this week: Wednesday - FB, Microsoft Thursday - Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Alibaba The ORATS earnings report for 1/29/2018 Odd Block: More Jan 2019 50 "Catastrophe" puts in Tesla Motors (TSLA). Size call diagonal in Anheuser Busch Inbev NV (BUD). Near-term call paper in Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL). Mail Block: Options question of the week Ea...

Trading Block: Earnings! Monday: Netflix Tuesday: Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Travelers, Verizon Wednesday: GE, United Technologies Thursday: Caterpillar, 3M, Intel (Caterpillar doing crazy volume today - over 130k contracts on the tape.) Netflix, Intel and Starbucks. Odd Block: Size near-term put sales in (NWL). Crazy move sparks crazy volume in (MNKD). Size short call roll in (SAN). Str...

Trading Block: The Dow sets all-time intraday record as Senate votes to end government shutdown Earnings This Week: Monday: Netflix Tuesday: Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Travelers, Verizon Wednesday: GE, United Technologies Thursday: Caterpillar, 3M, Intel Odd Block: Calls and puts trade in Patterson UTI Energy (PTEN). Puts trade in Harley Davidson Inc (HOG). Puts roll in HCA Healthcare In...

Trading Block: VIX at 12.40! In the double digits for the first time in a long while. Earnings season ahead. IBM - $168.70, ATM straddle - $7.20, approx. 4%. A rough start to the year for Bitcoin. Tuesday selloff hits crypto hard. Odd Block: Yet more Jan 2019 50 "catastrophe" puts in Tesla Motors (TSLA). Massive call party in Guggenheim CurrencyShares Euro Trust (FXE). Size bullish strangle in Kin...

Trading Block: Crude is hitting new near-term highs. Brent breaks above 70 for the first time since 2014. Kodak is now a crypto company!? Odd Block: Massive call party in (FXE); Options-palooza in (XOP); Call frenzy in (XLE). Strategy Block: Uncle Mike Tosaw discusses risk reversals. Mail Block: Options question of the week Another "easy" one to help kick off the New Year. Which name are you looki...

Trading Block: Nvidia stocks rises on new of chips being used in handle processing of driverless cars. Intel was aware of the chip vulnerability when its CEO sold off $24 million in company stock & options. Odd Block: More Jan 2019 50 "Catastrophe" puts in Tesla Motors (TSLA). Massive call party in Guggenheim CurrencyShares Euro Trust (FXE). Buying more time in Johnson Controls International PLC (...

Trading Block: The numbers are in for 2017 OCC announced 2017 volume reached the third highest total cleared contract volume ever with 4,327,576,930 contracts, a 4% increase from 2016. December cleared volume was 346,006,092 contracts, up 3% from December 2016. OCC also reported record-breaking 2017 volume for cleared futures with 138,029,762 cleared contracts; a 32% increase from 2016. What were...

Trading Block: Review of the last trading day of the year. VIX barely holding on to double digits. Big meh into the end of the year. Silver is on a tear. The highs and lows of Bitcoin. Cboe announces six Bitcoin ETFs. Uncle Mike creates a new product...Fitcoin. 2017 Year-in Review: The good, the bad, and the unexplicable. Final Options Question of the Week for 2017: What is your enduring market me...

Trading Block: NKE after hours. ATM straddle - $3.40, approx. 5%. Looking back on 2017: The year without volatility. Odd Block: More Jan 2019 50 "Catastrophe" puts in (TSLA). Size roll/diagonal in Autodesk Inc. (ADSK). Size call party in First Data Corp. (FDC). Closing call party in Blackstone Group LP (BX). Strategy Block: Uncle Mike Tosaw discusses his most recent trading strategy in SPY. Mail B...

Trading Block: JPMorgan is lighting up Twitter. It's one of the bank's best ideas for 2018. A lot of div plays lighting up the tape today. Now it's a party! CME Bitcoin futures are live! Volume a little lighter in XBT now. Taleb is not a fan of Bitcoin - at least not without options. Petterrfy also hates Bitcoin - but it didn't stop him from buying ads on the futures. Odd Block: More Jan 2019 50 "...

Trading Block: Volume is a little lighter in XBT now. Taleb is not a fan of Bitcoin, at least not without options. Apparently Bitcoin is destroying the world . Question of the week: Everyone's caught Bitcoin fever these days. The first "real" futures launched at CBOE. Our question is simple - are you going to trade them this week? Heck Yes! Hell No! I already traded them Sticking w/Coinbase et al...

Trading Block: We are living in the Bitcoin futures world. At 5:00 pm CT on Sunday, XBT futures opened at $15,000 and 890 contracts were traded by 7:15 pm. Total volume Sunday overnight was a reported 3,001 contracts, with nearly 20 trading firms actively participating. Apparently Bitcoin is destroying the world . Options Question of the Week: Everyone's caught Bitcoin fever these days. The first...

Trading Block: Someone has the gall to downgrade Tesla, but the stock still rallies. OCC Cleared contract volume increased 1% in November. It was the highest November ever for options volume. Odd Block: Jan 2019 50 "Catastrophe" puts in Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) Paper doubling down in (JBLU). Calls trade in Union Pacific Corp (UNP). Puts trade in Amgen, Inc. (AMGN). Strategy Block: Uncle Mike Tosaw...

Trading Block: GOP tax plan passes the Senate. CBOE Plans December 10 Launch of Bitcoin Futures Trading Odd Block: Size OTM call paper in Plains GP Holdings LP (PAGP). Funky ratio verticals/stupid in Him Technologies Inc. (HIMX). Weird backwards post-earnings roll in L Brands Inc. (LB). Mail Block: Options question of the week The war for Bitcoin Derivatives is heating up w/ both CME Group and CBO...

Trading Block: Dow sets new record by hitting 24,000 and SPX hits 2,657. This was the fifth 1,000-point milestone for the Dow this year, first hitting 20,000 on Jan. 25. The market is still in rally mode, awaiting tax deal. North Korea unable to spook the market. Question from Henry Gannett - Is $VIX way up today due to call buying/pricing? It's at 11.70 right now, instead of maybe 9.0 at other, r...

The Trading Block: SQ and QCOM dominating the options charts today. Looks like QCOM activity is actually a dividend play. Light on earnings this week. Goldman execs cash out decade-old options just days before they expire. The Odd Block: TSLA tracker; Weird house-money put roll in WDC; Tons of Dec 26 puts in DKS; Size near-term call love in NEM. The Mail Block: Options question of the week SPY alw...