The Option Block

Option Block 183: Bernanke Puts Trading 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...

Option Block 182: Setting Low Expectations for Employment Trading 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: Sea...

Option Block 181: Apple Overlord Trading 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 th...

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...

  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 Technol...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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% margi...

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...

Option Block 172: Mini Crash Crush Trading Block: VIX essentially unchanged on the day. Discussing its underperformance again as traders again showed a willingness to unload vol going into the weekend. Mini-crash crushes a number of stocks (Citi, Bank of America, etc.) and annihilates KCG. CBOE earnings this morning - net income up from 2011 despite weak options volume across the board. Facebook b...

Option Block 171: Another Raucous Live Show Live and unscripted, this episode doesn’t follow the normal Option Block layout, but it’s spectacular nevertheless. Most major indices closed relatively unchanged on the day. Despite that, it was still a pretty busy day on the desk. Crop report. Unusual put buying in Home Depot…could it be in preparation for August earnings? Apple testing $600 again. Min...

Option Block 170: Options for Earnings Trading Block: A broad rally in most names, yet Ford, EA and others getting clobbered. Where's the love? Facebook after the bell, hovering down a bit. Zynga disappoints again. Apple knocks it out of the park, but it’s not good enough. This is the way to "miss" earnings. Amazon after the bell. Netflix striking again. Chipotle has been clipped well over 30%. Od...

Option Block 169: Synthetic Puts and the Fudge Factor Trading Block: A selloff across the major indices today, amid concerns about financing in Spain. IMF is about to stop payments to Greece, thus increasing the odds of insolvency by September. VIX gets weekend back and then some. Even McDonald's can't make money in this environment - down about 3% after recent earnings. Odd Block: Unusual and int...

Option Block 168: Scalping GOOG Time Spreads Trading Block: Lots of earnings after the bell - Google up, Microsoft meh, and Chipotle earnings down. Is this the rise of Qdoba? A mild rally across the board, accompanied by a mild vol sell-off. A bit of a rally in Ford. Odd Block: A straddle swap in USL, plus upside calls in Anglogold AU. Xpress Block: Sean Fitzgerald discusses Google and Chipotle, w...

Option Block 167: TVIX Apocalypse Trading Block: VIX failed to do much today. TVIX still lighting up the tape, a surprise to all of us. Some activity going on in the Facebook Aug calls and puts. Retail sales down 5% in June. JPM “Hedge Loss” now $5.8B -- always the same old story. PFG Best still spiraling into the toilet, the story seems to have taken Chicago by storm. Odd Block: Unusual and inter...

Option Block 166: Calendar Strangle Swap Trading Block: PFG Best madness; the Chicago based options brokerage firm reeling after their CEO, Russ Wasendorf, attempted suicide after charges of fraud and a missing $200M+ in customer funds. How did the NFA miss this? Another day, another mild selloff that weakens toward the close. The Apple pre-pre earnings. Odd Block: Interesting and unusual activity...

Option Block 165: I Make Liquidity Trading Block: Another day, another mild selloff. VIX getting the weekend/holiday back, plus a little more. Oil/Commodity rundown - the hot, dry weather has had a big impact of the ags, especially corn. Activision on the block. Odd Block: An unusual activity review for Materials Select Sector SPDR (XLB), Research in Motion, Ltd. (RIMM), and Horizon Pharma, Inc. H...

Option Block 164: Independence Day Slowdown Trading Block: Apple lurking near $600 again before earnings. RIMM in the toilet and ended up blowing past weekly ATM straddle after all. Ford also taking a beating. June numbers are out and options volume down 13% overall from last year. Avg. daily volume down 8.47%, equity option volume down 13%, and overall equity options ADV down 9%. OCC announced th...

Option Block 163: Supreme Court Takes the Vol Out Trading Block: Supreme Court decision roils the market. Are we taking the weekend out of the VIX already? 30 year mort. at 3.66%. JP Morgan hedge loss expected to be $5B, perhaps up to $9B. RIMM, Nike, and Family Dollar reporting numbers after the bell. Odd Block: Interesting and unusual activity in Universal Health Services (UHS) and O’Reilly Auto...

Option Block 162: Risk Reversal Hour Trading Block: Midday selloff continues following post-weekend/selloff vol pop. EU summit concerns with Spain requesting EU aid for their banks, and Cyprus requesting an EU bailout.  Last week most active ever for VIX futures.  New home sales hit a two-year high last month - 369,000 new homes vs, 346,000 expected. Oil continues to fall, right into the teeth of...

Option Block 161: Now With 75% More Ranting Trading Block: A bit of a blood bath today after Goldman recommended shorting the S&P. A lack of VIX movement compared to a big 30-handle selloff. Moody's to downgrade up to 15 banks after the close just piled on the bad news for today. Odd Block: Interesting and unusual activity in Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (IDIX). Xpress Block: Returning panelist Al...

Option Block 160: Blue Horeshoe Loves Option Block Trading Block: Greek pro-bailout ruling was not exactly the boon the markets expected. Spanish load concerns still weighing on the market. Almost like a post-earnings throughout the market with vol coming in across the board. NAHB housing index of homebuilder sentiment highest in five years, but still below 50. The Supreme Court may rule whether C...

Option Block 159: The 1-3.5-6 Ratio Condor Swap Trading Block: News is out that the central banks are trying to make a coordinated effort to help out Greece after the elections. Commodity rundown - open quota unchanged. Fallout for Apple after WWDC. Nokia down 15% on news of slashing 10,000 more jobs - down 50% since April. Is this the beginning of the end for Nokia? Will Microsoft buy them? Is th...