The Options Insider Radio Network

TRADING BLOCK Most active indices: VIX - 352k, SPY - 1.65M, SPX - 567k Most active equity options: LLY, NIO, AAPL, FB, GE, BAC, TSLA, AMD, BAB, MSFT OCC February volume down 25.9% after strong 2018       ODD BLOCK Put selling in Kraft Heinz Co (KHC) Puts trading in General Electric Company (GE) More puts trading in Kroger Co (KR)       MAIL BLOCK #QOTW: Everyone in our audience thought 2019's #options volume would eclipse 2018's record volume. But, through February, ADV is down nearly 19% from last year. 2019 is still young so we thought we'd take your pulse again  - will 2019 beat 2018's record  5.1B #options contracts? - Yes - No Question from Tosaw Client - I have a client and listener who asked me an interesting question we can talk about on the show. Why is a call calendar (both above the price of the underlying) more expensive than a put calendar on GOOGL and CRM? This could be a really good discussion.       AROUND THE BLOCK This Week in the Market: Mar 8 - Unemployment

Options news you can use for Friday, March 8, 2019.

Topics this week include: Crude Oil Equities/Russell Ags Metals/Gold       FUTURES OPTIONS FEEDBACK Comment from Options Game  Should be a nice TWIFO on Thursday. Ready to talk about Ags? Question from FTTP - All the talk about skew is there any way that I can just buy or sell skew? Is it quoted anywhere as a product that I can trade - maybe Ag skew is high this week and I want to sell it, etc? Question from Mark R. - Which version of QS has the slipping and sliding stuff? Question from Tomas - Do all brokers offer futures options?  

Options news you can use for Thursday, March 7, 2019.

On today's episode, we discuss time bomb butterflies in SPX.  You can find more in The Options Playbook, which is always available on OptionsPlaybook.com, in on the Amazon Kindle edition.    Do you have a question that you want answered on a future episode? Send them to Brian at theoptionsguy@invest.ally.com, or to the Options Insider at questions@theoptionsinsider.com.  

Options news you can use for Wednesday, March 6, 2019.

Options news you can use for Tuesday, March 5, 2019.

CRYPTO HOT SEAT Guest: Josh Greenwald, CEO, LXDX What products can you trade at LXDX? Why a new crypto derivatives exchange. Why Warrants? Is crypto not ready for institutions? What about a crypto NBBO?       BITCOIN BREAKDOWN BTC down approx. $100 from last show. Some decent size traded on Deribit in the BTC options on Friday?       THE ALTCOIN UNIVERSE Top 10 coins by market cap: Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, TRON, Bitcoin SV, Cardano         CRYPTO QUESTIONS Question from Charlotte - Do you think other big banks will follow JPM's lead with their own coins? Question from Alex King - What products would you like to see listed in the crypto space soon? Question from DXXT9L - Why are the margin requirements for BTC futures so onerous?

TRADING BLOCK Most active indices: VIX - 599k, SPY - 1.67M, SPX - 708k Uber/Lyft drivers may be able to participate in IPO       ODD BLOCK Call love in (BUD) Call overwrite in Workday Inc (WDAY) Call love in SandRidge Energy Inc. (SD)       STRATEGY BLOCK Uncle Mike Tosaw discuses how trading based on a breakout can be beneficial to risk management.         MAIL BLOCK #QOTW: We'll keep it simple to wind down the week. What is your go-to #options strategy right now? Don't see your fav on the list? Reply/DM with your suggestions. 49% - Long Call/Put/Vertical 14% - Short Call/Put/Vertical 20% - Fly/Iron Fly/Condor 17% - Calendar/Diagonal Question from Holscreen - Is it safe to say that a large amount of the options business is devoted to paying for puts? Question from Dana Mac - I've heard a lot of talk about contract numbers but how much dollar value is actually transacted in the options market?     AROUND THE BLOCK This Week in the Market Mar 4: Construction Spending Mar 5: New Home Sales, Treasury Budget Mar

Options news you can use for Monday, March 4, 2019.

Co-Hosts: Shelly Brown - Executive VP, MIAX Joe Braccho - SVP, Head of Sales, MIAX   VOLATILITY VIEWPOINT SPIKES What is it? Why bring it to the market now? SPIKES launched on Feb 21. How did it go? How has the market responded to SPIKES? How is the liquidity shaping up in SPIKES in the early days?       VOLATILITY REVIEW SPIKES - 14.79 VIX Cash - 14.75 VVIX - 80 VIX Options - ADV: 476k, VXXB - 31.5       VOLATILITY VOICEMAIL Question from J Sign - Is Spikes live? I can't find it on my broker screen? What's the ticker? Question from Vex1 - Why does it take so long for new volatility products to come to market?       CRYSTAL BALL Next week: Mark L. - 14.50 Mark S. - 13.05

TRADING BLOCK Most active indices: VIX - 138k, SPY - 800k, SPX:477k Most active active equity options: GE, JD, SQ, AAPL, TSLA, CELG, NIO, LLY, BAC, BMY Earnings: Monday - Etsy, Shake Shack Tuesday - Home Depot, Macy's Wednesday - Lowe's, Best Buy, Square, Hewlett Packard, Box, Fitbit Thursday - Nordstrom, JcPenney, Gap, Dell, Crocs Friday - Foot Locker       ODD BLOCK Call love in Dell Technologies Inc (DELL) Call overwrite in Fitbit Inc (FIT) Call overwrite plus puts in General Electric Company (GE)       MAIL BLOCK #QOTW: We'll keep it simple to wind down the week. What is your go-to #options strategy right now? Don't see your fav on the list? Reply/DM with your suggestions. - Long Call/Put/Vertical - Short Call/Put/Vertical - Fly/Iron Fly/Condor - Calendar/Diagonal Question from Ben K. - You guys were talking about getting your short spy calls called away on a recent episode. Is that something that occurs often and I should be concerned about it?       AROUND THE BLOCK

Topics this week include: Metals/Gold Crude Oil Equities       FUTURES OPTIONS FEEDBACK PALOOZA Comment from Olive Trader - A long straddle in gold didn't work for me. You had good points about scalping. My loss has been really small, and I've had a few good trades going that this year. Comment from Mark Bryant - I hope cannabis futures will be coming soon. I hope I can get options on cannabis futures. Question from Nashly - Is there the same bias towards puts in most futures options that we see in equity options? Question from Tag Analysis - What's the difference between a slide and a shift when it comes to skew? Aren't they the same thing?

OPTIONS 101 Straddles: What is it. What is it useful for? What is it no useful for? How do you make a straddle more useful?     THE BUZZ January numbers are in: Second highest volume January in history       OFFICE HOURS Question from Euro 2 Zero - How do you play earnings that has a lower IV rank (30 day) than IV Percentile (52 Week) Ex. $OKE Question from Bantam Tom - Do most advisors out there primarily trade options in IRAs?

  First we look at recent trades in Pepsi and Nvidia.  Then on today's episode, we use a diagonal spread in Costco.  You can find more in The Options Playbook, which is always available on OptionsPlaybook.com, in on the Amazon Kindle edition.    Do you have a question that you want answered on a future episode? Send them to Brian at theoptionsguy@invest.ally.com, or to the Options Insider at questions@theoptionsinsider.com.  

BITCOIN BREAKDOWN BTC at $3593 last show. Spiked up to $4105 on Feb 23 - now back down to $3800. Are the bulls back for BTC? Warren Buffet: Bitcoin Is a 'Delusion' But Blockchain Is 'Ingenious' Elon Musk Calls Bitcoin 'Brilliant,' Better Than Paper Money for Value        THE ALTCOIN UNIVERSE Top 10 Coins: Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, TRON, Bitcoin SV, Cardano.       CRYPTO QUESTIONS Question from Hassan H. - Your thoughts on JPM coin? Seems like a big about face for Dimon and Morgan. Question from R5Net - Any thoughts on TRON? Question from Tokenmania - When can we expect more physically settled crypto contracts coming down the pike. Particularly interested in ETH and LTC.

TRADING BLOCK Most active indices: VIX - 968k, SPY - 1.8M, SPX - 670k Most active equity options: GE, AAPL, AMD, BAB, NIO, JD, TSLA, BAC, FB, NFLX Earnings this week Monday - (after the bell) Etsy, Shake Shack Tuesday - Home Depot, Macy's Wednesday - Lowe's, Best Buy, Square, Hewlett Packard, Box, Fitbit Thursday - Nordstrom, JcPenney, Gap, Dell, Crocs Friday - Foot Locker         ODD BLOCK Call review from 2/7 in Mohawk Industries, Inc. (MHK) Call palooza from 2/4 in Mattel Inc (MAT)       STRATEGY BLOCK Uncle Mike Tosaw discusses using options with an IRA       MAIL BLOCK 5-Star Review from Jake Luttrell - Great content. Thank you Question from Leg77 - MIAX making it official with 16 exchanges. What do you guys think about more players entering the options game?       AROUND THE BLOCK

Best of Volatility Views: Back to the Beginning It's a shortened holiday week. So we thought we'd take you back to the primordial ooze days of Volatility Views with the inaugural sneak preview episode from August 2011.

TRADING BLOCK More red on the street today. VIX 14.75 - UP .75 Trader are focusing on FANG through Nasdaq futures - http://openmarkets.cmegroup.com/14669/traders-are-focusing-on-fang-through-futures       ODD BLOCK Put review from 2/7 in (KAR) Calls trade in (AGI) Call sale in (PGR)     STRATEGY BLOCK Uncle Mike Tosaw discusses his experience defending a client using the law.     MAIL BLOCK Comment from Optionsgame: Translated from French: You should follow @Options. It's a good podcasts that will give you ideas. Comment from Chris Imming: Maybe it is time to question the assumption about the accuracy of analysts estimates. Let's Make Analysts Great Again Comment from Neil Wales - You should have another choice. Have no idea how to trader these things yet.     AROUND THE BLOCK

Topics this week include: Metals/Gold Crude Oil/WTI Equities/RVX Crypto Ags       FUTURES OPTIONS FEEDBACK Question from Jose Morales - Why do you like trading opts on WTI instead of USO? USO can be traded in most accounts. Need a futures options account to trade WTI. Question from Brett R. - Can you hit some FX on the show? Question from George Pete - Russell 2000 gets all the love. What about futures options on 1000 or 3000? Or maybe some of the other indices under FTSE umbrella? Question from Khariton - Was there ever a VIX RVX spread product? Thanks for TWIFO show.