Your Options Boot Camp Drill Instructors, Mark Longo and Dan Passarelli, give you an overview of the four main variables that are used to measure risk in the options market. If you've been intimidated by The Greeks in the past, now is your chance to finally master Delta, Gamma, Theta and Vega.
Trading Block: Market down today in the wake of weak non-farm numbers on Friday. Yet Apple still up, if only by 1/2%. VIX heading north. It’s the $1billion day — Microsoft buys 800 AOL patents for $1B and Facebook buys Instagram for $1B. Odd Block: Interesting and unusual activity in America Online (AOL) and Corrections Corps of America (CXW).Xpress Block: John Grigus sits down at the OX desk and discusses the possibility of mini-stocks (1/10th size). Mail Block: Open Interest QuestionAround the Block: Looking to see if the vol can expand a little more – waiting for the bulls to come back. Keeping an eye on initial claims given the weak jobs number. Alcoa earnings 4/10, Google earnings 4/12.
Volatility Review: Not much vol action to report with the markets closed on recording day (Friday). Steep contango in VIX futures has lessened in the past few weeks. Long holiday weekend volatility didn't fully come out of VIX futures and index options, which is highly interesting and unusual. Also an unusual situation — unemployment numbers were released on a day when the market was closed. Don and Mark discuss contango. NASDAQ volatility update.Volatility Viewpoint: Mark and Don are joined by David Palmer, Volatility Book Portfolio Manager at Hudson Bay Capital. They discuss the evolution of skew, the growing market of products tied to VIX, and how they're manipulating the underlying, the halting of TVIX share creation, OTC versus listed trading, volatility arbitrage opportunities, rational arbitrage, and hedging and downside protection.Crystal Ball: Nothing to rant about in S&P land, at least until we reach the next unknown unknown. Summer doldrums are coming. The impact of having such low levels of realized volatility.
Volatility Review: Not much vol action to report with the markets closed on recording day (Friday). Steep contango in VIX futures has lessened in the past few weeks. Long holiday weekend volatility didn't fully come out of VIX futures and index options, which is highly interesting and unusual. Also an unusual situation — unemployment numbers were released on a day when the market was closed. Don and Mark discuss contango. NASDAQ volatility update.Volatility Viewpoint: Mark and Don are joined by David Palmer, Volatility Book Portfolio Manager at Hudson Bay Capital. They discuss the evolution of skew, the growing market of products tied to VIX, and how they're manipulating the underlying, the halting of TVIX share creation, OTC versus listed trading, volatility arbitrage opportunities, rational arbitrage, and hedging and downside protection.Crystal Ball: Nothing to rant about in S&P land, at least until we reach the next unknown unknown. Summer doldrums are coming. The impact of having such low levels of realized volatility.
Trading Block: The markets were aimless today except for Apple carrying the NASDAQ. It's a weekday, so Apple must be up 1%. Vol rundown. The mainstream media finally starts to pick up on what we've been saying about VIX, VXX and the TVIX all along, "Curious Case of VIX and VIX Products."Odd Block: Activity review from March 8: Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL). Unusual activity today in: Wellcare Health Plans Inc. (WCG).Xpress Block: Newcomer Anitra DuPart jumps into the OX hot seat and today's customer activity at optionsXpress. Jobless claims and an Apple rally gave a little bounce to the market. Bed, Bath & Beyond (BBY) came out with earnings today, profits up 32%.Strategy Block: Uncle Mike Tosaw sits down and discusses some valuable life lessons. First, you must have trust when working with a business partner, financial planner, etc. – even Bernie Madoff has a clean record. Second, you must understand the important of financial education. Around the Block: Watching the weekend, it hasn't really come out yet. The endless European crisis continues, but switches the Spain.
Volatility Review: VIX review, with interesting corresponding elements relative to VIX and VIX skew. Monday massive overreaction to the market rally. NASDAQ vol review, driven by AAPL, which is slowing down a bit. Volatility Viewpoint: Mark, Bob, and Mark are joined by Peter Christoffersen, Professor of Finance, Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, and author of Elements of Financial Risk Management and the forthcoming Handbook of Economic Forecasting. Prof. Christoffersen discusses dynamic volatility, the Sharpe ratio, and practical applications for the average investor. Mark asks Prof. Christoffersen whether it's possible to have a truly diversified portfolio without having some kind of volatility asset. He also discusses his research on skew and its impact on the underlying instrument. Crystal Ball: Looking deep into the murky ether of the future of volatility, Mark and Mark pontificate on the contango environment of VIX futures, with Sebastian seeing VIX staying between 14 and 17. Will AAPL vol come in? As AAPL goes, so goes the NASDAQ. There might be an increase in volatility post-Easter, with the beginning of earnings season.
Volatility Review: VIX review, with interesting corresponding elements relative to VIX and VIX skew. Monday massive overreaction to the market rally. NASDAQ vol review, driven by AAPL, which is slowing down a bit. Volatility Viewpoint: Mark, Bob, and Mark are joined by Peter Christoffersen, Professor of Finance, Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, and author of Elements of Financial Risk Management and the forthcoming Handbook of Economic Forecasting. Prof. Christoffersen discusses dynamic volatility, the Sharpe ratio, and practical applications for the average investor. Mark asks Prof. Christoffersen whether it's possible to have a truly diversified portfolio without having some kind of volatility asset. He also discusses his research on skew and its impact on the underlying instrument. Crystal Ball: Looking deep into the murky ether of the future of volatility, Mark and Mark pontificate on the contango environment of VIX futures, with Sebastian seeing VIX staying between 14 and 17. Will AAPL vol come in? As AAPL goes, so goes the NASDAQ. There might be an increase in volatility post-Easter, with the beginning of earnings season.
Trading Block: Lots of upside on the day: Dow, S&P, NASDAQ, and VIX. The many masters of VIX. Andrew and the love of fundamental indicators. Doing stuff – NASDAQ-style. Yes, they're launching ANOTHER options platform. More fragmentation! More issues with spreading! More quotes! The more the merrier? Um, not so much. The gang also discusses myriad ways to improve the market, including regulation, margin, managing risk, and doing stuff. Odd Block: Unusual activity in Gap, Inc. (GPS), Electronic Arts, Inc. (EA), and TJX Compaines, Inc. (TJX).Xpress Block: Groupon restates earnings from last quarter, sparking several calls to the trading desk. Around the Block: Shortened trading week this week, so make sure you price the weekend out accordingly. Andrew is thinking that volatility will come in a little. Webinars are on the calendar for KYO in April and May. Non-farm payrolls are still coming out on Friday, despite the market being closed.
Trading Block: Vol rundown – despite little movement, there is quite a bit of intraday volatility in the vol products. RIMM, COSI & TIBX earnings after the bell. Obama looks to end oil subsidies. Europe still weighing in on the broad market. Best Buy slashing stores nationwide. The BATS debacle continues after they cancelled their IPO. ZNGA buys app developer for $180M plus $30M retention bonuses. Odd Block: Wednesday activity review: Groupon, Inc. (GRPN). Monday activity review: Red Hat, Inc. (RHT). Last but not least, unusual activity in TIBCO Software Inc. (TIBX). Xpress Block: Tim Navabi discusses getting quotes when trading – always have a plan B for getting a quote. Also, learn how to get out of a trade if you make a mistake.Around the Block: Taking another look at today's earnings. Andrew tells a hallowing tale about making sure to cover your errors. Keeping an eye on XLV and oil upside. The end of the quarter looms ahead.
Fall in, line up, and get ready to get your options knowledge growing. Options Bootcamp is designed to help novice options traders understand the utility of options.
Trading Block: BATS debacle: All IPO trades busted as a matching engine encountered a software bug. The range of symbols, of course, included Apple. If you are executed on a limit order what do you do after your trade is busted? It's analogous to pin risk. CBOE suing ISE over 10x SPY contracts — the no-brainer news of the week. The crushing of TVIX continues — it is bound to reverse split. Odd Block: Unusual activity in Red Hat, Inc. (RHT). Xpress Block: After the dust settled on customer fallout from BATS/APPL debacle and recent TVIX drama, Lions Gate Films (LGF) saw an increase in options contracts in front of the new movie release "The Hunger Games."Around the Block: Keeping an eye on crude oil, if and/or when gas hit $5/gallon is when we'll see things grind to a halt. Corporate earning in a few weeks. Looking for something to push to market before the summer doldrums.
Volatility Review: Slaughter of the VIX April future, with May poised for the same. Credit Suisse released more creation units and TVIX crushed long positions – going from 13 to 6.5 in a week. Euro vol review — March 1- and 3-month contracts expired last week. NASDAQ vol update.Volatility Viewpoint: Mark, Bob, and Mark have the great pleasure to discuss volatility with the Godfather: Anthony Neuberger, Professor of Finance at Warwick Business School. The gang discusses his seminal paper, "The Log Contract and Other Power Contracts." They also discuss tail risk and skew risk. Mark asks Prof. Neuberger if the market is correctly pricing in tail risk.Crystal Ball: Sebastian sees VIX staying between 14 and 16, with a lot of erosion in VXX. Watch out for contango. Euro vol is a coin flip right now. NASDAQ vol might be too expensive right now because of Apple.