Volatility Views 31: Live from Las Vegas

Volatility Views 31: Live from Las Vegas

Volatility Review: It's been a rough week for the equity markets. With the weekend decay out, and the super committee's report due this week, is it time to buy or sell the VIX? Is leverage causing a rise in volatility? What's going on with the Euro FX VolContract, and what does realized volatility look like right now? What's the latest news on the Dec one-month VolContract?Volatility Viewpoints: Bob talks about the long-term future of volatility, the volatility of volatility, and how efficiency affects the market. Also, Bob discusses his initial thoughts of the article in Futures magazine written last week.Crystal Ball: With the VIX at 33, we need the market to move 2% per day to pay for VIX. Is that possible, or are we looking at a potential meltdown? If we see the VolContract fall anywhere below 13%, should we be looking to get long FX vol?

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Option Block 108: Super Committee VIX Spreads

Trading Block: Dow back in the red for the year. Debt cutting debate concerns hit the market — reminiscent of the debt debate from August, only you don't see everyone loading up on VIX puts this time. Did they learn their lesson? Could more DC gridlock trigger another debt downgrade? Odd Block: Unusual and interesting activity in: Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) NII Holdings, Inc. (NIHD) Strategy Block: Andrew Giovanazzi from Option Pit discusses getting short the VIX without overloading on risk. Around The Block: Super committee debate dominates the outlook for this week — how do you position for this? Apple below the 375 handle for the first time in a while — maybe the best is behind Apple?

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Volatility Views 31: Live from Las Vegas

Volatility Views 31: Live from Las Vegas

Volatility Review: It's been a rough week for the equity markets. With the weekend decay out, and the super committee's report due this week, is it time to buy or sell the VIX? Is leverage causing a rise in volatility? What's going on with the Euro FX VolContract, and what does realized volatility look like right now? What's the latest news on the Dec one-month VolContract?Volatility Viewpoints: Bob talks about the long-term future of volatility, the volatility of volatility, and how efficiency affects the market. Also, Bob discusses his initial thoughts of the article in Futures magazine written last week.Crystal Ball: With the VIX at 33, we need the market to move 2% per day to pay for VIX. Is that possible, or are we looking at a potential meltdown? If we see the VolContract fall anywhere below 13%, should we be looking to get long FX vol?

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Volatility Views 30: Epithet Etymology

Volatility Views 30: Epithet Etymology

Volatility Review: Only four days into the new front month of December, we have a ton of volatility. Greece and Italy are leading the way, dictating how the market will trade day to day. Mark Sebastian's week in review. Is Europe ramping up or winding down? The trend of net unit buyers continues into today. Volatility Viewpoint: This segment was kicked off by an article in Futures Magazine, "Stock Market Trends and the Volatility Premium," by Marco Erling. We felt the article would be right up the alley of Volatility Views listeners. Mailbag/Crystal: Ball WHERE ARE WE ON THE EURO VOL CONE? I know the guys over at VolX are big fans of the vol cones. I'd like to know where the Euro VolContracts currently fall on the vol cones spectrum. It sounds like they would be a screaming sell at these levels. Am I correct, and do the hosts agree? Until the VIX proves it can hold 30 and lower, it may be a good time to hold premium — good for gamma scalping.

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Volatility Views 30: Epithet Etymology

Volatility Views 30: Epithet Etymology

Volatility Review: Only four days into the new front month of December, we have a ton of volatility. Greece and Italy are leading the way, dictating how the market will trade day to day. Mark Sebastian's week in review. Is Europe ramping up or winding down? The trend of net unit buyers continues into today. Volatility Viewpoint: This segment was kicked off by an article in Futures Magazine, "Stock Market Trends and the Volatility Premium," by Marco Erling. We felt the article would be right up the alley of Volatility Views listeners. Mailbag/Crystal Ball: WHERE ARE WE ON THE EURO VOL CONE? I know the guys over at VolX are big fans of the vol cones. I'd like to know where the Euro VolContracts currently fall on the vol cones spectrum. It sounds like they would be a screaming sell at these levels. Am I correct, and do the hosts agree? Until the VIX proves it can hold 30 and lower, it may be a good time to hold premium — good for gamma scalping.

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Option Block 105: A Pod of Sissy Girls

Trading Block: How to use SPX movement in the downside skew to gauge the sentiment of a particular rally. An uncharacteristic sell-off in Apple — will they finally lose their grip on the 400 handle? Green Mountain Coffee closed at nearly $41 today, down a whopping 40%. Odd Block: Unusual activity in EBAY and Computer Science Corp. (CSC).Xpress Block: Tim Navabi takes the reins at discusses the reverse split of FAS at OX today and talks adjusted options. Around the Block: Disney earnings after the bell – Things are looking good in the house of Mouse, it closed at 34.60, trading about $1 higher in the after-hours. NVDIA after the bell – closed at about 14.5, trading about $0.70 higher. Under Armor, Mastercard, Red Hat and Ulta Salon all had nice small pops before earnings. Oil and TLT have both been on a significant rally.

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Volatility Views 29: Other Volatility Indices

Volatility Views 29: Other Volatility Indices

Volatility Review: The VIX cash and the VIX, in general, have been on quite the roller coaster ride. With further concerns about Greece, and now Italy as well, the VIX bounced right back to the 32 level. Greece continues to set the Euro on fire. Don discusses the recent expiration of the front month November Euro VolContract. Volatility Viewpoint: Don discusses some of the hedging aspects of using VolContracts against options positions or equity portfolios, and some general logistical issues for listeners who are looking to add VolContracts into to their portfolio for the first time. Mailbag: Volatility on Other Indices. Hello Vol Views Crew: Love the show. Keep up the good work. My question concerns the viability of volatility products on indices other than the S&P. For whatever reason, none of those products have managed to attract volume or attention like the VIX, even when the ones that were created by the CBOE. To what do you attribute their failure? Is there something inherent to those indices to make them poor candidates for vol products, or is the S&P simply an ideal candidate for vol products? Thanks for your insight. Crystal Ball: With so much uncertainty coming out of Europe, how long will sentiment factor in vol remaining high? Can Euro volatility at 15% last for the rest of the month? Plus, Mark Sebastian's weekly outlook

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Volatility Views 29: Other Volatility Indices

Volatility Views 29: Other Volatility Indices

Volatility Review: The VIX cash and the VIX, in general, have been on quite the roller coaster ride. With further concerns about Greece, and now Italy as well, the VIX bounced right back to the 32 level. Greece continues to set the Euro on fire. Don discusses the recent expiration of the front month November Euro VolContract. Volatility Viewpoint: Don discusses some of the hedging aspects of using VolContracts against options positions or equity portfolios, and some general logistical issues for listeners who are looking to add VolContracts into to their portfolio for the first time. Mailbag: Volatility on Other Indices. Hello Vol Views Crew: Love the show. Keep up the good work. My question concerns the viability of volatility products on indices other than the S&P. For whatever reason, none of those products have managed to attract volume or attention like the VIX, even when the ones that were created by the CBOE. To what do you attribute their failure? Is there something inherent to those indices to make them poor candidates for vol products, or is the S&P simply an ideal candidate for vol products? Thanks for your insight. Crystal Ball: With so much uncertainty coming out of Europe, how long will sentiment factor in vol remaining high? Can Euro volatility at 15% last for the rest of the month? Plus, Mark Sebastian's weekly outlook

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Option Block 104: Piling Onto Groupon

Trading Block: A bit of a market turnaround, but mainly a relatively mild day. What a strange place VIX and volatility are in general right now. Priceline (PCLN) earnings today after the close, trading over $500. The frenzy began Friday as Groupon went public — when will the options go live? A quick Metals/commodity rundown. Odd Block: Unusual activity in: McMoRan Exploration Co. (MMR), Knight Capital Group (KCG) and Career Education Corp. (CECO)Xpress Block: John Grigus discusses the details of the MF Global account, which has brought about stress at OX fielding questions. Around the Block: Earnings! Disney 11/10 – General Motors 11/9 – Cisco 11/9. Also, jobless claims 11/10.

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Option Block 103: Greece is the Word

Trading Block: Greece! The other European countries have finally said enough is enough – they may survive without Greece, but Greece can't survive without them. It looks like the VIX was hedging its own bets, there was a giant relief sell-off like was last week. XLE up over 2% on the day. There's definitely been a lot of movement in energy today, when it feels like things are getting better, people flock towards energy – a good time to be a bull. Gold closed at the highest it's been in a while, gold and silver are starting to claw their way back after a recent pull-back in the Metal world. In the land of collars – the premiums in the weekly have been high enough, especially in GLD, to justify using some of the near term options. Strategy Block: Today feature of the strategy block will be a dual session, split by Andrew Giovinazzi and Mike Tosaw. Andrew starts by enlighten us on the uses of the front spread. What is a 1×2? How do you pick a front spread? With his turn, Tosaw discusses the back spread, including topics on modified stock repair strategies and hedging a front spread with a back spread. Around the Block: Back spreads – with the financials prone there are some opportunities because the volatility is at a point where it's cheap enough since they're moving so much. Keep an eye on Greece – Will they oust their prime minister? Greece is the word!

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