* Trading Block: Ford; RIMM earnings; April vol & skew getting crushed – perhaps too much heading into the weekend; the foolishness of rushing into a stock ahead of earnings; do asset managers offer any real value. * Odd Block: Sizeable defensive activity in Sandridge Energy (SD); Charlie Sheen protective puts in CBS; Bizarre bullish activity in BioMimetic Therapeutics (BMTI) * OX Block: Charles in charge was an awesome show; OX customers love writing BIDU puts; Time to get into wheat? It's far more liquid and viable for retail than oats, sugar, cotton and many other ags; Schwab/OX has sparked a resurgence of anti-options articles in the media. * Around The Block: Will traders continue to hammer spx downside going into the weekend? Good time to buy protection?; Apple vol returns, but it's expensive to keep rolling your downside puts every month.

LIVE FROM FIA – In this episode, Mark is joined by Don Montanaro, CEO of Trade King. Mark and Don sat courtside (croquet) at the FIA Conference in Boca Raton and discussed the brutal competition in the retail options space. They also explored the strategy behind TradeKing's new pricing as well as the firm's battle to remain a leader on the social/community front. Finally, Mark and Don discuss TradeKing's interesting decision to open its trading platform to outside developers. All that and more, live from courtside at FIA.

Trading Block: Rally! M&A pushes market north. AT&T buys T Mobile, and Schwab merges with/acquires optionsXpress. Schwab is getting a good deal…maybe too good. Volatility gets smoked. April thwacked. May and June hold up. How many factors are keeping it above 20 in the longer term? New VIX products on individual names.Odd Block: XLE – bulls come out to play with april 78 – 82 call spreads. VIC does sizable bearish volume. EXPR – ADV = 150, trades 3,300, 2,400 of which are the 16.94 April contracts.Xpress Block: Customers concerned on the merger news. Grigus talks them down.Listener Mail: OX Social in Australia; Preferred analytics platoforms; What will happen to Option Block with the OX merger?

Trading Block: Japanese dead cat bounce? S&P 500 1260 magnet. Fear is in the air, traders are getting defensive. Commodity prices up.Interview Block: Chris Wilson from Cycle Spreads talks about far out-of-the money trades, including bear call spreads, and bull put spreads. Chris also discusses what's in the "secret sauce" of risk management, and deep out-of-the-money credit spreads.Odd Block: VSI: ADV = 28 contracts. Thursday saw 5,000 May collars traded. Could it be in anticipation of 4/20 earnings? Red Hat: Earnings 3/23. With a Apr 44-45 call spread going up, is someone looking for a rally into earnings? VIP: Earnings before the bell on Thursday, someone sold Sep 12.5 puts 10,000 times.Xpress/Spread block: Commodities strong, Japan looking better than worse. Rob K. likes cocoa and natural gas.Around the Block: All eyes on Japan. Volatility opens up good opportunities to get in and out of time spreads.

In this abbreviated edition of the Option Block, Uncle Mike Tosaw takes the reins and interviews Craig Severson of the Options Linebacker, and discusses the ramifications of the disaster in Japan with Joe Cusick, head of education at optionsXpress.

Trading Block: Trifecta of bad news: Psychological breaks in Dow, S&P, Nasdaq, and VIX. Saudi and sovereign debt fears. China reports slow export growth. Crude talk. Metal mania? Crude price does not always equal gas price.Odd Block: JTX: Closed at $0.74, or down 51%. Speculators betting stock goes to $0? Sprint: Closes up $0.20, does 107k contracts, with large positioning on May strike. FTR: Liquidity concentrated in May ahead of earnings. Could we be seeing a 3×5 put stupid?Xpress Block: Futures liquidation madness. SPY, QQQQ, SLV, AAPL, NFLX, GOOG, and USO trade heavily. Rob K's trading idea is an April 10 year note put spread.Around the Block: Day of rage looms. Copper at support level. Retail sales, Michigan sentiment, and the guys have ideas for CME.

Trading Block: Yo-yo market goes on. Short crude? Hope not. Ford has a big day, and F weeklys look interesting. Regular AAPL chat.Odd Block: LPSN: Grigus is a fan, but who else is buying? With 40x ADV, it's got to be someone. Review of AMAT: Wells Fargo lowers expectations, stock falls off 52-week high.xpress/Spread Block: BAC action: vertical and calendar spreads. Urban Outfitters sparks retail chat. Commodities: Lean hogs limit up; it takes balls to trade cotton. Check out OX Social insights.Strategy Block: Uncle Mike's 401k portfolio protection prognostication.Around the block: Middle east dictating everything: all oil, all the time. Jobless claims, business inventories, consumer confidence. Get out of March positions before Friday.

* Trading Block: Mini Metals comeback tour; crude oil inventories; volatility time spreads; AAPL 365-370-375 butterfly. * Odd Block: WFT down 10%, sees 10x normal volume overstating earnings, Very rare call stupid goes up 7,000 times; VRGY: put spread looking for downside in April; AEO: 19k contracts trade, bulls love it up to $17 in April * Interview Block: Kerry Given, aka Dr. Duke, author of "No Hype Options Trading" talks to the guys about knowing your stock, vertical spreads, iron condors, calendar spreads, and implied volatility. * Xpress Block: Bonds. James Bonds. * Around the Block: Employment numbers…could Sebastian's Monday prediction be wrong?

Trading Block: Continued Libyan unrest; AAPL on the rise, but can it go higher? Commodity shuffle: gold, sliver, crude.Odd Block: SPLS: earnings approaching, Monday saw a 9.2:1 call-to-put ratio.?? MRVL: call spread revisisted, earnings after the close on Thursday. International Paper: Sizable put sellers on the March 19 strike.Spread Block: Leveraged ETFs resetting price, FAZ, SKF see reverse splits. POT has traditional split; Commodity ETFs in play; Equity mixed bag.Around the Block: NFLX vs. AMZN: a race to the bottom? Natural gas watch. Eye on volatility.?? Employment numbers on Friday – Sebastian predicts a huge miss. Xpresso Newsletter features gold, beige book.