Mark returns to the croquet lawn, and is joined by John Ruskin, Global Head of Financial Futures and Options for Newedge.

Trading Block: Mixed trading day until finally closing down. AT&T-Mobile boosts telecom sector. Consumer, personal spending and existing home sales all up. Energies pull back, commodities quiet.Odd Block: Hartford Financial Services group (HIG) April calls trade heavily with a 35:1 call/put ratio. Limelight Networks (LLNW) trades at 6x ADV on Facebook streaming rumors, boasts a 49:1 call/put ratio. Energy Select SPDR (XLE): Bearish activity causes 11:1 put/call ratio. Eastman-Kodak (EK) patent lawsuits look more favorable to EK, pushing up trading in the April 4 calls.Xpress Block: Liquidation of long call positions in April and May SLV, GLD. Repositioning for mre upside. Futures traders and shorter term swing traders more active than usual. Trading VIX futures….or not.Strategy Block: Looking at the pros and cons of 4 portfolio/stock hedging methods:1) Put spreads as a hedge, 2) Buying put options, 3) Futures, and 4) VIX.Around the Block: Economic data coming up: consumer confidence, crude inventories, non-farm payrolls. Crude hoarding? Contango! Looking at the 50 DMA on S&P 500 and AAPL. Will they hold?

After a turbulent week in the global financial markets, the dust is beginning to settle! John Odonnell and Merlin Rothfeld take a look at the major events impacting the markets and the impact of the Japan situation. Mark Longo, Founder of The Options Insider, joins the show to talk about how options have evolved. After he shares his experiences from the CBOE, and how he has successfully transitioned to screen based trading, Mark goes on to point out how most traders are using options incorrectly. While many deceptive options schools promise amazing rewards and sell you junk info on options trading, Mark stresses the need for legitimate education to use these instruments correctly.

* 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.