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Upcoming Economic Reports
A preview of what may move the market this week
| TIME (ET) | REPORT | PERIOD | FORECAST | PREVIOUS | | MONDAY, NOV. 20 | | 10:00 AM | Leading economic indicators | Oct. | -- | -0.20% | | TUESDAY, NOV. 21 | | 8:30 AM | Chicago Fed national activity | Oct. | -- | 0.17 | | 10:00 AM | Existing home sales | Oct. | 5.39 mln | 5.39mln | | WEDNESDAY, NOV. 22 | | 8:30 AM | Weekly jobless claims | 18-Nov | 240,000 | 249,000 | | 8:30 AM | Durable goods orders | Oct. | 0.50% | 2.00% | | 8:30 AM | Core capex orders | Oct. | -- | 1.70% | | 10:00 AM | Consumer sentiment | Nov. | 98 | 97.8 | | 2:00 PM | FOMC minutes | Â | Â | Â | | FRIDAY, NOV. 24 | | 9:45 AM | Markit manufacturing PMI (flash) | Nov. | -- | 54.6 | | 9:45 AM | Markit services PMI (flash) | Nov. | -- | 55.3 |
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 Options Insider Radio Network Episodes you may have missed from Options Insider Radio last week
Option Block 669: Breaking Down the Binaries Posted November 17th, 2017 Trading Block: Featuring special guest Dan Cook from NADEX. What are the uses for binary options? Binaries as a way to trade options. VIX coming back to life. House passes tax reform, will congress unify behind a single plan? Uncle Mike speculates on winter weather and resulting oil demand. There is still earnings on the horizon, including: AMAT, GAP and WMT after the bell today. Odd Block: More TSLA 50 "Catastrophe" puts. Put-palooza in Time Warner Inc. (TWX). Funky far OTM outs in Restoration Hardward (RH). Call vertical/roll in Dicks Sporting Goods Inc. DKS. Strategy Block: Dan Cook discusses binary options. Mail Block: Options question of the week The war for #Bitcoin #Derivatives is heating up w/ both @cmegroup and @cboe jumping into the fray. How do you think you'll be trading #Bitcoin in 2018? - CME BRR Futures
- CBOE Gemini Futures
- Stick w/ Regular #Bitcoin
- Still don't trust #Crypto
Listeners weigh in: - Question from JLC8 - What is shortest term option available? Is it equity or commodity?
Around the Block: After-the-close earnings update. Will option vol come down? Are people going to take the money and run? Â Options Insider Radio Interviews: Talking Options, Millennials, and Crypto with StockTwits Posted November 16th, 2017 In this episode, Mark is joined by Ian Rosen, CEO of StockTwits. They discuss: - Ian's history in the financial services industry
- What is Stocktober Fest?
- What's new from StockTwits?
- Demographics of StockTwits users
- Flattening the onramp to investing
- What percentage of users are active options traders?
- How many people are discussing crypto?
- Bringing in new options traders
- StockTwits users level of interest in crypto
Options Playbook Radio 184: AAPL Covered Call
Posted November 16th, 2017 The holiday season brings to mind covered calls. In this episode, Brian covers: - Last week's trade in DIS
- What did we want to happen?
- What DID happen?
- Avoiding the stupid award
- The holidays are coming, that means shortened trading weeks
- It might be a good time to trade covered calls
- Getting "free" time decay with holidays
- Where is AAPL?
- Selecting strikes
- And more...
 Option Block 668: AMZN Loves Hobbits, and Your Questions Posted November 14th, 2017 Trading Block: Earnings! Are we heading for more carnage? Putin says he didn't do anything to the election. GE gets smoked. Amazon up over 1% thanks to Lord of the Rings. Odd Block: Catastrophe puts in Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA). Size put roll in (SEAS). Put-palooza in Square. Mail Block: Options question of the week The war for Bitcoin derivatives is heating up w/ both CME Group and CBOE jumping into the fray. How do you think you'll be trading #Bitcoin in 2018? - CME BRR Futures
- CBOE Gemini Futures
- Stick w/ Regular #Bitcoin
- Still don't trust #Crypto
Listener Questions: What's on your mind? - Question from Nikster1001 - I am new to options trading and have been following you for three weeks now...thanks for all your insights...I am still holding NVDA calls for end of this week...any update on NVDA?
Around the Block: Earnings! WMT, DKS, BBY, and more. Uncle Mike is looking at oil and financials. Sebas is wondering what will happen on Tuesday. Â This Week in Futures Options 77: The Great Bitcoin Bonanza Bitcoin Madness Strikes the Audience #TWIFO Question of the week: Which options product do you want us to discuss live this Friday 1:30pm CT? - Natural Gas
- Russell 2000
- WTI Crude Oil
- Or...Bitcoin
What Is Bitcoin Reference Rate? - The CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR?) is a daily reference rate Of the U.S. Dollar price of one bitcoin as of 4:00 p.m. London time. It is representative of the bitcoin trading activity on Constituent Exchanges and is geared towards resilience and replicability.
- METHODOLOGY: Aggregation of trade executions occurring on Constituent Exchanges between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. London time
- All Relevant Transactions are added to a joint list, recording the trade price and size for each transaction. The list is partitioned into 12 equally-sized time intervals of 5 minutes each. For each partition separately, the volume weighted median trade price is calculated from the trade prices and sizes of all Relevant Transactions, i.e. across all Constituent Exchanges. A volume weighted median differs from a standard median in that a weighting factor, in this case trade size, is factored into the calculation. The BRR is then given by the equally-weighted average of the volume-weighted medians of all partitions
- DISSEMINATION: Once per day, every day of the year including weekends and holidays, between 4:00 p.m. and 4:30p.m. London time
Bitcoin Futures Contract Specs - BRR: Currently $6811
- SIZE: 5 bitcoin, as defined by the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR)
- Minimum Price Fluctuation: Outright: $5.00 per bitcoin = $25.00 per contract. Calendar Spread and Basis Trade at Index Close (BTIC): $1.00 per bitcoin = $5.00 per contract
- Position Limits: Spot Position Limits are set at 1,000 contracts. A position accountability level of 5,000 contracts will be applied to positions in single months outside the spot month and in all months combined. The reportable level will be 25 contracts.
- Price Limits: Special price fluctuation limits equal to 7% above and below prior settlement price and 13% above and below prior settlement price and a price limit of 20% above or below the previous settlement price. Trading will not be permitted outside the 20% above and below prior settlement price.
Could Bitcoin Futures Rein in the Big Price Swings? - After CME announced that they would soon be offering Bitcoin futures, the price of the digital currency took a big upward swing. However, CME is of the opinion that futures could actually put a stop to Bitcoin's synonymous volatility.
- CME will be putting in place special price fluctuation limits that will help protect investors from the notorious price swings, but these same protections could also help ease the price swings and make the digital currency settle down somewhat.
- After CME announced that they would soon be offering Bitcoin futures, the price of the digital currency took a big upward swing. However, CME is of the opinion that futures could actually put a stop to Bitcoin's synonymous volatility.
- CME will be putting in place special price fluctuation limits that will help protect investors from the notorious price swings, but these same protections could also help ease the price swings and make the digital currency settle down somewhat.
- Many believe that it is these violent swings that are stopping mass adoption of the digital currency, especially as a currency. If there was a steadier rate, then Bitcoin would be able to stretch more towards being a currency while still holding onto its power as a store of value.
Other topics this week include: Futures Options Feedback: Listeners have their say - Question from Vamp111: Ciao, anyone know when exactly CME Group will launch Bitcoin Futures??
- Comment from tmal: IMO BTC initially has monster call skew. Bring BTC to the masses.
- Question from Folfox: Do you prefer iron condor vs. iron butterfly? (I know 1 strategy won't work every time, but what scenario is preferred)
- Comment from JNL09: Not sure about the bitcoin implied volatility stated on the show last week. I was sure it's at least 200.
Volatility Views 280: Tapping the Secret Sources of VIX Info
Posted November 13th, 2017 Volatility Review: A look back at the week from a volatility perspective - VIX cash: VIX briefly flirted with 12
- VVIX: 98.5 - 7 points higher than last week
- CBOE SKEW Index: 129 - 8 points higher than last week
- VXN: 15.04 - .5 points higher than last week
Russell's Weekly Rundown: VIX Options: - ADV - 758k
- Thurs - 1m
- Weds - 632k
- Tues - 899k
- Mon - 442k
- VIX call/put: 3.8 - Russell is nervous
Hot VIX strikes - 710842 .VIX Dec 20th 25.0 C, chg +67163
- 515136 .VIX Dec 20th 15.0 C, chg -1377
- 400697 .VIX Nov 15th 20.0 C, chg +5029
- 372447 .VIX Dec 20th 12.0 P, chg +829
- 334283 .VIX Nov 15th 21.0 C, chg -5413
- 308546 .VIX Dec 20th 22.0 C, chg +4167
- 263899 .VIX Nov 15th 17.0 C, chg +11157
- 240963 .VIX Dec 20th 20.0 C, chg +7087
- 226612 .VIX Nov 15th 15.0 C, chg -3270
- 222571 .VIX Dec 20th 17.0 C, chg +4591
- Total 12.7m (10.1m Calls, 2.61m Puts)
VXX: 34 - almost unchd from last week Top VXX positions - 114719 VXX Jan19 10.0 P, chg +22
- 75429 VXX Jan 10.0 P (Nonstd VXX2), no chg
- 75157 VXX Jan19 5.0 P (Nonstd VXX2), no chg
- 60900 VXX Jan 5.0 P (Nonstd VXX2), no chg
- 55450 VXX Jan 5.0 P (Nonstd VXX1), no chg
- 55150 VXX Mar 24.0 P, chg +408
- 49560 VXX Jan 7.0 P (Nonstd VXX2), no chg
- 46458 VXX Nov 38.0 C, chg -1763
- 43537 VXX Jan 20.0 C (Nonstd VXX2), no chg
- 43457 VXX Jan 8.0 P (Nonstd VXX2), chg +6
- Total 3.88m (1.78m Calls, 2.10m Puts)
Volatility Voicemail: Listener questions and comments Options question of the week: Trading #Options during #Earnings is a coin flip. But you know you love to do it. What's your #Earnings #Options MO? - Buy Calls/Call Spreads
- Buy Puts/Put Spreads
- Sell Puts/Put Spreads
- Fly/Iron Fly/ Iron Cond.
Listener questions and comments - Comment from TMal: Big options sell firm gain AUM as they do well. They are another "natural seller" of options (weekly and monthly).
- Question from Chris Thomas: Hey guys. Trading a long calendar on VIX is a bad idea in that what you pay isn't the max loss. It's possible for the closer expiration to experience a larger move than the back month and thus you can lose more than you make? I believe I understand that correctly so my actual question is, is this true for SVXY and VXX? Thanks for imparting your knowledge so us plebeians can learn.
- Question from Encinoj: Here's my time strangle trade idea for VIX. Buy 1-2 yr. VXX 20% OTM puts and also buy approx. 3 mth. 20% OTM VIX calls.
Crystal Ball: Wild prognostication ensues Last week: - Andrew: 9.99
- Russell: 8.95
- Mark L: 9.55
This week: - Mark S.: 9.99
- Russell: 9.15
- Mark L.: 9.65
Where to Find Options Insider Radio? Do you know all the ways you can access Options Insider Radio
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Options Insider Radio Network Live Recordings
Do you want to be a part of the fun?This is when you can access the LIVE shows this week:
Monday:
Option Block LIVE at 3pm Central
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