Upcoming Economic Reports
A preview of what may move the market this week
| TIME (ET) | REPORT | PERIOD | FORECAST | PREVIOUS | | MONDAY, JULY 31 | | 9:45 AM | Chicago PMI | July | -- | 65.7 | | 10:00 AM | Pending home sales | June | -- | -0.80% | | TUESDAY, AUG. 1 | | 8:30 AM | Personal income | June | 0.40% | 0.40% | | 8:30 AM | Consumer spending | June | 0.10% | 0.10% | | 8:30 AM | Core inflation | June | 0.10% | 0.10% | | 9:45 AM | Markit manufacturing PMI | July | -- | 53.2 | | 10:00 AM | ISM manufacturing | July | 56.30% | 57.80% | | 10:00 AM | Construction spending | June | 0.50% | 0.00% | | Varies | Motor vehicle sales | July | 16.8mln | 16.4 mln | | WEDNESDAY, AUG. 2 | | 8:15 AM | ADP employment | July | -- | 158,000 | | THURSDAY, AUG. 3 | | 8:30 AM | Weekly jobless claims | 29-Jul | 242,000 | 244,000 | | 9:45 AM | Markit services PMI | July | -- | 54.2 | | 10:00 AM | ISM nonmanufacturing | July | 56.90% | 57.40% | | 10:00 AM | Factory orders | June | 3.00% | -0.80% | | FRIDAY, AUG. 4 | | 8:30 AM | Nonfarm payrolls | July | 185,000 | 222,000 | | 8:30 AM | Unemployment rate | July | 4.3 | 4.40% | | 8:30 AM | Average hourly earnings | July | 0.3 | 0.20% | | 8:30 AM | Trade deficit | June | -$44.3bln | -$46.5bln |
 Options Insider Radio Interviews Hot off the press...Vela Explains Why It Bought Options City and Object Trading Recently, Mark had the opportunity to talk to Jen Nayar, CEO of Vela Trading Technologies, who recently completed TWO major acquisitions. Topics included: Major acquisitions: Options City and Object Trading The whys and hows of the acquisitions How will the brands merge together going forward? Is the smaller, fragmented community cause for concern? Was there much of an overlap between Vela and Object Trading? When will the whole platform come together? Is there more to come? You can hear the whole episode here.
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 Options Insider Radio Network Episodes you may have missed from Options Insider Radio last week Option Block 639: Amazon Earnings Umbrage Posted July 28th, 2017 Trading Block: Amazon rallies 2%. Bezos surpassed Gates ever-so briefly as richest man in the world. Then there was a selloff. Earnings Flash Poll - $AMZN is up next. ATM Straddle approx. $50 - aka 4.5%. Does a $50 earnings move seem reasonable or crazy to you? 39% - I'll buy that for $50 22% - I'll sell that for $50 28% - Seems Fair to Me 11% - I'm waiting for $AAPL Odd Block: Call rolls in Dynavax Technologies Corporation (DVAX) and calls trade in JetBlue Airways Corporation (JBLU). Strategy Block: Uncle Mike Tosaw gives us an update on the silver collar trade and discusses FAZ Mail Block: Listner questions and comments Tons of people giving us crap for not knowing the handle of our listener from the last show. Comment from John King - Dude, Louis Wintrhope III. You must be overdue for a live cast Trading Places party - on a trading floor, of course. Question from USA Patriot - What is ADV? The cheapest way to hedge my portfolio w options? Around the Block/This Week in the Market: Jul 28: GDP, Consumer Sentiment Jul 28: ExxonMobil, AA  Options Playbook Radio 168: AMZN Bullish Skip Strike Butterfly Posted July 27th, 2017 We are back in earnings season. Given the possibility for big moves, we will look at the skip strike butterfly with calls, which you can find on page 108 of The Options Playbook. This is always available onoptionsPlaybook.com, in on the Amazon Kindle edition. In this episode: What happens to implied volatility around earnings? The dynamics of the trade The more costly the underlying, the more costly the option AMZN announces earnings on 7/27 after the close What is the "expected move"? Picking a close expiration Selecting strikes What is the maximum risk? What is the break-even point? What if we are completely wrong? What is the best-case scenario? Do you have a question that you want answered on a future episode? Send them to Brian at theoptionsguy@invest.ally.com, or to the Options Insider at questions@theoptionsinsider.com.  Option Block 638: GOOGL, AMZN, TSLA, FB, CMG and MORE Posted July 25th, 2017 Trading Block: Earnings! Monday - Alphabet earnings after close today Earnings Flash Poll - $GOOGL is on deck. With $GOOGL around $993 the ATM Straddle is pricing in a 4% move. Are you a buyer or a seller? Buy it - 4% is cheap Sell it: 4% is expensive 4% is just right I'm holding out for $AMZN More earnings! Tuesday - GM, McD, AT&T, Chipolte, AMD Wednesday - FB, Coca-Cola, Boeing Thursday - Amazon, Intel, UPS, Southwest Friday - ExxonMobil, AA Odd Block: Puts trade in Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (SIRI) and size ratio vertical in Scientific Games Corp. (SGMS). Mail Block: Listener questions and comments Question from Alberto - How does this earnings straddle thing work again? What does that tell me? Question from Richard - Dear Option Luminaries, It has been a while years since I have written in (the last time I wrote in Alex was still one of the hosts)! Are there any trades that if you did not have a to pay brokerage fees would be excellent types of trades? I recently have been given the opportunity to trade options and equities for a near zero trading costs for about a year. I had in the past found some multi-leg spreads or underlyings with a really low prices unworkable because the trading costs made the potential gains or expected value too low. Thank you for your time and for the great shows you consistently point out! Uncle Mike after that 12 days of Christmas options parody from 2015 I think you should be given a "license to inflict umbrage" for at least a decade! Question from Louis Winthrope III - What are best options trades for the upcoming earning release for Twitter? Around the Block/This Week in the Market Jul 25: Consumer Confidence Jul 26: New Home Sales, FOMC Meeting Jul 27: Jobless Claims, Durable Goods Jul 28: GDP, Consumer Sentiment  This Week in Futures Options 61: Crazy Week for Corn and Crude Posted July 24th, 2017 Today's CME hotseat guest is Matt Bradbard, Director of Alternative Investments, RCM Topics this week include: Where is the vol? New Zealand Dollar (our surprise product of the week) Crude Oil Corn Futures Options Feedback: Polls, questions, comments and more! TWIFO Flash Poll: Which Options product had largest % change in open interest over the past week? 50% - Soybeans 25% - Emini Nasdaq 100 8% - Copper 17% - Live Cattle Questions and Comments: Comment from LilChech - My vote for crazy CME product is oats. Who trades oats? Question from Eve4 - You talked gold collars a few eps back. Silver has been selling off. Is this a good time for a silver collar? Question from Antim - How far out can I go in most CME options? Can I go out as far as a LEAP? Question from BulzEye7 - Are options worth it for day-traders? Or just for swing-traders? Comments on Bitcoin - What could go wrong? Re: CFTC approves options trading in Bitcoin. Can you short BTC?  Volatility Views 264: Winter Is Coming Posted July 24th, 2017 Volatility Review: A look back at the week from a volatility perspective. The Numbers: VIX Cash - 9.58, VVIX - 76 VXN - 14.36, CBOE Skew Index - 130 VIX Options - ADV: 671k, Total 7.32m (5.82m Calls, 1.49m Puts) Russell's Weekly Rundown: Volatility Flash Poll: Someone bought 235k $VIX Aug 30/35 Call Spreads for a whopping $.05. Theory time - Why would someone buy this spread? "Hedge" Short OTC Vol Bullish Volatility Spec Someone had $1.2M to burn "Hedge" Equity Portfolio Volatility Voicemail: Listener questions and comments Question from FContangotrader: When you buy put calendar in $VXX and took delivery of stock becomes synthetic call, great way to gain cheap delta while you short. Options question of the week: Earnings Season is back! $MSFT & $EBAY are up next. $MSFT ATM Straddle = 3.5%. $EBAY ATM Straddle = 7% Which trade would you make? 41% - Buy $MSFT Straddle 3.5% 28% - Buy $EBAY Straddle 7% 21% - Sell $MSFT Straddle 3.5% 10% - Sell $EBAY Straddle 7% More questions and comments: Question from Avery Thompkins & HSchwartz - Russell any progress on creating a VIX calc spreadsheet? Question from Ballen - What is your take on this article? Time to Stop Calling the VIX the Fear Index? Question from MMouse - Check out this chart. Short volatility for the win! Why would you buy VIX? Crystal Ball: Wild and reckless prognostication Last week: Mark L. - 10.25 Ghost of Russell - 13.74 Andrew - 9.99 Guest - 9.75 This week: Mark L. - 10.25 Russell - 9.76 Mark S. - 10.04  Where to Find Options Insider Radio? Do you know all the ways you can access Options Insider Radio          Â
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
Thursday:
Option Block LIVE at 3pm Central
Friday:
Volatility Views LIVE at 12pm Central
This Week in Futures Options LIVE at 1:30 Central As always, you can join in the fun at http://mixlr.com/options-insider/  | 