Option Block 213: Waxing Nostalgic about Floor Days

Published: Jan. 15, 2013, 5:57 p.m.

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Option Block 213: Waxing Nostalgic about Floor Days

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Trading Block: Apple hits 11-month low and is hovering around $500 strike off news of decreasing iPhone demand. Apple selloff put some vol back into the market. Good earnings -- despite the Apple news, 80% of S&P 500 companies that have reported so have beat their earnings estimates. A lot of volume in Dell.

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Odd Block: Puts trade in Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (ERIC); large call seller in Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW), and calls trading in Sealed Air Corp. (SEE).

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Xpress Block: The Marches have gone up this week. Russell and ETFs. Gold, Facebook and weeklies.

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The Mail Block: Home Ec tips from our listeners

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Tweet from Money Hat - Seabass is crazy! There is no difference between the shiny and dull sides of tin foil. That's just an old wives tale.

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Email from Paul - Venice, FL\xa0- Can I sell covered calls on a convertible preferred stock? In particular BAC.PR.L. I chose this name because it pays a roughly 9% dividend yield, but I would like to augment that income stream if possible. Thank you for your insight and for your informative (and surprisingly entertaining) program. I didn\u2019t know I could have such a good time learning about options trading.

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Around the Block: Earnings, earnings, earnings! Bank of America, Citi, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, US Bank Corp.