Option Block 321: Old School Bullish Paper

Trading Block:  A big selloff on the market today. Angela Merkel yells at Putin. A big day for the banks. The numbers are in! $21.64B derivatives traded in 2013. $12.22B of futures. $11.7B in equity names. VXST options coming in April. More exchanges are on the way - for better or worse.

Odd Block: Some very interesting paper in IRDM, AG, TSM, and XRAY.

Xpress Block:  Three new OX products are nearly ready for release, IRIS - Integrated Rapid Information System, Idea Hub for Schwab mobile and Idea Hub for Futures.

Mail Block: 

• Question from Illin' - Are the new Mt. Gox IOUs essentially the first Bitcoin derivatives?
• Question from Joseph Riggs - Has OX ever thought about creating its own options product, that it could then promote to its customers? Is that even possible (legal), or are new products the sole domain of the exchanges? Is that why there are so many? They are all trying to get into the new product biz. 
• Question from Ian Getz -  Basic question, is there HFT in the options market as there is in the equities?

Around the Block:  Still keeping an eye on Ukraine, as well as China banking. There might be some quite literal weekend risk.