Option Block 369: Short Puts and Ratios in AAPL

Trading Block:

S&P glued to the 2000 handle. Go Pro very active today - Yahoo as well. TLT - blame the Viceroy.

Odd Block:

Puts trade in Valero Energy Corp. (VLO)

Calls trade in Pattern Energy Group (PEGI)

Calls trade in Apple Inc. (AAPL)

Strategy Block:

Good greed vs. Bad greed

Mail Block:

Comment from KaiserDog76 - Oh that Granny Smith tasted sour today! Lol I have to admit I ditched my calls shortly after the open and I am very, very glad I did, It got ugly for "Retail's" favorite fruit. NFLX could not even hold gains after announcing streaming rights to the new "Origins" Bat Man TV show. Yet.....Yet GPRO tacked on another $3...(clearing of the throat)..Ok.Oh, but wait! It gets better, Mobile Eye continues to make elderly and the "Peripherally" challenged excited as now whats the Market Cap? 10 Billion? An even bigger, Ok. I am interested to see how H&R Block HRB trades post earnings. Morgan Stanley looks very interesting to me as well. The Nat Gas export commodity play is looking juicy and unrealized. I had a good day so I have no reason to be surly. I just thought some of you might enjoy my commentary. Thanks for everything you do Mr. Longo. You and the fellow Rouge Scholars are the dose of sanity that this insane Market needs!. P.S.I love the new show! Reminds me of some of my favorite Old School Comics, Strange Tales..... Keep Up the Great work. I am loving all of it!

Question from Catherine - I want to set up an options trading account for my son (who is 23 years old) and I want him to learn to trade options in a risk-managed way - do not really want him to know that he can use options for taking stupid risks (he will probably figure that out on his own soon enough).  I contacted the customer services people at my broker  (Options Express) to see how an account could be set up to achieve my goals and was told that initially all he could do would be to buy puts and buy calls. Seriously?  That is exactly what I do not want him to do.  I want him to control his risks better than that and to learn to put on spreads from the git go.  Is there any way that my goal can be accomplished? - Cat

Around the Block:

Option Block Live! - This Thursday, Sept 11, 4pm Central @ Bennys Chop House (444 N Wabash) here in Chicago.