Trading Block: The S&P 500 surged 2.8 percent last week, buoyed by gains in oil and raw-material companies, some of the year’s least-loved stocks. VIX jumped 14 percent Monday to 17.91. Oil led an early retreat among commodities Monday, sliding more than 3 percent from a three-week high as Iran repeated its goal of boosting exports after sanctions on the country are lifted.

Odd Block: Calls trading in Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCL), calls trade in Franklin Resources Inc (BEN), puts trade in Zillow Group, Inc. Class C (Z)

Strategy Block: Uncle Mike Tosaw discusses evaluating your overall financial portfolio.

Mail Block: Listener questions and comments

• Question from Nelson - This is question is for Andrew from Maine. During my morning run yesterday I was listening to Episode 484.  At the 14:10 minute mark Andrew mentioned a strategy that the end result was that money from one IRA account was moved to a different IRA account. I listened to that portion of the podcast a few times but just could not quite understand the strategy. Could you please help me understand this strategy? Thanks for any help you could give me. Also, thanks so much for the podcast. I travel 30 minutes each way to work and it is very educational. Thanks, Nelson.

Around the Block: No quarterly reports of note are scheduled for this holiday-shortened week. After the first of the year, Walgreens and Monsanto are among those set to report. The fourth-quarter earnings season begins in mid-January.