Option Block 543: Broker Buying Sprees and Earnings Breakdowns

Trading Block: Big news! OptionsHouse is now the sponsor of The Option Block.

Earnings today include CME, FORD, DOW.

• Ford off nearly 9%
• AMZN: $748.50. ATM Straddle approx. $50, 6.6%
• GOOG: $742. ATM Straddle approx. $38.50, 5%.

Odd Block: Calls trade in ETSY Inc. (ETSY), calls trade in The Technology SPDR (XLK), calls and puts trade in Yandex NV (YNDX)

Mail Block: Listener questions and comments

• Question from AWorth: Can the Options House guys explain how their short buyback program works? Is it only for outright shorts, or if I have a short leg of a spread that is near the money on expiration but trading under $.10, can I close that out without commission or do I have to close the whole spread?
• Question from Thomas Hatch: I like dividend yield stocks. I listened to an earlier show and you mentioned writing covered calls to generate dividends. Can I apply this strategy to dividend yield stocks? Any risks I should watch out for when doing this?
• Question from 777: Are you aware of any specific gold arb between chinese gold derivatives and their U.S. equivalents?

Around the Block: Earnings on Friday include CBOE, Exxon-Mobil (XOM), Merck (MRK) and UPS (UPS). This weekin the market sees GDP, Consumer Sentiment on July 29.