tastylive: Confirm and Send

Hosts Nick and Mike conducted a highly successful Fast Market session executing eight viewer trades while navigating challenging market conditions and wide bid-ask spreads. The standout trades included IBM 285-280 put spread at $1.40 (Mike adjusting from viewer's $2.95 naked put preference), Marvell January-December 91-100 diagonal at $5.04 playing for the 100-strike print ahead of earnings, Roblox 95 put/110-115 call Jade Lizard creating no upside risk, Lululemon 140 puts by Nick (versus viewer's 155-145 put spread or covered call choices), Oracle 220-230 December-January diagonal at $4.35 capitalizing on support levels, and VRT 140 puts at $3 after the stock's pullback from $200. The session featured impressive execution discipline with Nick scalping multiple micro NASDAQ futures positions for $2,500-$25,000 gains while managing zero-day SPX positions. Passes included Dash due to $3-wide bid-ask spreads on individual options creating $5-wide iron condor spreads deemed "impossible fills," emphasizing the importance of market quality over setup attractiveness.

Hosts Tony and Jamal conducted a successful What's Your Assumption session executing seven viewer trades while managing existing positions, opening with Tony scalping NASDAQ futures twice for quick profits. The Hood trade featured a crab structure buying December 145 call and selling two November 155s at $8+ debit, positioning for "inside and up" move to expected range. The Intel 40-45 January-December diagonal at $1.98 provided 21 long deltas that perfectly neutralized Tony's existing 35-40 strangle (14 short deltas), creating portfolio-level delta neutrality. The SPX zero-day iron condor used $10-wide wings at 18-23 delta for $3.20 credit with GTC order to close at $2.60. Multiple passes included CMG where Tony expressed frustration with his long stock position ("I hate everything about it"), IONQ deemed untradeable with wide markets despite call skew, Lily with $18-31 wide markets making $2,000 diagonal too expensive, and Meta where Tony already holds bullish position from October 30th currently down 50 cents. The session emphasized proper position sizing and market quality, with Soundhound getting creative 14-15.5 call zebra structure at $2.50 for defined-risk earnings play instead of naked puts.

Hosts Nick and Tony explored why VXX consistently underperforms despite tracking VIX movements short-term, emphasizing the critical distinction between the exchange-traded note holding VIX futures versus ETFs holding physical shares. The contango effect was illustrated through the current curve showing front month VIX futures at 19.50 while next month trades at 20, creating a 50-tick loss on each monthly roll that occurs roughly 80% of the time. Historical returns demonstrated the devastating impact: negative daily, weekly, monthly, and annual returns culminating in 98% losses over five years despite VIX remaining range-bound. The segment emphasized VXX works only as short-term hedge (hours/days) during volatility spikes when backwardation briefly occurs, with Nick warning that shorting VXX carries significant spike risk requiring proper sizing to withstand potential 40-50 VIX events. The discussion highlighted how volatility of volatility expands during spikes, creating dual headwinds for short positions through both directional moves and expanding option premiums.