The Option Block 1435: Looking Back at an ODD Year

The first Thursday of the new trading year is here, and the panel is back to break down a wild start to 2026. From record-breaking volume milestones to unusual activity in AI beauty tech and defense drones, the team dives deep into the forces shaping the market this week. In This Episode: The Trading Block: Mark Longo (The Options Insider), Uncle Mike Tosaw (St. Charles Wealth Management), and the Flowmaster Henry Schwartz (Cboe) review a mixed start to the session. While the S&P 500 struggles for direction ahead of the jobs number, small caps (IWM) are off to the races—up 5% year-to-date. 2025 Year in Review: Henry Schwartz provides an exclusive data deep dive into the sixth straight record-breaking year for options. Average Daily Volume (ADV): Nearly 61 million contracts. The 15 Billionth Contract: Henry reveals he tracked down the exact moment the milestone occurred—a spread in CoreWeave on the day after Christmas. Strike Proliferation: The industry has officially topped 2 million individual strikes available for trade. Odd Block: Things get weird with unusual activity in: Caesars Entertainment (CZR): Heavy put volume and long-dated March 33 calls. Oddity Tech (ODD): A massive $640k bet on April 50 calls for this AI-driven beauty company. Vision-Wave (VWA): Bullish drone play with volume 16x the norm following geopolitical defense headlines. Mail Block: The team discusses how to track the growth of new retail accounts and why "buying the dip" continues to be a dominant, albeit debated, strategy. Around the Block: Predictions for the upcoming Supreme Court tariff decision, a preview of financial earnings (JPM, BAC, GS), and why the "Mag 10" equal-weighted index is the new one to watch.