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Volatility coming in sharply from early April highs, investors sentiment shifts from being extremely fearful to jump and back into risky assets. So what does this mean for the options market? Well, joining us here to discuss is explosive options technical analyst. That would be Bob Lang in the options playbook sponsored by Taste Trade, Bob. It is good to see you. So, I know you have a couple specific trades for us, Bob. But maybe why don't we start high level, your broad take on the options market, Bob? Let's just walk with the trends, the themes you're seeing.

Always great to be with you, Josh. Thanks for having me today. So, uh we we've had a huge drop in volatility over the past uh, you know, two and a half, uh two months maybe, uh six weeks, 71% drop in in the VIX from the peak on April 2nd, which was at 60, and all the way down to about 17, which is kind of where we were at at the end of March before that surge happened in volatility. Um many participants basically, you know, are have started buying calls against Josh and, you know, if they looked at this uh, this drop in volatility over the past couple of weeks as a sign to go ahead and get in, less fear. One of the reasons why the volatility went up so much is because the investor sentiment was so poor and there was so much worry about the uncertainty with tariffs and what was on the table there and how it was going to settle out and whether inflation was going to be uh continue to rage on and the Fed not uh not positioning uh for uh for rate cuts. So, all these things considered, uh the market volatility came down quite a bit and uh it's been a pleasant to see.

On the VIX, Bob, you know, we are, you know, sub 20 here. Where do you think we head next, Bob? I mean, going back to low teens?

Well, uh we could get down to the low teens, Josh, but but one thing that concerns me is that the market is starting to look very complacent right now. And what does that mean? That means it uh we have a lot of investors that are uh clamoring to get back into the stock market. Maybe they they were sitting on the sidelines for a while when they saw a lot of that volatility start to rise up towards that 55, 60 level and they said, you know what, I'm just going to wait, be patient and sit it out for a little bit. Well, some of those people are starting to come back on, uh uh back into the game, and usually uh when it's retail investors or maybe even some big institutions, they're coming in late late to the party and that means that they're going to get smacked around before the uh, before the uh the market uh turns starts to turn down again. So, I think that that's that's a huge worry right now. I think market complacency means that you have to buy protection right now. You have to buy puts. The puts are very cheap right now. The options market are telling is telling you that there's not uh an expectation of a big move up or down. So, it's it's when when do those big moves happen? When surprises happen. Like we had a big surprise back in uh April 2nd when, uh you know, the markets really did not seem to like what the news from President Trump about tariffs and the markets came down quite sharply, very quick very quickly. So, those sort of surprises happen all the time. So, I think that this is something we have to be worried about, concerned right at this point.

Yeah, hey, Bob, Adam Johnson. I hear you and I understand on on on your comment that the market has come a long way and now all of a sudden everyone's saying, "Oh, train left the station. I better jump on." But think about what we're trying to do here. Um timing markets is very hard. I mean, you had to be right six weeks ago at the bottom, and now you're saying, "Oh, it's kind of toppy, so we got to be right again." Well, that means then it'll go down and then two weeks from then, we got to pick the bottom, and then we got to go pick a top. I mean, that's nobody. Nobody's that good. I mean, I'm not that good, you're not that. No nobody's that good. Um why not just focus on individual stocks and let the market do its thing and just just ride out high quality names?

Great to see, Adam. So, uh one of the things that we've we've learned about markets is that uh you're either in one or two different markets. You're either in a stock market or a market of stocks. And so what you're talking about is being a stock picker is in a market of stocks. And certainly that's a great environment if you're a stock picker to add alpha to your uh portfolios, add alpha to your for your clients' money. But the problem is that, you know, again, as you as you allude to trying to time the market, I'm not a market timer. I'm a terrible market timer when it comes to trying to get in and get out at certain periods of time, but I I follow trends and I follow momentum and money flows. These are the sort of things that uh work for me and work for for most uh most people, especially technicians. Um but it also works for fundamentalists too. I know uh there's a lot of fundamental uh investors out there who follow, uh you know, uh uh, you know, annual reports and they follow the business cycle and so forth, but they're also closet technicians too and they realize that uh there is some value there in finding uh, you know, uh finding the technicals um moving upwards and downwards with the market. So, I think that that you make a great point as far as timing the market, it's very difficult to do, but I think for the most part, um you know, if as long as you stay long in this market if you're a long-term investor, that's all you need to do.

And Bob, you have a couple trades with us. I want to get to those as well. One is Corwe, Bob. Walk us through it.

Corwe had a great earnings report and the revenue growth was just spectacular, Josh, and and and frankly, it had an amazing day today. It was up 21% today. Uh I didn't expect that large move uh to happen right out of the gate, but of course, this was their first earnings report after they went public uh just about six and a half weeks ago. Um the stock is really tied into Nvidia and Microsoft, 70 something percent of the revenue coming from both of those companies together. They had huge revenue growth, uh huge uh earnings surge as well too. They said on the call that they don't see any slowdown of their business from demand from their customers. Um shares have been accumulated lately according to the chaikin money flow. Um and that is a a big sign that uh institutional investors are coming in in a big way. Indicators here are bullish and even though uh the chart shows only six weeks' worth of action, um it, you know, I think today is indicative of the fact that the stock is a is in a massive squeeze, short squeeze up here. I think it's got room to get up to 100, maybe 110 before it's over.

And finally, Bob, another trade for us, Robinhood.

Love Robin Hood. Um you know, again, there's another stock that's tied to something else. It's mostly tied to crypto, but also, you know, you get the backing of somebody like Ken Griffin who runs Citadel, and this guy um is when he touches things, it turns turns to gold. Um the uh the transformation that Robin Hood has made over the past year, year and a half has has been fantastic. They came up with unbelievable earnings and and revenue growth just about a month or so ago. The stock did pull back a little bit after some uh some some a nice surge and a little bit of profit taking here. Um it is again, it is tied to uh crypto, tied to Bitcoin. Uh the more uh we see Bitcoin going up, we see more the more uh we see Robin Hood going higher as well too. They're they're grabbing share from other uh brokerages like Schwab and interactive, and I I I see this there's just a huge runway for success for Robin Hood. Institutions own 35% of the of the stock. The chart is uh it looks like it's very expensive here, but it's just finishing up an explosive inverse head and shoulder uh pattern, which is one of the most bullish patterns in the technical analysis universe. So, I'm looking for a little bit of a slight pullback to buy the dip.