The first "January Lion" of 2026 has arrived. Join Mark Longo and Carley Garner of DeCarley Trading as they kick off the new year with a high-octane look at the futures options landscape. From the aftermath of a historic 2025 to the geopolitical shocks of the first week of January, this episode breaks down why the "old rules" of the commodity markets are being rewritten.

• The 2025 Retrospective: A look back at a "once-in-50-year" event in the metals complex. Carley provides a candid "humbling" on the massive surge in gold and silver, and why 2025 was the year of the devoted trend follower.

• The Silver Beast: Silver dominated last year with a 140%+ gain. Carley and Mark discuss the "Reverse 2020" effect, the impact of triple-leveraged ETFs, and why trading Silver options right now requires nerves of steel and a massive margin account.

• Movers & Shakers: * The Light Side: A continuation of the metals rally (Silver, Platinum, Palladium) and a surprising 5% YTD surge in the Russell 2000 ($RUT).

  • The Dark Side: Energy struggles as WTI and Brent lead the losers, while Natural Gas faces a "trap door" at the $3.60 pivot.

• Equity Index Analysis: Why the "Mag 7" dominance is yielding to a Small-Cap catch-up play in the Russell. Plus, a strategy for "tail-risk nibbling" using deep out-of-the-money March and June puts.

• Energy & Geopolitics: The team breaks down the "Maduro effect" and why Venezuela's supply won't be a quick fix for the crude markets. Carley explores the possibility of a capitulation move in oil toward the low $40s.

• Viewer Q&A: The blurring lines between "trading" and "betting" as CME and FanDuel move closer together.

• Treasury Yield Vol: Pinning the needle at 78.9 (High for the week).

• Energy CVOL: Popping to 60.6 as geopolitical tensions rise.

• Metals CVOL: Easing slightly to 31.0 despite massive moves in the underlying.

The first full trading week of 2026 continues to serve up a wild divergence in equity flow. In this episode, Mark Longo breaks down the top 10 most active names on the tape, revealing a market that is aggressively testing lines in the sand. While the "Monster" (MicroStrategy) claws its way back, the AI darlings are facing a stiff reality check.

• The Top 10 Countdown: We analyze the massive volume hitting the tape, with over half a million contracts required just to break into today's rankings.

• The AI Hangover: Nvidia ($NVDA) takes the #1 spot with 2.75M contracts, but it's not all bullish. We look at the 187.50 calls and whether sellers are finally taking control.

• Apple's $AAPL Rough Start: The fruit company continues its lackluster start to the year. We break down the massive deep-in-the-money put verticals clogging the tape.

• The "Monster" Lives: MicroStrategy ($MSTR) sees nearly 1M contracts as crypto bulls attempt to reclaim the $170 handle.

• Amazon's $AMZN Rally: One of the few bright spots in Big Tech today—we track the 62,000 in-the-money calls leading the dance.

• Aggressive Puts in AMD: Someone is drawing a serious line in the sand with nearly 88,000 of the Jan monthly $250 puts.

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.

• 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.