Okay, we're back again. What's up everybody drew here that anxiety guide calm say hello to Billy from anxiety United in the UK Here we go again. Here we go again. We're back. We're doing two in a row again So I'm gonna blow through our intro We are doing a series of videos on an article I wrote many years ago And we will link that article in both of our video descriptions so you can read along if you would like to today We are up to section nine. This would be nine. All right, and today. We are going to talk about Us by the way the article is kind of an anxiety 101. I forget to say that So today, we're gonna talk about therapy and getting professional help and what the value and the role of that is and the different types of Therapy that you're gonna find and how they fit into this whole anxiety panic agoraphobia thing that we're we're dealing with So let's get rolling. Have you have you dealt with therapy bill? Only CBT. That's the only thing I've been Worthy of trying cognitive behavioral therapy. I'm gonna be here. I've had three sessions of that So here in the UK you can refer yourself to a it's called the IAPT improved access to psychological treatments So you don't need to go through your doctor over here. You can phone a number They do like an evaluation over the phone and then decide how Best to take the next step sort of thing So they offered me cognitive behavior therapy and I went for it I think you get eight sessions perhaps once a week And that's my experience and that's as useful as it was. Okay was how much info I just gave you not very wow Okay, well, we're definitely gonna talk about CBT Anybody who has seen more than about three minutes of me talking or whatever online knows that I'm a huge huge huge fan I mean died in the will behaviorist so the Freudians can suck it Here's what I wrote the thing for me just to Just to elaborate on the point I think the therapist has a lot to do with the value that you get from the treatment And I think for me that the therapist in my area There's only one that you can see and I've seen him twice before now in the first time I got nothing in the second time. I got the same nothing Yeah, the therapist does have a lot to do with it and there's also a lot of confusion here I you know what I mean, it's good because you know offer different points of view I could tell you the way it is in the States, which is obviously different We don't have that universal health care that you guys have But I'll start with I'll tell you what I wrote Cognitive behavior therapy CBT you can hear about a lot is hands down the most effective current long-term treatment for panic disorder and Related anxiety disorders and that is flat out the truth because we have mountains of clinical evidence that show that these type of therapies behavioral action-oriented therapies are as effective as even medication on the long term More effective actually as effective on the short term more effective on the long term And we just it's just decades of clinical evidence that shows this So I say if you're seeking professional help help look for a therapist that specializes Specifically in CBT and anxiety disorders, and this is I think maybe what you ran into with you Here in the States you're kind of on your own you we have if whatever your insurance is if you if you have it Of course, not everybody does here in the States. That's true So most health insurance has a very limited mental health coverage sadly for us so you're sort of on your own a little bit and It's you really have to Find a therapist that was trained in this and Specifically does that and I don't know if through the NHS a therapist has the luxury of doing that or not I don't think so. I think that's the yeah, they get they get sort of what they need to know And that's enough for that, but he's also going to see a patient that has other issues not just anxiety issues Well, funnily enough my wife who was suffering a bit with depression like four or five years ago seen the same Therapists and got nothing. Unfortunately from that either. It's a tough one because I would imagine that in his defense Maybe he is going to take whatever the NHS brings him. Exactly. That's it. Yeah, so you've only got the tools that he's been given Exactly. So what we have here is a situation where I see people that reach out for therapy And I think the first thing that we should probably say is it's never a bad idea. It is it is never a bad idea Even the strongest can use help from time to time. We're only human So I am not ashamed of the fact that I have sought help in that area a couple of times And I'll tell you what we can talk about it with varying degrees of success It's help is not a bad thing to do to get so get it. Don't don't be stubborn and I think But just to go on what I wrote is therapy focused on simply talking about your life might be helpful to some degree and You could look at episode 8 that we just did Right very little to some degree But that is a really long-term process So psychodynamic therapies talking about your mom and your family and that you try and please people too much or whatever The it may be is a very long-term therapy It's slow and it does very little to address the immediate needs of somebody who's dealing with a panic disorder or an anxiety disorder of some kind CBT behavioral action-oriented therapies are fast So generally speaking within a couple of months if you're doing the work and the therapy is correct If you will are being practiced correctly. You're gonna you're gonna move forward pretty quickly You can always go back and deal with you know But I was picking out a little once that's done feel free to talk for years about how your mother might have Might not have hugged you enough as a child and we all have baggage. So that's fine I don't mean to but first let's deal with the behavioral and cognitive issues that are stopping us from getting in the car Or picking our kids up from school or going shopping or whatever it may be And that's what we're here. It is why I'm right there That's exactly right. So for for us here in the States where you kind of on your own You're gonna find a therapist and they're out there. There's a million of them There's there's probably 500 practicing therapists of some kind within a 20 mile radius of where I am right now. I bet that's not an exaggeration But you have to find one that specifically deals if you can with anxiety disorders And it's not enough just for the person to say oh, I have anxiety patients now You guys are in a different situation. You don't get to choose that I guess you're gonna get wherever they send you to Well, you can mean you can go private over here, but obviously it's expensive. Yeah. Yeah, I did I did try that I forgot to mention I I sort private therapy for about I don't know probably three four months And I was honestly getting more from that.  Yeah to exactly what I was after and she was obviously qualified. I don't know where but She had experience with similar people to myself So maybe the freedom that she could go down whatever path she felt necessary for me. That was the benefit I think yeah, and that's what we have here I'll tell you the very best therapist I ever had was did not practice behavioral therapy I mean she had experience with it and the experience that I had with her was that she understood what I needed And I was really doing it myself and she just supported that she would give me advice as I needed it She would listen to what my progress was she would give me tips here and there But for the most part she just understood like you need somebody to just kind of prop you up while you're doing this And she was that for me. She was awesome but The most effective therapy and professional help we're gonna find and I keep saying the words action-oriented because it is when you're Dealing in a behavioral therapy. There's actual work to do. Yeah Did you find that you were given assignments workbooks worksheets as I mentioned in one of the previous episodes that we've done here with the With the one session where we have to go out and actually do Exposure therapy. Yes, that was the most beneficial.  Yes Well, I think people also look for some sort of magic bullet that yeah, yeah Yeah, I'm gonna stumble upon this thing like oh, that's right when I was eight my dad did this and now cured and Unfortunately, this is how I'm not scared now. I'm not scared of feeling dizzy in a supermarket, right? That doesn't work that way exactly so what we're looking for when we're dealing with CBT and its variants There's there's rational emotive therapy. They're a variance of this But I think what we're really what I'm stressing anyway I always speak for myself is it is a behavioral Cognitive action oriented therapy and you're gonna find that your therapist will lay out an actual action plan This is what we're gonna do. I'm gonna teach you how to identify the irrational negative thoughts and then counter them logically And there are actual exercises that you will learn to do like okay I feel dizzy. Okay, so what's what you know, it'll take you all the way down that road. Okay, so what happens if you're dizzy? I may fall down. Okay. What can happen if you fall down? So you have to follow that thought present Evidence-based that's exactly right. That's what I got from my that's exactly right But I think the problem here in the UK is perhaps that they have so many people coming through the doors sure, but it is it's like You see one you ship them out.  That's what I find over here It's interesting that you said as well with your health insurance in the US that the mental health There is so much smaller than the physical health and that's like the gulfy over here as well Yeah, but the service is available for mental health. It's probably the same across the world, isn't it? I guess that's probably yeah most insurance insurance plans here unless you are a member of a very large Company or a very large labor union Your mental health coverage is pretty limited for the most part So even people who are practicing this in this profession, you know, they know there was a there was a news post Posted the other day and it said I think it was like 25 percent Increase on mental health callouts for paramedics in the UK as well. So like the numbers are Skyrocketing I can hold that I could totally yeah, yeah, and then we have that not to get too off track But that's a big discussion here, too We have our gun violence discussion and debate that's going on here now and and mental health gets dragged into that very often Yeah, you know part of the problem and I don't want to get into it because it's very political But you know, we don't take care of people's mental health and I say all the time even just so here in the states When we're in elementary school and middle school, you know up to the point you're 12 13 years old You know, they'll teach you how to brush your teeth properly Which I think is insane like you're actually in a classroom and some health teacher will talk about brushing your teeth, but nothing about Anxiety or depression or just mental health and taking care of your emotional state like even two days of that some point and you're 12 years before you graduate would be Helpful and something for people fall back in but we ignore it here. Sadly. We do So when you go and seek help, you know, I think the best advice we can offer is that you're looking for somebody Specifically if you can if you're in an environment where you can do that. You have a choice. Yeah, where this person has specifically At least here. I always tell people, you know, you have to find somebody who specifically Performs this type of therapy and specializes in anxiety disorders. So the best thing you can ask your therapist is do you? Do you specialize in anxiety disorders only? Yeah, and many therapists? I think we'll say well, no I but I but I know they I help people anxiety, you know, like well You know, there's gonna be worksheets We're gonna have an action plan are you gonna go out and do exposure with me You're gonna teach me these tools and if the therapist looks at you kind of funny Then yeah, maybe look if you can I suppose do your homework while you're looking for a therapist So know exactly what it is. Yes, although you might not know what you need But you can sort certainly look for somebody who will know what you need, I guess Yes, that's true And I think if you start with the understanding that I need to find somebody who deals in behavioral and cognitive therapy Yeah, yeah action-oriented therapy specifically Because obviously if you call them up, they're off. They're trying to sell you a service. That's true. Yeah, so you really try They have to eat to I understand that they need patients. I get that I don't fault them for that in any way Here we have there are different organizations That you could start with at least to try and find therapists But there are professional associations of mental health professionals that specifically deal in things like CBT And you get some national counsel of NC CBT, I can't remember what it's called But we have a few of those organizations here that can help you find that person if you will But maybe we should talk about you know So in your situation in the UK at least and in other countries where the socialized medicine Maybe you don't have much of a choice and who you get to see but let's talk about self-help Because this stuff is these are things you could do on your own too. Yeah. Yeah, yeah And I think you've done a lot of it. I've watched you I did a I did a diploma in mindfulness recently I think it cost me about 30 pounds to do the course in it, you know And I picked up a decent amount of knowledge through that I knew most of the stuff already right things like mindfulness We've talked about the the meditation yoga all these kind of things can all be classed as as therapy But then there's other stuff that maybe I don't know I'm going off track here But like the tapping and the stuff like that and the Reiki and aroma therapy I'm not too fond of the healing benefits But I suppose if they give relaxation then that is a positive, but perhaps don't rely on that for Yeah Taking you out you need to do as you say an action focused treatment. It needs to be hands-on Getting in there get your hands dirty Because that's the only way out of this. It's not gonna happen with a candle in your ear lying there and you know Now who's ruffling feathers who's in charge of it today would be Well, I think that's it's good to mention that sort of stuff. There are so many I over the years I have I think that hundreds of different things. I don't know about in the US in the UK You don't have there's no regulation for any of that stuff. No, you're either. Yeah here either Yeah, and we have and it sets up we can go down this road also for hours on this It sets up an interesting like people butt heads over a lot of these things because if you Especially in the circles that I've traveled in where the use of medication and we'll probably do an episode just on that The use of meds can actually exacerbate the problem like it was my experience in the end People have such a bad experience with that Western scientific Allopathic medicine that they immediately assume that anything that anybody in a white coat says is wrong So therefore anybody that is wearing beads must be right and it sets up a lot of weird stuff But we have no regulation on that too like holistic practitioners and people who practice alternative therapies and healing therapies and energy based therapies Yeah, yeah, they can get certifications, but those certifications are privately issued. It's not a thing Yeah, that's it like my mind from this diploma is We're not really worth the paper that is printed on you know, but you went through the process and it's yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, the only person that's gained anything from that is me my brain But I would never use that to go and offer You know, I'm not gonna settle my own Yeah, but I think it you know those type of tools shouldn't be completely discounted. I think they could be as part of it I think helpful. Yeah, but let's not if we're gonna if we're gonna choose one thing Then let's go on the evidence-based Yes, isn't it the stuff that's people actually yeah, there is evidence out there that this stuff does help It might not help everybody, but usually there's probably a determining factor. Maybe it's the therapist or maybe you're Blinkered in what you're actually expecting from it like I was the very first time I was expecting that injection of Knowledge that was just gonna, you know take it all away. So That's it. Yeah, we're just gonna fix things and I think I think I actually wrote a blog post about that a long time ago Why why this didn't work? So sometimes I get into discussions with people who will say like well, you're such an advocate of CBT It didn't work for me just didn't work for me and I'll always ask what did you expect to happen and they'll say well You know, I went and saw a therapist. I had CBT and I'm still having panic I still I'm afraid to get in the car. So well, did the therapist make you get in the car? And if the answer is well, it was too hard or you know, I didn't want to do that or no He didn't do that. Well, well for me. I think the biggest issue is always expectation You can't go into any form of therapy is expecting that somebody just gonna fix it for you Like you are gonna fix it We we fix it ourselves and these people are basically just guiding us and teaching us the techniques that we have to use To fix it ourselves. So Unless it's physiotherapy Yes, unless it's physiotherapy But there's so many different things here, but I think you know expectation is important Nothing is going to just fix this magically crystals tapping energy Reiki acupuncture and I know that people were gonna come at us on this and say but I had acupuncture and it cured me Whatever worked is fine. I guess. Yeah, whatever works And if Reiki is a thing and it helps you then by all means keep doing it I'm all for anything that that helps people But in the end if I'm gonna bet if I'm a betting man And I have to bet where I'm gonna eat the most bang for my buck and time and I'm gonna go down this route I'm gonna go down the road of cognitive behavioral type therapy And I'm gonna expect that when I get there I'm going to have to start doing hard work and that it's gonna be hard really hard in the beginning because I'm Facing my fear and it's gonna get easier because I'm learning how to face the fear. Yeah Yeah, I just had a thought like maybe The the alternative stuff like the tapping and the Reiki could Actually become like a safety behavior, couldn't it you could find yourself Maybe sitting in the car waiting to get out to go into the shop and you're sitting there doing all this because you feel that if you don't So it could actually Continue the problem couldn't it there could be some of that if you don't have Reiki this Thursday at 7 p.m Yeah, like, you know, I can't pick the cool kids up from school tomorrow. There could be that kind of link to That it could it could that's a thing that's actually debate among mental health professionals. Oh, right That's actually debate. I mean, I mean you're in it. You are in it Yes, you're deep in it now. That is actually a real thing where the question is the people who are the most And I put myself in that camp. I am a diet and the will behaviorist.  There's no coloring books. There's no rubber bands. There's no tricks and techniques There's no anything that's meant to distract you or anything like that You just go into it and look at it right in the eye over and over and over until you give it this Yeah, that is how you do it. It's do everything with nothing Yes, you look at right in the eye over and over and over until it's no longer scary to you And there's no other mechanism or technique or tool or pill or anything like that Give there's no buffer between you and that fear and just go right into it and poke it in the chest Until you're done doing that I had an interesting experience on Saturday just gone So we're probably like a week behind on this But just it was a Saturday and I was feeling really dodgy and my daughter was at her friend's house And me and my wife were gonna just nip some stuff around so she was staying over having a sleep over there Got in the car and I just felt myself I could feel that the panic was sort of building already my nose was really stuffy That's usually a key thing for me just that not being able to get the fresh breath And I was just feeling really out of sorts We drove about I don't know 500 yards from the house and I just said and it it's ridiculous because it doesn't people don't believe that this happens But I just said in my head Bring it just like in in that instant my whole body just completely relaxed and it was really weird my my brain just Shut off all the thoughts Yeah, it was crazy and it's like I'm trying to sell you some kind of magic thing Seriously was that weird like and I don't believe it myself that this kind of stuff happens But it would it's it's so crazy like because usually I would just keep rolling with it Yeah, and I I'd end up coming home and feeling probably exhausted even though I've only driven a mile up the road I'll cover I've just had to deal with the Five minutes of madness white knuckle in it, but I didn't I just just let's it was like just bring it Yeah, and I've read that so many times like just Give me the worst that you can But I don't think I've ever actually done it because it when you're in that moment You don't think to do it right and that's the point but at this time I don't know why but I just said like just let's have it well I'll tell you why because that's just a lot of experience. So yeah, yeah That doesn't happen. I think a lot of it is what we're doing here These videos are actually helping me because I'm picking stuff up every week. I could be that would be great If it wasn't but I think experience you've been at it a long time and then to bring it back to therapy You know that is the place where if you're in a good form of therapy You're gonna get there because of you because of the work you're putting in So maybe you haven't done it formerly every week with a therapist for the last five or six months But you have done it yourself with the knowledge you have gained and the research you have done over years So yeah, yeah, so to get to that point and that is exactly where true died in the wool No buffer no safety.  I'm not afraid and and there is no more.  There's nothing there. Yeah. I'm going back and that's supermarket. That's the evidence That's why you feel that evidence isn't that's but you so you're looking for you know a type of therapy that's gonna get you to that point and So I think we should leave it to the individual if you want to adjunct that with tapping or energy healing or whatever you think Yeah, but that's that's certainly your own call. My own opinion is There's the the truest form is no buffer just you and what you're afraid of. Yeah, but I think it could The other stuff the alternative stuff could become a problem when you feel that you need right right I need to have that I need to have my coloring book. I need to have my I need to tap I need to yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a lot of stuff like that So that that's the therapy thing like when you is there's no harm go look for help. Absolutely Everybody needs help. We're only human. We're not made of steel Definitely, and when you're looking for help try and find the most effective form of help and at least in my opinion you seem to agree here, you know that CBT or a Variant of that is we just touch quickly on like the Because male suicide numbers are like ridiculous off the charts. Yes, like the importance of Being a male and not being ashamed or not being you know, just There's nothing to be ashamed of there's nothing to be embarrassed of yes If if you have an issue one million percent just go and speak to your doctor or first or seek private help or whatever But just do something Don't do nothing that that's a really solid point especially to dudes talking to you Exactly, that's it. And we're there's not many of us. No on YouTube talking about this stuff because people do you know Who wants to be known as the guy that can't walk around?  No, that's true. And I think These these are that's a really strong point and I think Especially in the West, you know our gender roles. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we don't cry We just handle everything. We're supposed to be you know tough as nails and never show emotion and but everybody's weak to a certain degree You know, it's it's we everybody is every single human being walking the earth is afraid of something You know and has some form of weakness and and that thing where like I don't want to show this and I'll tell you What makes it even worse if you go back into the 50s and 60s this sort of thing was referred to in many circles as housewives disease Really? Yes, and and you'll find many statistics that still say that it affects primarily women But that's yeah. Yeah, I hear that all the time. That's reporting bias It doesn't necessarily and that's being challenged now because we're a little bit smarter But only because women are more likely to report that, you know Whereas a man might say well, how can I tell anybody that I'm afraid to drive to work Yeah, you know, I'm gonna be viewed as a wimp.  I'm just pretty good.   I'm just letting it rip. So I'm not that guy, but I am I am probably Whatever and I had no problem with betting and I'm here telling you that I was frozen in fear in my bathroom And couldn't get in the car and go pick my kids up from school Ain't gonna find more of a caveman than me, but it even happened to me. So hey, that's it I've always I've never had a problem with talking about it. I've always found that it's helped me if I go to somewhere and I'll just say to them like, uh, you'll have to excuse me if I'm a bit fidgety or whatever, right? I might be feeling why I suffer with anxiety. I try not to say suffer, right?  I just have it. I'm dealing with I'm dealing with it, right exactly. It's just For me I try and look at it as it's just as if I have a headache or I hurt my foot. It's just another thing that people around me are dealing with and you know, I'll deal with it, too Is that why the stats are going up is just because people maybe are becoming a bit more comfortable talking about it You think it's always been an issue. It's just that now there's more access to tell people like social media and Everybody knows somebody that suffers with Anxiety or has had a panic attack, but just the more that we're connected the more that people know I Think that's probably true social media has been helpful that this is a whole different topic. It's a good topic We can just keep going. I think because it leads back to that What's the stigma going out to get help like admitting that there's a problem so that you go to find help Social media. I think it's helped. I think it's a double-edged sword social media because we can go on YouTube Look in 2008 or whenever it was, you know, I met that's how we met Yeah, I was just you know I went on YouTube and did a search and this is anybody else what let me just search for panic attacks And I found this group of people who were you know became a little community and Billy was one of them. So That's a huge the internet social media is a huge help because at least it's maybe helping drop that stigma a little bit Yeah, yeah, I think so. Yeah, so we can tell like oh, there are other people who have this too. It's pretty common on the flip side I have to inject my opinion every freaking time. I don't know enough to shut up So on the flip side, here's the bad part about social media It is almost watering it down because I I actually have seen videos where I want to jump through the screen And I see what's the best way for me to say this If you have a thriving YouTube channel because you're good at makeup Awesome, I hope you're driving a Lamborghini and you're horrendously successful at that But because you have anxiety sometimes does not mean that you should make a video about how to deal with your anxiety You know because you ran out of makeup tips that day and what I mean by that I'm not picking on beauty bloggers That's fine But what I mean by that is it's become such a popular topic that it's become almost watered down. Oh my god I'm having a panic attack like you are not having a panic attack. You don't even know what that is So please stop saying that because it's a real thing for many people Few days down the line the next video that skydive in and Right, so words like anxiety. I have anxiety Anxiety has become a catch-all for a lot of things. So yeah, yeah, I see where you're going with it You know what I mean? So in a way, it's good because we've gotten that it's helping to drop the stigma But in the on the flip side, it's it's being watered down to a certain degree to every human has anxiety Sometimes that's true. We can we please stop using anxiety as a catch-all for just You're upset. Okay. You had a bad day. You know, I don't know if I'm making any sense I'm ranting a little bit like I don't know if you don't know if you ever seen if you have the search like hashtag panic attack On Twitter like you'll get some that are real and you'll get I forgot my pencil case hashtag panic attack, right? No, right, so it's good because the word panic attack is out there. So that's a good thing But it's bad because yeah, it's we're devaluing to a certain extent what it is But I also would follow that thought the next way through let's flip it back again the other way and say if you're people Like us and you deal with panic attacks Don't okay, so fine the mainstream is co-opting our thing a little bit and maybe it's used for views And it's clickbaits sometimes and I get all that and it's watering the topic down to a certain degree So we get the benefit of increased awareness and dropping the stigma. We know we're not alone But yeah, it's being watered down a bit, but don't be angry that it's being watered down because it's your label I've seen that too. Yeah. Yeah, they don't even know what this is like. That's true Maybe they don't really know what a panic attack is, but you know what don't hang on to this It's not a badge of honor to say that you have yeah So we don't I don't want to know what they are either right. I would rather not have these Thank you very much. So let's let's not go flip the other side and be so angry because you're minimizing my Issue like let's try and get past that issue and don't hang on to it as a label. I'm not I am not agoraphobic I am not an agoraphobic. I may have agoraphobic tendencies, but I am not an agoraphobic. That is not my label. So I'm ranting again Now we're up over 30 minutes and I'm ranting again. I like these ones See you're you were egging me on that's I blame you Anyway, so that's the therapy thing if you need help go get it and try and find the best help possible try and make it be behavioral and action-oriented if you can and Self-help we didn't talk about self-help. We should talk about that. There are there's a zillion books that you can find there They're inexpensive. I'm gonna recommend the anxiety and phobia handbook and the The author's name is born Bo you are and Edmund born Edmund born That's a good starting place and it's a relatively inexpensive book You could probably find it even used in certain places. That's the one with it's got a lot of worksheets in their worksheets Yeah, yeah, and you will find that the anxiety and phobia workbook is a good overview of what an action-oriented therapy is all So we have our clear week clear weeks books and audiobooks that we talk about all the time The born book is a good place to start and you can actually do these things on your own if you'll learn a little bit about it And I understand the techniques you can do the worksheets your own on your own You could do exposure work on your own. You've done it. We both done it That's how we met because we were videoing it and sharing the videos. Yeah Yeah, so even if you may have limited resources, you don't have insurance or you can't find a therapist that's suitable for you It's possible to engage in this sort of therapy on your own It might be slower. He might make some mistakes and there might be some you know detours here there Yeah, but there's no reason to sit and just wring your hands because oh no There's no CBT therapists available to me. You can you can do this on your own to a certain extent That's probably a topical by itself. Yeah. Yeah is so All right, let's wrap this one up for 33 minutes This is we only have one more. It's Pepsi Max No, we're doing we're doing soft drink commercials this morning, too. What else can we do let's We only have one left next week. We're gonna talk about the impact of lifestyle Which we could probably talk about for an hour or so Don't need exercise that sort of stuff and then that's kind of the end so You know comments questions we're talking about doing a Q&A We wrap this up. Also the medication maybe well medication we might add on this article So you'll see the article like I said, it's linked in the video descriptions or the website wherever you're watching or listening to this Read the article, but we'll probably I mean, I think if we have our way We'll just expand on this and start doing some other topics too. So yeah, yeah, that's it So that anxiety guy comm or it's that anxiety guy you Twitter Facebook YouTube. Yeah, where are you? Anxiety you search it search it. You'll find us. We're there. Yeah And so if you have questions and comments bring them everybody's been really nice and said some very nice things to us So we appreciate that. It's good. Yeah nice feedback. Good feedback People that have people that have gone like I've seen comments on earlier videos and people are just they're enjoying the pro process going through the videos in order and That's what it's all about and yeah Taking something from each step as I feel that I have yeah, so yeah I think it's it's definitely I get a lot of fulfillment that are doing these two So I you know, I like to keep we'll keep going with it We have one more left in the series and we'll expand from there And I think the best comments are the ones where people will tell us I've never heard somebody talk about it like that before Those are the ones that make me. Yeah, you make me feel good. Okay. We're out the door I will see you guys next time. Yes. Thanks for watching. Yeah Yes I'm gonna start doing makeup tutorials next week and me too. I'm well suited for that All right, see you guys next time Cheers


Hello, my name is Sergio Angelis, and I'm here at LaMont Public Media to do a quick class and overview on how you can use V-Mix for live streaming or live production here at the studio. So we're currently in the live streaming studio. The software we want to use is called V-Mix. It is basically video switching software. So if you're familiar with the physical switchers like the ATEM or the Blackmagic ATEM, then you'd be pretty familiar with V-Mix as it's just a software-based representation of a physical switcher. So why don't we get started? So first thing we want to do is we want to open up V-Mix. So V-Mix is this little Rubik's Cube-like icon, or on the far left you can see V-Mix, or you can just search for V-Mix here, and you want to open that up. So once you open it up, this is what the user interface looks like. So on the top left, you can create new projects. You can open up existing ones, save them, save as, and the last one. The window here in orange on your left, this is your preview window. So this is whenever you want to preview any cameras before switching them to live. And on the right hand side, this is your live section. So this anything that you see on the right hand side in this window, this is what will be sent to to be recorded, to be live streamed for live broadcasts, any of that sort of thing. The section right down here with your one and two, this is your inputs. So we'll get a little more into what inputs are. But as you add more inputs, they will add up here. You can also color code different inputs. These are the different tabs. If you right click on them, you can actually have categories for different things. That way you can categorize your inputs. On the right hand side, you have your virtual audio mixer. So right now, because we only have one, one, technically one output, which is our master output, but as we add more inputs, we'll see more audio inputs here. So why don't we get started with inputs? So why don't we click add input? And as you see, you'll be able to select a variety of different inputs. We have video, so these are any type of video files. You want to have a DVD, you can a list. This can just be a list of different audio or audio files. Cameras. So if you are using Vmix here at Loma Public Media in the Big TV Studio, you would want to select either the Declan Duo 2, 3 or 4. Those are the cameras that we have in the studio. For this purpose, we're going to use the NDI cameras. So this does have native built-in support for NDI. And we're going to add all three. So we're going to go... To... And we're also going to add an image because we want to kind of have a little overlay. Just in case, you know, when the show starts and we're also going to select audio because we want a specific song that we want to play. Lastly, there's a lot of, you know, I won't go into a lot of detail here. There's also some really cool titles. So these are pre-made lower thirds. You can also always make your own, but these are just kind of built in for the sake of this class. Let's just pick title 13, wipe out blue, say OK. We'll close this, but we'll get back to it. So as you see, as I've added inputs, I now have five or six total inputs. On the right hand side, I have four total audio inputs. So one for each NDI camera and one for the music that I chose. You also notice that some of these are are colored blue. And because right now we're all in all, if I do want to categorize, you know, where my inputs are, I can go into the settings and specify red. So now if I go in red, I can see all my. So I do like to categorize my inputs that way. I know, you know, where they are and I can quickly access them if I need to. So as I mentioned, VMIX is video switching software. So as you can see here, we now have two cameras, one on our live feed on the right hand side and one on the preview, which is the left. If you want to cut between the left, the preview and the live, you have a variety of different effects here. So you can cut, you can fade, you can do a cube. If you want to change any of these, you simply hit the little down arrow and you can change the type of transition. So in this case, let's do a barn door because why not? But, you know, I really like to fade, so we'll keep the fade there. Also in the center here, we have a manual fade. This takes whatever is top most, but here as your transition. So in this case, as I slowly pull on it, it can fade. And once you're done, you let it go. This is more akin to traditional switchers. You also have these one, two, three and four. These are your overlay channels. So for example, let's say you want to have, you know, this graphic as an overlay while you could just put it into preview and and fade it over. If you want to have it as an overlay, you actually want to press one on it. So this just puts the graphic in this case on top of the current camera that's currently, you know, in your live feed. There's four of them because layer one is the lower most layer and four is the highest most layer. So if I were to put this lower third on top of number four, you can see now it goes on top of layer one. So you can stack and have up to four different overlays, which is very helpful. So that's what these one, two and three or four. You'll also notice that within the inputs here, you can cut. If I want, for example, a cut to this camera specifically, I can just hit cut from here as well. So VMIX gives you a variety of different options here. Right now with camera one being selected, you can see that right now we have audio on for input one. If I turn this off, you'll see the color here changes and also that no audio will be transferred over to master. So you always want to make sure that you have audio in your input so that, you know, you have audio in your stream or your production. If I click audio here, you also notice it turns green and you can also manually change the gain on that specific input. Which is pretty cool. You'll also notice that as I cut the audio for this respective camera changes. Now, if the input that you're working with all have the same audio source, then, you know, that shouldn't be an issue. But let's say you're only using one camera, for example, camera one, this one, and all the audio is coming into this one. So when you cut, you don't want the audio to transition there. So what do you do?  You do this for all of your video sources. And what this means is now you have to manually mix it. So because audio is now on, if I cut to a different camera, the audio will stay on coming in from camera number one. This can be both good and bad, again, because now you have to remember to turn it off if you ever need to. But we like having it on. If you want to play music, you can also need to hit audio, hit play. Now we can see that we have music playing and it's coming out of the speakers. So to control the volume of the speakers, you can use the mixer here. I don't want to go too loud because you don't want the people outside the studio to hear you. I always like to hit loop that way the song keeps going and stuff like that. So let's assume we have a production going. I want to start off with this one. And then I'm going to transition to this camera right here. So what I would probably do here is I would do I would turn on audio here. Do a quick fade and now lower the music slightly and then you can turn it off here. If you want to modify any of the titles, you right click on it and hit title editor. And now you can change the headline. So the description is the mix class instructor. So you can see now it's modified it and if I press one, we now have a nice, beautiful, lower third that comes up on the screen. So now that you have all this stuff set up, how do you actually record this stuff or live streaming it or whatever? So on the bottom bar, you've got a variety of different options. The first one is record. So if you hit the gear icon, this brings up your recording setup. So you always want to make sure that you change the file name and the folder of where you're recording. Ideally, you want to record to volume F and you want to give it a name. So in this case, Sergio Vmix class put in here, hit save. When I'm ready, I just press OK. You want to make sure you record an MP4 while you can change the bitrate. We normally recommend saying at 1920 by 1080, so 1080p HD at five megabit per second bitrate. So you want to hit OK. And you'll see now it adds an output to the recording channel. So when I hit record, any audio that is coming in. So if I start this song again, that's not the song. If I start the song again, you'll now see the audio is coming in to both the output and the recording. So very important that you want to make sure that that's happening because you don't want your recording to not have audio. So next thing is external. If you ever want to go live on television here at Loma Public Media, all you need to do is hit external. We already have it configured so that you can go live to television. Of course, that requires some additional setup, which we won't go and talk about it here. Next is your stream. So if you click the configure stream button, you can see that there are a variety of or actually three different profiles. So you can stream to three different places at the same time from VMAX. That does take additional hardware resources, but we have a pretty beefy streaming PC, so you can handle it without a problem. In terms of destination, you can choose whether it's Vimeo, YouTube or whatever. All you need to do is put in the stream key and make sure that you're streaming at H.264, 1080p, four and a half megabits per second. When you're ready to start streaming, you just hit start one. Or if you're streaming to multiple destinations, you can hit start all to stream to three places at the same time. MultiCorder is pretty cool. MultiCorder allows you to record different inputs at the same time so that you can have a backup of that specific footage if you need to have one. So the way it works is we want to configure it. We first want to make sure to change the recording folder. We'll put it in our VMAX class, make sure it changes. We want to make sure it's MP4 with video bitrate of five. And here we get to choose what inputs we want to record. If I click on all these three NDI cameras, all of these cameras will be recorded at the same time so we have backup footage. When you're ready to do that, you just hit start and it will start recording those cameras individually. So now we're recording four things at the same time. The actual output or whatever is being live streamed as well as the individual cameras. And then lastly, which I kind of like is this playlist. So this allows you to kind of build your own playlist so you can select what inputs you want on your playlist. And let's say we want to go here, we're going to move this up top. So this is going to now loop between all these inputs every five seconds. So when you're ready, you hit start so you can see it. You know, there's going to move to the next one and then the next one. So it's just a really simple way. If you want, you know, just something to be automated and you don't necessarily need someone back here to, you know, run VMAX for production. When you're ready to stop with this, you just hit stop. One of the other things I really like also about VMAX is that you can have custom layouts. So what does that mean?  Say okay. Then we go into our settings for our input and we go to layers in multi view. And you can see that we now have different configurations for different cameras. So if we want a side by side, we simply click on the one that we want. And we say I want camera one on that one and camera two on this one. And now you have a pre-made, you know, side by side layout. There's pips, you know, all kinds of different stuff for you to do. Also handy, you can also click these and move them wherever you want. Of course that destroys what the multi view is, but so be it. Just kind of nice. So now you have a side by side layout if you ever want one. If you go into the settings for your inputs, you know, there's a variety of different stuff that you can see here. You can color adjust. You can do chroma keying if you want. You can do color correction, you know, you really want to position. This also lets you change the position of the footage. Multi view, which is what we talked to. Triggers is really cool because it allows you to automate certain things, but that will be in a different class. And then lastly, if it is a PTZ camera like the one that we have here, I can connect directly to the camera and simply control it directly from VMIX, which is pretty darn cool. You have similar settings on the audio side. You can increase your gain for your respective inputs. You can enable an equalizer. There's compressors and noise gate if you want to play around with those. So now I'm getting done with multi quarter and I'm going to stop recording. And that is a great first start to VMIX 101 and how you can use VMIX for your productions here at Alma Public Media. Thanks for watching.


Hello everyone, welcome to Options with Doug, streaming live daily on Bookmap Discord and the Bookmap YouTube channel at 1.30pm Eastern Time. Before I get started, I need to go through the disclosures. General disclosure, all Bookmap limited materials, information, and presentations are for educational purposes only and should not be considered specific, investment advice, nor recommendations. Risk disclosure, trading futures, equities and options, involves substantial risk of loss, and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Here's my contact information. The best way to get in touch with me is through Discord. My name on Discord is Doug P. Also on Bookmap Discord, there's an options-Doug chat channel. That's a great place to post questions, comments, and content related to the topics of my channel and the topics of my presentation that I'll go through in just a moment. I'm also on X, formerly known as Twitter. My name there is at Doug P. The focus of my presentation today and the focus of the options-Doug chat channel is options order flow, the impact of options markets on stocks and futures, and the influence of market maker hedging flow on price action. I have a two-step process for trading and the first is planning, and I use positional analysis. I look at how traders and market makers are positioned in the options market and how those positions change from day to day to develop a thesis regarding the expected trading range and volatility for the day, as well as the directional bias. And the second step in my process is execution. I look at real-time motor flow and book map and real-time market maker hedging flow and spot gamma hero to confirm my thesis and for setups for entries and exits. And when I talk about setups today, I will be focusing on an underlying asset. And setups in that asset can be taken any number of ways. For example, in the SMB500, setups can be taken with ES futures, spy shares, spy options, SPX options, or even ES options. Questions and comments are welcome, and I will be watching both the options-jug-chat channel and Discord and the chat and YouTube for your questions and comments. Please feel free to post, and I'll do my best to answer your questions. And hello, Z, welcome. Glad you're here. All right, here's my agenda for today, Monday, January 8th. First of all, I want to go over news items, economic data, and events for the week. Then I'll go through my positional analysis. Then I'll review some setups from earlier today. And then I'll take a look at the live market. And when I get to the live market, if anyone has any stocks they want me to take a look at, please let me know, and I will be glad to do that. All right, let's get started with news items. First of all, it's a pretty light week for news, economic, data, and events. The economic data really does not start until Thursday with the CPI report out at 8.30 a.m. eastern time. Also, jobless claims, 8.30 a.m. eastern time. So CPI could be a market mover. And then on Friday, PPI data comes out at 8.30 a.m. eastern time. Also on Friday, bank earnings begin. And then also there are a few Fed speakers throughout the week. So again, a pretty light day to week. All right, let's move on to positional analysis. And I want to start with ESB 500. This is the ES Futures and Book Map. And the bulls are definitely back today. Very bullish day, bullish order flow and hedging flow that we'll see in a few minutes. All right, before I take a closer look at this chart, I do want to take a look at the underlying index. Take a look at a larger time frame. So I'm going to start with a one-day chart for SPX, which is the underlying index for the ESB 500. And hello, demo trader. Looks like Steven. Welcome, glad you're here. All right, so this is the SPX index. This current rally began on October 30th for a variety of reasons. Ivy collapsed, put Vanna rally, following Treasury yields, dovish FOMC, better than expected inflation reports. And then last week, really toward the last couple of days of December, the rally started to weaken right around SPX 4800. And now it looks like it is recovering today. And again, a very bullish day. We'll take a look at that in a few minutes. All right, so that is the larger time frame. Now let's step down a little bit to a one-hour chart. This is the SPX 30-day one-hour chart. Here's the resistance just below 4800 toward the end of the year. So week before last. And now SPX recovering. Note the support level at 4700 was broken on Thursday and Friday last week. Now SPX trading above that key 4700 level. All right, let me point out the other levels on this chart. So first the dash purple lines are showing the lower and upper weekly expected move. It's based on the options market. I update that over the weekend. It changes once a week. So those lines will remain in place for the week. The dash blue lines are showing the lower and upper daily expected move. That's updated once a day. And note that SPX is trading above that level, above the upper daily expected move for the day. All right, the dark red lines are showing spot gamma levels. These are proprietary spot gamma levels that are provided to spot gamma subscribers, showing a variety of trading platforms. This is thinkorswim. I'm going to point out the key daily levels. So first of all, the put wall at 4600. That's strike with the largest net negative gamma that can be expected to act as support. The next level up is 4705. That is the volatility trigger. That is spot gamma's proprietary gamma and volatility flip level. Below that level, market makers position on the gamma curve is negative. In a negative gamma environment, market makers have to trade with price to hedge their delta exposure. And in a positive gamma environment, market makers have to trade against price to hedge their delta exposure. And note that at the beginning of the day, gamma notional for SPX was negative and most likely will switch to positive if this rally continues for the day. All right, that volatility trigger did shift lower slightly from Friday from 4720. That was a resistance level on Friday. We'll take a look at that in just a few minutes. Down to 4705. The next level up is 4800. First of all, that is the call wall. That's the strike with the largest net positive gamma that can be expected to act as resistance. That level did move down from Friday from 5000 down to 4800. And then 4800 is also the absolute gamma strike. That's the strike with the largest absolute positive negative gamma. So with the call wall moving down to 4800 and the absolute gamma strike actually moved up to 4800, that places more emphasis more important on that 4800 level. That could possibly be if this rally continues up into January expiration and gamma notional becomes positive that level could become an important pinning level. And as price increases and expiration approaches the gamma at that level will increase. We'll take a look at that at closer in just a moment. All right, so those are the levels in range. Put wall on the downside, the potential floor and the call wall at 4800, the potential ceiling. Excuse me, and then finally let's take a look at a one minute chart. So we can see the levels in play for today. So it looks like the rally that began at the end of the day on Friday just resumed with the cash open today. Levels in play for today. Here's that volatility trigger at wrong tool. Volatility trigger at 4705. That's also the zero gamma level. That level did act as support earlier today and I pointed that out in Discord. That was a great launching point for a long setup. Here's the upper daily expected move and that level, there was some consolidation around that level and now price is moving higher. All right, so those are the levels in play for today for the SPX. Volatility trigger and the upper daily expected move. SPX trading above those levels. All right, here is the ES futures and book map and on this chart, I have my own cloud notes so I can show the SPX levels. Here's that 4705 volatility trigger that it acted as support earlier this morning for a nice long setup twice. I also have SPI levels on this chart and again, this is my own cloud notes. I like to show SPX levels, SPI levels and then other levels of interest so here's the upper daily expected move for ES. There is a difference in price between ES and SPX that changes a little bit every day. Earlier today, it was right around 37. Today it looks like it is a summer between 37 and 38. Anyway, that's what I'm using. So I'm showing this 4705 level at ES 4742.  I post those all in Discord every morning. So very bullish day in the SP500. We'll talk about setups in a few minutes. I'm just focusing on the levels right now. So key level for this morning, the 4705 volatility trigger acting as launching point. Also note that this level, this looked very similar to Friday with the 4720 level, that was the volatility trigger on Friday and the upper daily expected move just above and I'm going to take a look at a couple of screenshots from Friday. So this is Friday and this is what happened at that 4720 level on Friday. Huge rally in the morning and price consolidates and then reverses lower and that didn't happen today. Here's the hero signal from Friday. This is again from Friday and the hero signal initially very bullish in the morning and then right around 1010 traders took their foot off the gas and then the SP500 finally moved lower. So that was a potential for today. I posted a reference to that move on Friday and that did not happen today. Just the price action today was too bullish. So there was some consolidation around this cluster of levels and then price started to move higher and we'll take a closer look at setups in a few minutes and we'll see what options traders were doing. So very bullish day again in the SP500. Key levels, 4705 volatility trigger and price is now trading above the upper daily expected move and above both the SPI volatility trigger and the SBX volatility trigger which is typically bullish when price can move above those levels and stay above those levels. That is a bullish indication. Let's take a look at NASDAQ now. Oh, shifts in levels again. Volatility trigger shifted slightly lower. Call wall shifted down to 4800. Absolute gamma strike shifted up to 4800 kind of consolidating the gamma at the 4800 level and looking for potential attraction to that level if this rally continues and SBX remains in a positive gamma environment. SPI there were no shifts in levels. Let's take a look at NASDAQ now. This is the NQ futures and book map. This is a bullish day in NASDAQ and before I take a closer look at this chart I do want to focus first of all on QQQ. This is a one day chart. The regular trading hours shown on the dark portion on the right here. Note the put wall at 395 acted as support. This is around 430 a.m. eastern time so before the market opened then at the open this 398 L4 level, large gamma 4 level acted as kind of a launching point for the rally. Note most of the gamma levels here are below and we'll take a look tomorrow and see if all these gamma levels shift higher with this rally. So put wall, volatility trigger and absolute gamma strike at 399 all much lower and QQQ continues to move higher above those levels. Alright shifts and novels for QQQ the only shift was the volatility trigger that shifted down from 402 to 397. So QQQ is trading well above its volatility trigger most likely what will be a positive gamma environment tomorrow. Finally let's take a look at NDX let's zoom in on today. Regular trading hours shown on the dark portion on the right NDX looks like a continuation of the rally that began on Friday afternoon NDX capped up today continues to move higher also trading above its volatility trigger at 16,425. Alright and there were no shifts and levels for the NDX. Alright so just like the ES I have my own cloud notes so I can show QQQ levels there's the 397 volatility trigger acting as support before the cash open 398 launching point for a move higher at the open here's that NDX 425 volatility trigger and note that NQ is trading well above its upper daily expected move and its upper weekly expected move so very very bullish day in NASDAQ. Alright again we'll take a look at setups in a few minutes. Alright let's take a look at gamma notional to see how market makers were positioned on the gamma curve at the beginning of the day. I'm looking at the data table that is at the bottom of the bottom founders note toward the end of the note. What I'm going to focus on here is gamma notional this is market makers position on the gamma curve at the beginning of the day and this is for the SP500, NASDAQ and also 2000. Note with the exception of NDX these numbers are negative again this is at the beginning of the day market makers position on the gamma curve and I would say mildly negative at this point. All these numbers did shift higher from Friday to still negative but less negative. Pardon me. Alright so this is gamma notional and let's take a look at let's just take a quick look at the Vana model see if there's anything of interest here. This is for SPX not really I'll go over this really quick so what this chart is showing is market makers delta notional on the vertical axis this is their delta exposure and the spot price for SPX on the horizontal axis there are two curves on this chart the light gray curve is showing how market makers delta notional may change with changes in price only and then the purple curve is showing how market makers delta notional may change with changes in price and implied volatility and that change in delta notional with a change in implied volatility is the Vana effect Vana is the second order of Greek let's see where SPX trading right now right around 4735 so right at the bottom of the curve essentially so this morning let's go back and check 4700 just at the beginning of the day so right around here there was a little bit of a van tailwind indicating market makers could buy back short futures so in a negative gamma environment traders along puts market makers are short puts and they have to trade with price to hedge their delta exposure so as price increases implied volatility drops take a look at VIX here's VIX for the day falling really started falling around 4am so implied volatility dropping price increasing market makers can buy back their short futures they used to hedge options trades so that added a little bit of a put van a fuel to the rally today that now may be coming to an end as the SMB500 has reached the bottom of this curve let's take a look at one other thing I want to take a look at this absolute gamma chart for SPX just to focus on let me zoom on this just a little bit and just to focus on the 4800 level here 4700 here's 4800 so that is the absolute gamma strike and also the call wall and they're really four levels of significant gamma the orange bars are showing positive gamma or call gamma and the blue bars are showing negative gamma or put gamma so gamma concentrated at 4600 4700 4800 and 5000 so remember the absolute gamma strike moved up from 4700 to 4800 and then the call wall moved down from 5000 to 4800 so concentrating more of the gamma weighted open interest at 4800 alright let's take a look at some setups now and this is really what was key for today and I'm going to focus on what options traders have been doing today let me zoom out on this alright so this chart is the hero signal this is hedging impact real time options this is available to spot gamma subscribers again so everything that we've looked at so far other than book map has been based on static data information the the levels in the chart the gamma notional van a model that's all based on static data that's updated once a day then I use in my planning process now we're switching to execution looking at real time data in book map and also in hero here again showing hedging impact real time options what this chart is showing is price for SPX and the hero signal with the purple line so white is the price for SPX the purple line is the hero signal and that's showing options trades and market maker hedging activity for combined signal for SPX spy XSP and ES futures all under one combined signal alright let's zoom in on this chart and let me just point out how bullish this day is this is my watch list mostly large cap tech and then the SMB500 and ASDAQ these are showing 15 minute thumbnails of the hero signal and that's quite a bit of green there alright let's zoom in on this chart now one thing I want to point out recently I have been just showing the just showing the turning off the extended hours of trading and today there were substantial options trades so SPX options and ES options trade before the 930 open and there were substantial options trades before the cash open note this flow alert that came in right around 915 indicating significant options activity so this is the right here this is the 930 cash open so there were significant options activity going on before the cash open and here's the 4705 hedgewall that I mentioned that was a great launching point for longs this morning alright one other thing I want to take a look at so we're looking at extended hours of trading note this notional value here 8.1 billion that's huge that's very very large very very bullish options trades and hedging activity so when traders buy calls and or sell puts and SPX buy ES market makers take the opposite side of those trades and they have to they hedge with ES futures so that's the right relationship that's why I'm focused so much on the the spy the SPX on my ES chart because options traders are trading those options and market makers are hedging those trades with futures alright let's take a look at let's separate out puts and calls and this is very informative chart the call the orange line is showing calls this rising orange line indicates traders are buying calls very aggressively they've been buying calls all day shown by the positive notion of value the rising orange line note also the blue line is rising they're selling puts and buying calls and that is very very bullish when both of these lines are moving in the same direction this is pretty unusual the S&B 500 typically traders are buying calls and buying puts and it's a matter of who is more aggressive but today they're buying calls and selling puts and that is very bullish both lines moving in the same direction and really have continued to move in the same direction all day so let's go to the back to bookman go to ES really it was just a matter of finding a place to get long so let's zoom in on the morning session here so here's the again the setups at 47.05 let me zoom in just a little bit more let's focus on the order flow so we know this first test of 47.05 did act as support note the volume dots are showing they're showing buy minus sell mark a buy minus sell magenta dots indicate more sellers than buyers green volume dots indicate more buyers than sellers and you can see as price reverses higher aggressive buyers come in same here just before 10 a.m. aggressive sellers on the way down note there were a couple of iceberg buys and here in this case these iceberg sell orders much more significant but options traders and aggressive buyers were fueling the rally today also buy stop orders that's shown by the rising yellow line that's often a very very good directional indicator so the yellow line showing buy stop orders dark blue line showing cumulative volume delta both rising confirming the move higher let me just take a look at something here it looks like for some reason my stop orders are not showing alright I'll look at that later looking for the on chart indicator I don't I see the sell stops I don't see any buy stops definitely driving price error oh here we go must be pretty small but buy stop orders definitely fueling that move higher alright so the rally just continues to move move higher and higher and the key for today was just to keep an eye on hero the water flow so again CVD stops moving higher confirming the move higher and also traders continue to take positive delta positions, buying calls and selling puts in a very significant way again that 8 billion notional value is very very very large alright Caesar asked does the VIX chart factor into your trading at all yeah sure yeah I look at VIX it is a confluence so definitely I look at VIX especially in the context of of the VANA model and what how market makers are positioned on the gamma curve alright let's take a look at NASDAQ get rid of some of the noise in the heat map turn on the volume dots just a little bit so again a very bullish day in NASDAQ here let's go back to hero see what options traders are doing so let's switch over to NASDAQ so again this is a combined signal for SCB500 SPX by ES and XSP let's take a look at NASDAQ this is also a combined signal for the NDX and QQQ and most of that is made up with QQQ and call buyers definitely in charge today notional value is much smaller but both lines positive much smaller than the S&B500 but since let's say around 955 put lines started to move up and really from the cash open traders are buying calls so again when traders sell puts and buy calls and QQQ and NDX market makers take the opposite side of that and they hedge those trades within QQ futures so just like the S&B500 call buyers definitely in charge today let's take a look at one other signal that is provides a lot of useful information for the NASDAQ this is the MAG7 MAG7 indicator let me just zoom out so I can show you what this is this is a combined signal for the 7 stocks known as the MAG7 Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla and just like the S&B500 and NASDAQ traders are buying calls showing by the rising orange line and also selling puts showing by the rising blue line and this is one of the most bullish days I've ever seen I think seeing for the S&B500, NASDAQ and MAG7 all the blue line and the orange line all moving up for the entire day very very bullish day and traders are definitely buying the dip today alright let's go back to back to book map rally continues higher so just like the S&B500 the key was to just find a pullback for a long if you could let's zoom in on the zoom in on the morning session so it looks like some consolidation right around the this is the NQ650 level and then the NDX16500 level just above that I'm looking at the point of control that's this purple line right around noon it moves up to the NDX16500 level and it looks like it remains there and you can see on the session volume profile that is where most of the volume for the session is concentrated alright so there were let's go back very sharp rally in the morning again difficult to find pullbacks here's one just around 10am at the volatility trigger 425 volatility trigger then more opportunities in this consolidation period note that 404 is the QQQ call wall right up here QQQ call wall could potentially be resistance alright let's take a look at a few stocks and if anyone has any stocks they want me to take a look at I'm glad to do that bullish day here in apple let's take a look at heroes see what options traders have been doing in apple I'm going to change back to the total signal so what is happening here is this large move just before noon is kind of obscuring the signal from earlier today so we'll zoom in alright so looking at the earlier part of the day there was an alert here earlier today I don't see it now but anyway traders were taking positive delta positions in apple apple's kind of been beaten down recently so traders were coming in taking advantage of the lower price and taking positive delta positions and the only gamma level in play for today is this 182.50 hedge wall and note large let's see what traders were doing right around noon so right around noon first of all they started selling puts large block orders shown by the vertical lines there traders selling puts looks like they may have been selling the puts to pay for calls they were buying again puts shown by the blue line rising blue line traders selling puts rising orange line that trades traders are buying calls market maker selling the calls and have to buy stock to hedge their delta exposure alright the next is AMD maybe a little bit of problem with hero let me just refresh here alright CWR wants to look at Nvidia yeah that's on my list and Z ask is it possible to determine which strike levels are active in hero not that I'm aware of let's take a look at something in in thinkorswim so it is not as far as I know it's not possible in in hero but it's very easy in thinkorswim so I have SPX selected I'm going to go to the trade tab and scroll down to the option stats at the bottom of the chart and I'm going to take a look at call volume here going to hover over this so they this is the volume shown on the vertical axis strike price on the horizontal axis and I can just hover over this the little block with the highest amount of volume for some reason that's again alright so that's the 8 Jan 4735 and that is the strike and the expiration with the largest amount of volume today so that expires at the end of the day today that's the 4735 and we can confirm that here in an options chain just looking at the volume there 4735 and that confirms that is the strike with the largest at least for the Jan 8 expiration that is the strike with the largest volume today alright so if that's information that you want it you can really just look at an options chain and for the SMA 500 it's a pretty good assumption that the the strike with the largest volume the expiration with the largest volume will be the 0 DDE alright this is AMD note that 140 is the call wall key gamma strike AMD trading above that level we'll zoom in on this chart and note the flow alert here indicating significant options activity we'll see what traders are doing today so they're buying calls and selling puts call buyers much more aggressive than put sellers but both helping to drive price higher let's go to book map and note go to AMD very bullish day in AMD 142.50 being the hedge wall zoom in just a bit so when we zoom in we can see there were multiple pullbacks for long entries traders were buying puts and selling calls pullback to VWAP shown by the blue line there light blue line pullback to 142 143 some consolidation at 144 so pretty easy pullback entries to AMD alright Z asks got it so do we expect any kind of sell off by the end of the day because of that well traders could take profits yeah so that is possible something to keep an eye on if traders are buying calls those calls are let's go back 47 calls are in the money yeah so they're slightly in the money but they're buying a lot of different strikes and Z also asked just want to clarify that if people were selling calls and buying puts the notional number would be preceded by a negative sign yes and hero if traders are taking negative delta positions that would be shown by a falling hero line a negative notional value and in that case traders would be again taking negative delta positions market makers taking the opposite side and selling futures to hedge their delta exposure let's go back to hero alright so WRB I'm not sure if you're asking a question but the call wall for AMD is at 140 and in that case that's where most of the calls are concentrated and those calls as they go further in the money remember in a stock traders buy calls market makers sell the calls and those calls go deeper in the money their delta increases market makers have to continue to buy stock to hedge their delta exposure so we can take a look at that in equity hub zoom in on this chart so here's the call wall again orange being call gamma as price continues to increase those calls that are concentrated at that level go deeper in the money their delta increases as they go further in the money market makers have to continue to buy AMD stock to hedge their delta exposure so traders long calls market makers are short calls alright AMD now let's take a look at Nvidia similar story very very bullish day in Nvidia note the timely flow alert just a minute or two after the cash open and very early in the day AMD breach Nvidia breaches its call wall key gamma strike all the calls concentrated at that level go deeper in the money market makers have to continue to buy stock to hedge their delta exposure that call wall breach helps to fuel this move higher and let's go take a look at book map in video and there's the 500 call wall breach very early in the morning note the very bullish order flow here all the green volume dots a lot of aggressive buyers coming in so anyone who bought a call early in the morning you're doing a great day maybe a great week and even month making a fortune on those calls so very very bullish day in Nvidia helping to drive NASDAQ higher alright Z you're welcome CWR says he's up $8000 on Nvidia today great let's go back to back to hero alright so Nvidia continues to move higher let's go back and check SP500 let's check the zero DTE so the purple line is showing this is showing all trades all expirations I'm going to turn on next expiry so the next expiry is the green line and that is making up it looks like a little bit over half of the total notional value today so traders are so traders are trading in the zero DTE trades that we saw in thinkorswim that 4735 call and also taking longer term trades alright WRB says he bought he or she bought spy calls at the open let's go back to book map back to the SP500 alright so the move just accelerates higher notice that now larger traders are joining the party buying with iceberg orders finally after finding this rally all day large traders finally coming in and buying with iceberg orders just helping to accelerate the move higher so it looks like the next next level in play for the SP500 is the 4750 level that was noted as resistance in the spot gamma I am founders note and the upper weekly expected move is just above and remember NASDAQ has already crossed above it's upper weekly expected move also remember 404 is the QQQ call wall alright my time is almost up any final questions last call for stocks alright way to go CWR WRB buying calls alright see you're welcome my time is up I'm going to wrap it up I want to thank everyone for watching thank you very much for your questions and comments again I love these interactive sessions when you ask questions post comments stock suggestions really love it thank you please keep it up again thank you for watching have a great afternoon and I will see you tomorrow thanks again bye


stop giving raises for time served where there is an optician who has been doing it for 18 years and then make a decent amount of money and they're asked to everyone. I've been working for my current doctor for about four years now. The last time I got a raise was about two years ago and it wasn't much. The doctor does not give raises every year like my previous employer. What's the best way to approach the doctor to ask him for a raise? Yeah this is happening in so many opticles where there are not consistent raises or any raises happening at all. Now you might not like this response but just hear me out because it has really two parts one for the employer's part and then the other one for the optician. So first let's discuss the employer. I think the optical should stop running their offices like a prison. Now some of you might be thinking yes you tell them this place is run like a prison but what I mean by that is stop giving raises for time served. It's an archaic way of thinking to give your employees a raise every year just for breathing. I remember in my first optical I had worked in I was there one of four opticians and everyone got a raise on their anniversary date.  She happened to have a big mouth also and I overheard her saying that she got a 75 cent raise and her review was right before mine. So a few weeks later my review comes up and wouldn't you know it I got a 75 cent raise too. I was certain I earned more than that right. So I asked the manager if there's anything that I could do better and she said no you're Kayla you're great. So I asked does everyone get a 75 cent raise at their review and her response was well everyone gets a raise some get 75 cents and some get 50 cents.  So I did some quick math on that and that 75 cents a year increased told me that I was not in the right place for me and one month later I was in a different optical. We'll just say that. The moral of the story is that giving raises every year because the calendar has flipped is not a very motivating source for your team and this type of rewarding just for time served mentality often creates a certain mindset and you know what your reps can vouch for this because they see a lot of different opticals where there's an optician who's been doing it for 18 years and they make a decent amount of money and they're a gift to everyone. I'm sorry that is not okay by me. As an employer you have allowed for that behavior to happen and you have rewarded that behavior and now your optical is suffering because of it. As an alternative to prevent this type of structure in your office set up annual reviews and set goals and then schedule quarterly check-ins on each team member's progress. In Spexy University we covered this in month five I think setting out proper performance-based goals and groundwork for each team member to follow you know in their kind of moving forward in growth that will earn them a better wage. We also give worksheets in Spexy University for the office to use for the employee's annual review and for quarterly reviews too and these are used to really make sure goals are being set and tracked and rewarded. And secondly the employee side we get the question often from opticians what should an optician be making and honestly it's all so all over the board. We've got licensed and unlicensed cost of living here, cost of living there, opticals that reward nicely and some offices that are cheap ass punks. So in regard to what should an optician be making I think a better question is what is it that you are doing to grow your office? How much value are you creating? How much money are you bringing in? What are you doing to make your office fabulous? And this takes me back to the best way to approach the doctor to ask for a raise right? Ask for a quick meeting a sit down not chatting between patients I'm talking like let's you know reserve the first 15 minutes of the doctor's lunch break so we can chat okay then go back to the doctor's office with a notebook and you ask this question and be ready to listen. Say doctor where would you like to see this office this next year? Let them think and you guys talk about it right this is a conversation and then during the conversation I want you to follow up with where would you like to see my performance get better this year? I would like to earn a higher wage and I want to know where you would like for me to focus on to do so. What do you see value in and how can I be better? I want you to ask these questions and I want you to brace yourself because you know he might just say listen we've got to get your optical sales up and give you a certain amount but he might say that you're a superstar everyone is walking on eggshells around you but you must be ready to take it as a matter of fact I would even ask for the most brutally honest opinion from the doctor sometimes it will be something monetary you know a goal or a percentage that they want you to meet but sometimes it could be as simple as maybe the doctor would like for you to show up for work like you did for your interview put together looking nice makeup done hair done I personally feel that people who show up for an interview looking refined and then after the first month of working come in wearing last night's makeup and a ratty ass hoodie. I don't like that that does not fly at my office you do that bait and switch crap that makes you a liar that is not rewarded in spexy land and it shouldn't be rewarded in your office either you need to look the part sorry I got onto my little soapbox oh yeah okay no one likes to feel backed into a corner so don't just walk into his office and ask for a raise approach your doctor during a time of no distractions and ask where you can be better because you would like to earn more and I want you to close the conversation with I would like to check back with you in four months to see how I am doing let's schedule it so we don't forget when you come back set that timeline however you guys agree whatever you guys agree upon set that timeline and when you come back the doctor will be prepped and hopefully has been assessing your worth and the follow-up meeting will have the perfect groundwork laid for you to earn a raise


Welcome to ITU Telecom World 2018 here in Durban, South Africa. I'm very pleased to be joining the studio today by the Honourable Ursula Oussu-Ekufu, who is the Minister of Communications for Ghana. Minister, thank you for joining us. It's my pleasure, as always. Great to see you again. I'd like to start off by talking about smart digital development, the theme of this year's ITU Telecom World. What does it mean to you? For us, it's just in line with what we're doing in Ghana. We have a digital Ghana agenda, which means using, upscaling the use of technology in all aspects of life, generally. It means providing the broadband infrastructure, extending it to all parts of the country, providing the applications and services that will write on that infrastructure to make it more relevant to the people. And the training and skills that will enable all of our peoples to take advantage of the opportunities that the digital world provides. It's not enough just to put in the infrastructure. If the services that write on it are not relevant and user-friendly and would have an impact on the lives of the people, it would just be a wasted investment. If they don't have the skills to be able to utilize the technologies that we've provided, it's also a wasted investment. And so we can derive the benefits that we want to derive from it, reducing corruption, improving efficiencies, and effectiveness of not just government communications, but people-to-people communications, government-to-business communications, and generally making lives easier for everyone. We did a rural telephony solution in one of our forest reserve areas. And a young girl, 10-year-old, who'd just been transferred from a bigger city to that little outpost there, was just beside herself excited that she could stay connected with a friend she had left behind. And for me, that makes it all worthwhile that we can use technology to improve the quality of lives of our people. And that's what it's all about. It's a smarter world, which is of relevance to the people, and they can derive tangible benefits from nothing fancy or theoretical but of practical benefits to the people. And that's why we're here. I've got two young daughters. I'm sure they could very much relate to that, too. Now, in terms of innovation, what innovation do you think is going to be the most transformative in this fourth industrial revolution? For us in Ghana, it is putting in place the proper foundations. We've talked a lot about it, done bits and bobs over the years, but have left basic building blocks unattended, too. And so, in the past few years, the government is focusing on identity solutions and then a digital address system and providing connectivity interoperable digital financial services. So you can interact between your mobile money wallets and your bank accounts. We think that those three things are foundational and form the basis of formalizing our economy. It's going to unlock capital for small businesses because it will make it easier for banks to know where their customers are, utility providers to extend service to people, makes it easier for bills to be paid seamlessly, and make it easy for government to collect its proper revenues from everybody. So we think that by putting in these basic building blocks and just sitting back, we would see a connectedness in our society and it is that connection that is going to unlock the potential, the hidden potential, the capital, the entrepreneurial spirit of our people and enable us to leapfrog development. Small beginnings, but for us they would have huge impacts and make technology worthwhile. For all that to work, we need the proper infrastructure, which is broadband, high-speed, affordable data for all our people. So it is important, the devices are important, but without having that basic foundation in place, it hangs in the air and doesn't achieve the exact benefits that we would have. So we're particularly excited about that. We want to focus on rural connectivity. We want to train our young people to provide them with the digital skills that they need to survive in the digital revolution. We want to upscale our older folks so that they can also acquire the digital skills that will enable them to improve upon the work that they do, be it farming, fishing, trading, e-commerce will open up our country and lift it up. Mobile money uptake has gone up 40% in the last quarter because people have seen the utility of it. One of our telecoms companies just conducted an IPO and 95% of those who purchase shares use mobile money, and that's very exciting for us that even at the bottom of the ladder, the people with the lowest incomes can still participate in the financial services sector if the opportunities are made available and the tools are provided for them, and it is demystified, which is what it has done. So the possibilities are endless. Trading on the stock exchange using mobile money, payment for all government goods and services using electronic forms of payment. The government is looking forward to providing point-of-sale devices linked to the revenue authority which can calculate the VAT payable at the point of the transaction and send the information to all the actors in the chain to reduce controversy and make it easy for government to collect tax revenue. What that will do if we can even collect the right revenues due to government from proper technological and digital platforms. It reduces our reliance on loans and foreign aid and gives meaning to our President's insistence that we move to Ghana beyond aid. We pay our own way, and we will use technology to achieve that, and I'm very, very excited that we are in the forefront of making that transformation happen. It's very exciting indeed. And Ghana's got a pavilion here. Its theme is Ghana's digital agenda. What's at the top of that digital agenda? We're showcasing some of those, and some of that is what I've talked about. Providing digital skills to all our people. Providing e-health. We have one of our application service providers that we're showcasing here, Stalamus. They have an innovative e-health product. The local company which developed our digital property addressing system linked with postcodes, which is assisting us to formalize our economy and be able to locate every piece of property in the country. It's also showcased here. And it's also a chance for Ghana to tell the world that we're developing world-class applications and software solutions in country. And the government is using its purchase in power to accelerate the growth of that industry. We could have procured any of those solutions from any other country, but we chose to have Ghanaian developers provide these applications that the government has acquired and is using for our EID project and for our digital property addressing system. We're using e-health solutions. We have an innovative product for farmers, which is assisting them to also modernize their operations and get real-time data to assist them in their planning. All these are the many things that are forming the pillars of the digital Ghana. The work that the regulator is doing to facilitate that process is also being showcased. So we're working in tandem between the regulator, the policymaker, Universal Service Fund to finance many of these things, effective collaborations with the private sector to develop the applications, the solutions, the infrastructure and the networks which will enable all that to work. We're looking at innovative power solutions so we're using a solar mix in all of this. It's exciting. It's an exciting time to be in Ghana and we're seeing how technology is actually driving change across all sectors of the economy and it makes us see how the little things that we sit in our offices and do make it all come together. So that's the digital agenda and our president calls it digital time in Ghana and he's in a hurry to make it happen so we're working around the clock to give effect to that. I like that. And in terms of SMEs, how important are SMEs within the industry and what's Ghana doing to foster digital innovation? They're critical in all this and if we can empower them. Like President Ramaphosa said yesterday, SMEs, the big companies will survive but without empowering women, the youth and SMEs, the digital revolution will not happen and so those are all three key focus areas that we're already working with in Ghana. We have a plug and play digital, Accra Digital Center, which is a Ghana Digital Center's limited which is providing affordable work spaces and affordable internet for tech entrepreneurs to enable them to innovate and reduce the cost of their operations considerably. We're building technology parks around the country. We have innovation hubs and iLabs around the country and one exciting thing which just happened in Ghana was that there's a World Bank International Competitive bid for managers of two NMLAB and IHAB in Accra and Kumasiwa Second City and we encouraged some of the startups which were in the Accra Digital Center, the SMEs to also take part, collaborate and take part in the bid and they won the International Competitive tender because they put together a product which convinced everyone that they could manage it and they're doing an amazing job. So if we provide them with opportunities and the facilities to enable them to innovate and to work, they can produce material which will be equal to or compete with and beat the competition out there in any part of the world. So we're excited about that. We have very smart young people and the government needs to just assist them, hold their hands, provide the environment they need within which to grow and then buy the products that they produce, utilize that instead of going for external products and then we can see the space also grow. SMEs are key to our success in this digital environment and then we would also do whatever we can to promote their growth and showcase what they're doing on whatever platform that we have to enable the world to see that we're building Ghana with Ghanaian expertise, using Ghanaian financing and working towards being completely self-sufficient in this area and lifting our economy up as we go along. Finally, in a couple of sentences, one or two, just the value of attending ITU Telecom World. Oh, it's amazing. I've seen a few of the tweets going around and Ghana is in poor position to win the most colourful and attractive stand, not just for the decor but for the quality of the products that we're showcasing here and the young people who are presenting those products. It creates a lot of networking opportunities as well, being a telecom world. We've also seen other products being exhibited in the various countries and picked up a few pointers. It's a wonderful opportunity for the ITU family to come together and learn from each other's experiences, knowing that we're doing the right things but we could also borrow a few things from one another to accelerate the pace of our development as well. We've had useful lectures, seminars, interactions and also picked up a few pointers along the way and it's just great to come together as a family now and again knowing that we're the oldest UN agency which is still at the cutting edge of development across the world. It's exciting to be in information, technology and communications in the world today. Minister of Communications of Ghana, thank you very much indeed. It's my pleasure. Thank you. Good to see you again. Thank you.