Welcome to Business in Hawai'i with Reg Baker. We are a show that broadcasts live every Thursday from 2 to 2.30, from the downtown studios of Think Tech Hawai'i in Halalulu, Hawai'i. We are a show that focuses primarily on successful individuals and companies in Hawai'i and helps share some of the various methods that individuals have used to accomplish success. There's a lot of challenges, particularly in Hawai'i, but there are also a lot of successes. And we're here at this show today to talk a little bit about that. Today I'm proud to have another young professional, one that is truly amazing. He's been in Hawai'i for his entire life. We're going to share a little bit of that family history and background, but his involvement in the community is extensive and impressive. So I just want to welcome Kendrick Chang to the show today. It's great to have you here, Kendrick. Yes. Thank you, Reg, for having me. Just wanted to share with the audience a little bit about your background. Your family has been in Hawai'i for quite a while. Yes. I'm a fifth-generation Chinese-American. Actually, my first ancestor came from China, my great-great-grandfather, and basically he was a banker in China. When he came in the late 1800s, he actually got his Hawaiian citizenship at the time. Hawaiian citizenship? Yes. Interesting. With the Kingdom of Hawai'i. From there, he owned a store and a hostel right above the store in Chinatown. My grandfather was actually in the first graduating class of Farrington High School in 19... Farrington. Yes. There's a lot of people that are well-known that have graduated from Farrington. My grandfather served in the Navy, and actually during World War II was when he was part of the Corps of Engineers that built the runways in Guam in the Philippines. When he came back after the war, he got into the construction industry, was a general contractor his entire career, and it's successfully, and then he initially worked with a couple construction companies, and then it went independent. Wow. Good for him. And then your father also worked for a pretty well-known company, too. Oh, yes. My father was the one who sold the coffee in the Red Bang White Coffee Company, actually. Lion Coffee. Lion's Coffee, that's right. It's a very well-known, well-recognized, and the red color, does that come from the Chinese? No. No, that's been the brand that Lion Coffee has, and actually it's part of Hawaii Coffee Company, so they do Lion Coffee and Kona Coffee. Okay. Very good.  Yes. So I was born and raised, and I was born in Kapiolani High Hospital, and like President Obama, and then... He was born here? He was born in Kapiolani High Hospital. Okay, we'll go with that. All right. And basically, I grew up in Hawaii, Kai, went to Kaiser Ice School, and then from a very young age, one involvement that I really got a lot out of was scouting, and then I was in Boy Scouts, and I got my Eagle Scout when I was 15, and then through my experience in scouting, I think I really got to see as far as how you can really get involved in the community, and from there, through the spirit of scouting and service, I mean, how much you can accomplish and how much you're able to really be part of the community. So that has been something that's been true to me. Now, we can talk a little bit about the Boy Scouts at a second, but Kaiser, when did you graduate from Kaiser? Yes, I graduated two years ago, class of 2015, Kaiser High School, and currently, I just finished my second year of undergraduate at the George Washington University. George Washington University, and that's where I'm kind of headed with this. And part of what I'm trying to share with the audience today is how important it is to a person's success in being involved and doing things and getting that experience. I mean, you're two years out of high school, you're in your second year of college, but yet your experience and your background is very broad, and it's impressive. Now, Boy Scouts, tell me a little bit about the Boy Scouts. You're an Eagle Scout. I think we all heard that, but it takes a lot to get there. And actually, I started Cub Scouts. So Cub Scouts, when I was six, my soccer coach at the time, I played AYSL Soccer. He had an interest in scouting, and he decided to start a Cub Scout pack. I was a Tiger Cup from six, and then eventually I moved on to Boy Scouts. And then basically, with Boy Scouts, the transition from Cub Scouts, really Cub Scouts is really a father-son relationship. But once you hit Boy Scouts, when you're in middle and high school, it's really a boy-lit organization as far as what you do in the community. And you have different rankings, second, first, different types of rankings within the Boy Scout. And besides just the rank requirements, you also have to serve in leadership positions. And also, you have to get merit badges. So there's some requirement merit badges, like emergency preparedness first aid, really applicable skills that you wouldn't not necessarily get from just going to school. Right. And there's literally hundreds of different types of badges that you can earn. I was in the Boy Scouts, too, but I never made it to Eagle. That's a tough, long road to make it to Eagle Scout. And you have to have a lot of different types of merit badges in order to get to Eagle at level, right? Yeah. Do you remember how many badges you needed to have? Yeah. So actually, to get Eagle, you need at least 21 merit badges. I recall I finished off with about 32 merit badges. But the merit badges themselves take a lot of work. I mean, there's a lot of requirements that you have to do in order to earn that badge. Yes. But basically, I mean, the key component is really being in a good troop, your unit organization. And I was very fortunate. My dad was an assistant scout master at my Boy Scout troop at the time growing up. And actually, from my Boy Scout, you were based on Hawaii Kai. We are and were sponsored by the Hawaii Kai Lions Club. And actually, my year when I got my Eagle Scout, there were seven fellow Boy Scouts in my trip at the time that we're the same age. And we all got our Eagle Scouts within a two-year period. So I think it's just basically having a united group that was motivated. And with that, I think the final key requirements, the Eagle Scout project, which basically you have to plan and execute a community service project on your own. And what I did was the old White Loopy Elementary School, which was closed down by the DOE. So I came in in 2012, and then at the time that was when the city parks department took over.  So that was my Eagle Scout project. Right. And you had help to do some of this, right? Yes. Basically, it was, you know, my Boy Scout troop were the primary volunteers. And we were fortunate that we were able to finish the project in one day. Basically, Eagle Scout projects, every scout kind of can find what they want. And basically, it's really up to them.  They're there to guide you. But in the end, it's really up to the scout to finish the project. They don't force you in any one direction. You have to make that choice yourself. Yes. And I guess one of the side benefits of this, if not a primary benefit, is that you really get engaged with the community. I mean, you learned an awful lot during this process in Hawaii, Kai, by going through the scouting program. Yes. Particularly, there are two community service projects that I've done during my time in scouting, and both then kind of developed into something. One was with Level Hawaii, Kai Kui, a conservation nonprofit out in Hawaii, kind of East Honolulu. And one of my fellow scouts who was doing his Eagle Scout project did it at the organization's nursery. And that's how I met their president, Elizabeth Riley, who has since has been a great mentor to me. And with that, that's how I started forming a relationship with her. And then eventually, through Kaiser High School, there were other club projects that we ended up partnering with Level Hawaii, and doing it at their, at their parcels that they're working to conserve and preserve. And also the other key project was Representative Jean Ward does a yearly Earth Day, along the Kauai Coastline. I've seen that, and I've heard about it. Yes. And so you participated in that every year? Yes. Sure, scouting. So eventually, in my high school years, I ended up interning for the representative in his office, and primarily I was focused on his constituent work and community projects. And that's just another way of getting engaged with the community, or at least being aware of. Right. He's a representative out in Waikai, and you learned about a lot of the issues that he was involved in as well. It's fortunate that in high school, at the time they had an internship program for public high school students to enter under their respective representative, or state senator, Woffender District. And representative, or I call him Jean now, was very gracious at the time. And then from there, basically, you know, I got to learn both the grassroots, but also the policy level. Right. Which is important. How the sausage is actually made. Yes. It's an eye-opening experience, isn't it? Yes. And so you went through the Boy Scout program, you were with Kaiser. You've done some of these community projects that were very worthwhile. All of that helped you, I guess, in your application for George Washington University, right? I mean, that all comes into play. No, I mean, for someone who was always interested in, you know, civil engagement, and actually, I was always, my dream from high school was to, you know, eventually become a lawyer, and that's still my plan now. And I had a school field trip in middle school to Washington, D.C. In middle school? Yes, in middle school, eighth grade. And I actually fell in love with the D.C. area in Washington, D.C. And when it came to my applying for colleges, I felt was either I go to U.H. or I go to an institution in Washington, D.C. And then I was lucky that the George Washington University accepted me. Now, when you went over there, was it during the wintertime? No. Well, actually, yeah, I did experience my first winter. Okay, yeah, because it gets cold over there in the wintertime.  That's the tallout. Yes. And I go back in the coat again. Yeah. Well, and so you started really thinking about going to college on the mainland in the East Coast, I guess, in middle school. Well, actually, I would say, you know, middle school was more of just a dream because I really didn't know if, you know, because it's very competitive as far as, you know, just applying admissions. Oh, yeah. I think the two key things for me when it came to applying during my senior year of high school was one was the academic rigor and curriculum that Kaiser High School offers. Kaiser High School offers the international baccalaureate program, which I was in, and I took college-level courses. And it was really a part of a program, which includes also writing a 4,000-word research essay. Holy moly. Yes. That's a lot of writing. You know, that's impressive. And real quickly, because we've got to go and break, but what was the title of that 4,000-word essay? Oh, I forgot the title, but it was about Hawaiian history and land development. Land development. Okay, so you're still focused on that land issue sign. That's great. Yeah. We're going to take a quick break. We're going to come back shortly. We're going to talk more about George Washington and your future law plan. This is business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We're here today talking with Kedrick Fang, who is a successful young entrepreneur or successful student that's attending George Washington University. And we're going to learn more about what his plans are for the future here out right after the break. Aloha. I'm Tim Apochella, host for Moving Hawaii Forward, a show dedicated to transportation issues and traffic. We identify those areas where we do have problems in the state, but also the show is dedicated to trying to find solutions, not just detail our problems. So join me every other Tuesday on Moving Hawaii Forward. I'm Tim Apochella. Thank you. Hello, everyone. I'm DeSoto Brown, the co-host of Human Humane Architecture, which is seen on Think Tech Hawaii every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. And with the show's host, Martin Desbang, we discuss architecture here in the Hawaiian Islands and how it not only affects the way we live, but other aspects of our life, not only here in Hawaii, but internationally as well. So join us for Human Humane Architecture every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. on... Aloha. And welcome back to Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. Today we're talking with Kendrick Chang, who is on home break, a summer break from George Washington University, but he was born and raised in Hawaii, graduated from Kaiser High School, and has done a lot of community engagement over the years. And he's going to be sharing with us a little bit now about, you know, George Washington University, and you've got future plans to go to law eventually or law school. Yeah, and actually I do want to wind back as, you know, we were talking earlier about, you know, basically my adolescent high school years, as far as being involved in the community, scouting, represent a ward, and also just in school. And I think with all that combined, I really built an interest in land use issues and development and, you know, environmental rights. And I think the prime came right after I graduated from Kaiser High School, was May 2015. And Elizabeth Riley at the time who came to my graduation. That's when she first shared with me about that she and level Hawaii, partnering with the trust public land, we're working to preserve the Kiwi coastline. And that has been something in the works. And even though that... For the audience that may not have a background in some of the Hawaii issues, explain to me or to the audience what that coastline issue is. Yeah, so basically the Kiwi coastline, which is adjacent to Sandy Beach and Makaputu. The land right in the middle. Right, on the southeastern tip on Oahu. Actually, Henry J. Kaiser, when he developed Waikai, he actually envisioned that coastal front to be potentially the second Waikiki by building a hotel resort. And the community at the time, Hawaii was really built as a residential community. And a lot of people did not want to have another commercial beachfront in that area. And successfully over the years from the safe Sandy Beach movement, one by one, they were able to preserve from Sandy Beach to the Kiwi Makai lands, which is along the ocean. And then the last parcel was the Kiwi Malka lands. So basically, 188 curves right along that mountainside of Kiwi partnering next to Sandy Beach and Makaputu. A very beautiful area. And at the time when it came around 2015 was when basically the land was up for sale because the previous landowner wanted to develop it. Had to sell it because it was a land court. And a little Waikai who he stepped in and said, you know, if it this was our opportunity to purchase the land and keep in preservation forever, instead of keep fighting from one developer to the next. So it was really a proactive step. And I got involved during the last part, which was basically the state in the city partnered and gave $3.5 million combined. But we needed the remaining $500,000 to finish out what needed. And it was kind of part where from the community side, it's kind of showing the community really wants to be part of this. And the city and the state, respectively, they want to see that if they're showing him money, that the community is actually really wants that to go through. So that's what happened. And basically, You protected it? Yeah. It was within the Shreemund period. So I was pretty much the sign waving camp in the couple media appearances and basically did a lot of administrative and grassroots campaigning side. And really the beautiful part of that effort was where you would see people from all different sides. I mean, there's a lot of issues that I found my community that people that were part of the PV campaign, they were on different sides in the past. But when it came to an issue that everyone had a connection to growing up or just living in Hawaii, they all came together and wanting to preserve that parcel. That's great. And so you were able to raise that money and close the deal. Yes. Very good. And it's that type of leadership and engagement that has really helped round you out as a truly successful young professional. The experience like that is something that not very many people have. Yeah. Even older people. Yeah. And I think the key aspect for me just coming out of it was really just interacting, working with all different people of diverse backgrounds. You have people from the grassroots side that they're out there. They don't have the personal fortune to give 500,000, but they were willing to invest time as far as sign waving, stuffing envelopes among other activities. And there's those who may not have the time, but they're able to throw in money. One fortunate donor, Randy Cheng, who actually was a high school teacher and very involved in the environmental community in this year in Hawaii, gave $100,000. Well, I didn't know we paid our teachers that well. So no, it's good, but you get to meet those people. You get to work with the community. You can see how they all come together. And you can get a good idea of how powerful that can be when it's done correctly. Yes. I'm curious, Kendrick. What are they planning on doing? Are they going to leave it totally undeveloped or are they going to make a park out of it someday? Or what's the plan for that area? Do you have any idea? The plan? Because even though the money was raised back in the summer of 2015, it took a year and a half for the purchase agreement to finally be finalized. And that was announced back in April of this year in 2017. And I'm still part of Little Hawaii Kikuli as a youth advisor that they asked Elizabeth Riley and the organization they just asked me to stay on to help them, not only on Kiki, but other projects for our organization. And they're still in the works and trying to present a plan, but basically the key is to just keep in preservation. And I think that is what the community wants. We want to respect the community's wish, is that if we're not going to allow anyone to develop, let's keep it that way. That's very good. And then I guess as we were ending the first part in transitioning to the break, we kind of mentioned that you were planning on going into law school, but it's your interest in law is in what area? Yes. So I think with the Kikuli campaign, I saw how much can be done, how much land in Hawaii is very scarce. And, you know, especially in Oahu right now, we see there's a need for affordable housing. There's a need for to help the homeless, but at the same time, you know, we want to protect and preserve our pristine coastlines and respective parcels on Oahu. That really means they're not only to different communities, but also makes us very attractive to the tourism market. And, you know, we have a lot of balancing out that needs to happen in the coming years. And I think just from my experience just seeing that different development and environment issues that has gone in the East Oahu community, that's why I'm looking at, you know, land use law as a possible specialty and zoning. Right. And, you know, certainly we all can appreciate the fact that we're on an island. Right.  So, you know, it's not just on Oahu. I mean, there are issues like this on every island. Yeah. And so this sounds like a very interesting opportunity for you. And I would, you know, the law school you're planning on going to here is local, right? Well, I think in the end, I want to practice land use law and zoning in Hawaii. So, right now, I would look, I'm considering returning to law school by me. I haven't really slept. Because I've still got another two more years. And I can still decide maybe I want to get a one or two more years of professional experience if we're going to law school. So, I haven't really picked out a specific path. I think regardless of my career path, I want to be back home one day and really being involved as far as land use policy and how we can make our state beautiful. But at the same time, a welcoming state that can serve the housing and commercial needs of everyone. You know, that's an awful, that's a big mouthful. I mean, there's a lot involved in that.  So, you're picking a very interesting area to get into. Yeah.  But we also even have more minute, you know, land use issues, especially in residential communities when it comes to, you know, Airbnb and rentals and even public access to beaches like Port Locke and Kahala. Which are two big issues that are, you know, being addressed or at least discussed in Hawaii. Yeah. But I think there's a lot, you know, as far as land use, access, zoning that, I mean, right now, Hawaii, we got to really figure out not only what our priorities are, but how are we able to address them in a way that will bring everyone together. And I think, at times, it's very easy to just look at to the other side and say that, you know, they're not really having their best interests and, you know, let's keep fighting. But other times, there are other ways and issues that you can come around and find common ground and where everyone can win in the end. And that's where I got that experience from the Covey Coastline and Malcolm Lans preservation effort. And I think that's an approach that we need something to take the step back and recognize that, you know, we may all have different, you know, plans, we may all have different goals. But in the end, we all want to live in Hawaii. And we want to enjoy the environment and we want to have the peaceful type of lifestyle of living in Hawaii should bring us. You know, yeah, it's a great thought and I'm looking forward to you making that happen. Good luck with that. Let me see, what else, you know, so you're in your second year at George Washington now. What are some of the big differences as a student?  You know, we're in the summer and the college classes may start in August or September. So, you know, when you made that transition to George Washington, which is about as far away as you can get from Hawaii, you know, what were some of the big challenges that you had to address? Well, I think it's just the change in lifestyle. I think those who decides to go to the mainland for college, they want a different experience and it really depends on where they, when I was fortunate when I went to GW that there's a Hawaii club and two years later I'm now the vice president of the club. That doesn't surprise me. And I think it's just where, you know, you got to pick areas, you know, as a student, as a freshman student, which areas do you want to explore, where do you want to be independent from maybe what you're comfortable back home? But at the same time, what other areas, like maybe food or dancing to hula, that you want to still maintain, you know, that experience while you're still away? And I guess in your case you were able to find that. Yes. But did they find you or did you find them? I think both. With the Hawaii club, I was very fortunate that a couple of upperclassmen friends from Hawaii and they really welcomed me into the Hawaii club immediately. And at the same time, I think it's just exploring your options. Like at GW, because we're in the center of DC, I think the special thing is doing internships during the semester and this past semester I interned at the trust republic land and that's the same organization back in their Hawaii branch. They were instrumental in helping secure the Kewi coastline and I was able to get the experience and seeing the other side of what the trust republic land does in their DC office. That's good, so there you are back in that land, legal land area again. That's great and we're going to be wrapping up here in about one minute. And so I guess what I'm hearing is that when these students are going to college on the mainland, it's good for them to explore all the different options and see the different areas that they can get engaged with and contribute to at the university.  And sometimes that's not an easy thing to do but obviously it has worked well for you. And I think the key for me throughout my entire life is that sometimes get out of your comfort zone and even when it comes to the Kewi coastline there were other individuals that were part of the effort that based on what I read in the newspaper or what I heard about them in the past I have completely different opinions on other issues but when it came time to come together now we're friends, we talk and there are other areas you just have your separate opinions but I think just being able to reach out and have the diversity and understanding all different perspectives and philosophies, I think that's the key. That's a very mature attitude to have and we can certainly use more of that here in Hawaii. Kendrick, congratulations. There's no question in my mind that you're going to be very successful in your career. So thank you for being on the show and enjoy the weather because when you get back to DC it's going to be hot. All right. This is Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. I was here today with Kendrick Chang who is sharing with us his experiences in Hawaii, Kai growing up graduating from Kaiser High School and then moving on to George Washington University an amazing young man that I think has a very bright future here in Hawaii or wherever he ends up. We broadcast live every Thursday from 2 to 2.30 and we look forward to seeing you next week. Until then, aloha.


Hello, everyone. I'll get started in just a moment. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Options with Doug, streaming live daily on Bookmap Discord and the Bookmap YouTube channel at 1.30 p.m. 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 involve substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Just a moment. Here's my contact information. If you have questions after the webinar or at any time, you can contact me on Discord at Doug P. On Bookmap Discord, there is the options-doug-chat channel. That's a great place to post questions, comments, and content related to the topics of this channel, the topics of the webinar. And then I'm also on Twitter, or X now at Doug Plus is my name on X formerly known as Twitter. The focus of my presentation 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 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. And I look at real-time motor flow and book map and real-time market maker hedging flow and Spont Gamma Hero to confirm my thesis and for setups for entries and exits. And when I talk about setups today I will be talking about setups and an underlying asset and setups can be taken with futures, shares of stock, or options. Questions and comments are welcome and I will be watching both the options-doug-chat channel and discord as well as the chat and youtube for your questions and comments. So please feel free to post your questions and comments. My agenda for today-what I want to cover-first of all go over news items, economic data events, and earnings for the week. Then I'll go through my positional analysis, my planning process. Then I'll review some setups this morning and then we'll take a look at the live market. So if anyone has any stocks they want me to take a look at when I get to the live market. Please let me know and I'll be glad to do that. All right let's get started with news items. So nothing today then tomorrow there is a consumer confidence number at 10 a.m eastern time and then on Wednesday the ADP employment report comes out at 8 15 a.m eastern time and then the GDP report at 8 30 a.m eastern time then on Thursday the PCE data comes out at 8 30 a.m eastern time that could be a market mover and then Friday is the non-farm payroll report first Friday of the month at 8 30 a.m eastern time and that could be a market mover as well. All right so that's the economic data for the week as far as I know no events or earnings for stocks that I follow this week. All right let me get started with my positional analysis now. So let's start with book map. We'll start with the SB 500 and before I dig into this chart I'm going to take a look at a larger time frame. This is the SPX in a thinkorswim chart showing 30 day one hour chart. Note the downtrend that began with the Fitch downgrade of U.S. debt and then ended and SPX started to move higher with the expiration on the August expiration 8 18 and that was a put dominated expiration a lot of puts expired and market makers could buy back short hedges. All right so SPX is now up just below the lower upper daily expected move I'm sorry the upper daily expected move so let me point out some levels on this chart. First I have the lower and upper weekly expected move shown with the dash purple lines and then the dash blue lines are showing the lower and upper daily expected move and all this information is comes from an options chain. It should be available in any trading platform that has an options chain just showing the expected move for any day. So this for SPX this is the expected move for today. SPX is up just below that level now and then also the upper lower and upper weekly expected move. All right let me point out the spot gamma levels on this chart. These are the dark red lines. These are proprietary spot gamma levels, levels of gamma concentration. These are available to spot gamma subscribers and shown in a variety of platforms. Again we're looking at thinkorswim here. That is the first level that I want to look at is the put wall. That's the strike with the largest net negative gamma that can be expected to act as support and note that level did move lower from from Friday from 43.50 on Friday to 43.00 today. So that level that potential floor for price did move lower. Then the next level up is the 4400 level that's right here that's a key level. That is the absolute gamma strike that's a strike with the largest absolute positive and negative gamma and then just above that at 44.15 is the volatility trigger and that is spot gamma's proprietary gamma 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 that tends to enhance or increase volatility. On the other hand above that level market makers position on the gamma curve is positive in a positive gamma environment. Market makers have to trade against price to hedge their delta exposure and that tends to subdue or decrease volatility and then finally the call wall is up at 4600 that's the strike with the largest net positive gamma and that can be expected to act as resistance and that level is pretty high up not not in play in the next few days at least. All right so those are the key daily levels as well as the daily and weekly expected moves for SPX. Let's go back to book map now. So for book map I have my own column of cloud notes here that I'm using to show levels so I have the SPX levels and oops I forgot let me take a look at one other chart just we'll take a look at SPX in a one day one minute chart zoom in just to show the levels on play for today sorry about that so I've got the volatility trigger key level 4415 acting as support today and then the upper daily expected move around that level acting as resistance and know that level is a little bit different than the upper daily expected move for ES. I use the different numbers for each instrument so the key levels the upper daily expected move resistance and the volatility trigger at 4415 as support. All right so that's the daily one day chart showing the levels that are in play for today and I've got these levels on my chart I've got my cloud notes here there's the 4415 level upper daily expected move for ES a little bit different than the SPX level then I'm also showing SPI levels at just the SPI round number levels all right so nothing really new here again volatility trigger acting as support upper daily expected move acting as resistance shifts and levels again for SPX the put wall did shift lower and for SPI the volatility trigger shifted slightly lower from 442 to 440 so slight shifts lower in the key daily levels for SPX and SPI I'll talk about setups in a few minutes so now I'm still going through my positional analysis just looking at the levels levels and play note there is a difference in price between ES and SPX and earlier today that difference was about nine points it's still at about nine points so ES minus SPX is nine points so this 4415 volatility trigger that is SPX that's shown at ES 4424 taking into into account that nine point price difference all right let's take a look at NASDAQ now so here's NASDAQ and Q futures in book map I'm going to take a look at first of all a QQQ chart just to see the levels and play for today so nothing nothing really stands out here there is a 365 L2 large gamma 2 level right here that has somewhat been in play not not necessarily acting as support for the entire day more or less support earlier and then price broke through and now up above in this 367 level not a gamma level but a round number level acting more or less as resistance so that is QQQ let's take a look at NDX so this and I'm zoomed out on this chart just to show the the 15,000 level that has been a key level it has been in play last week acting as resistance and now price is really oscillating gravitating around that level that has been a very important level for the last last week or so and I talked about that almost daily last week that 15,000 level all right so that is NDX 15,000 NASDAQ just like SMB500 trading in a fairly narrow range today all right so let's go back to NQ futures just like the SMB500 I have my cloud notes here here's the upper daily expected move acting as resistance here's the 15,000 level and there's about a 40 point difference between NQ and NDX so the 15,000 level for NDX is shown at NQ 15,040 and here's the QQQ 365 level and then the 367 level along with the NQ 15,100 level acting as resistance so really today not really close adherence to levels like like some other days and both SMB500 and NASDAQ trading in a range today all right let's take a look at and we'll talk about setups in a few minutes I want to wrap up my positional analysis by talking about first of all gamma notional this is market makers position on the gamma curve at the beginning of the day for SPX spy NDX and QQQ note these numbers are all negative SPX spy NDX I really don't pay much attention to that is so insignificant compared to the other numbers so for SPX spy and QQQ these numbers are all negative market makers position on the gamma curve at the beginning of the day this is indicating that traders are long puts market makers are short puts and when price drops and implied volatility increases they have to sell futures to hedge their delta exposure that tends to enhance a move lower and on the other hand if price increases implied volatility drops market makers can buy back their short futures and that tends to enhance or increase a move higher and that is a put banner rally all right so this is market makers position on the gamma curve at the beginning of the day and note these numbers are still negative quite negative for spy at 1.72 billion but less negative than last Friday let's take a look at a graphical illustration of how this may work this is the van a model for SPX this chart is showing market makers delta notional and how it changes that's on the vertical axis how it changes with price showing on the horizontal axis the gray curve is showing how market makers delta notional changes with changes in price only and then the purple curve adds implied volatility to the equation that's showing how market makers delta notional changes with changes in price and implied volatility so what this is showing is if price decreases and apply volatility increases market makers delta notional will increase when their delta notional increases they have to sell futures they sell es futures to hedge their delta exposure on the other hand if price increases and applied volatility drops they can buy back their short hedges and again they're trading with price in this negative gamma portion of the van a model all right let's check on price so first of all here's the the low of the day around that that's about as close as i can get that 4415 volatility trigger so not much of a van a tailwind here for the spx so what i'm looking at is the slope of this curve and that would indicate that market makers could buy back short hedges but not to any substantial degree so a minor tailwind if price moves higher and then if price starts to move lower if price broke down below that level market makers would have to start selling futures more aggressively so so far that day that today that level was did held a support and there was a slight slight van a tailwind for spx all right let's take a look at some setups i'm going to start with the sb 500 this is spot gamma hero this chart is available to spot gamma subscribers the white line is showing price for spx the purple line is showing the hero signal hedging impact real-time options and it's showing options trades and market maker hedging flow for a combined signal for spx spy xsp and es futures all combined into one signal so if you trade any form of the sb 500 this is the signal that you want to take a look at all right let's zoom in on this i'm zooming so that this chart starts just at the rth open remember this is a combined signal of es spx spy and xsp and of course es and spx options do trade before the cash open shown right there where the right where the red arrow is pointing so that's the 930 cash open so what this is showing is pretty much from the open traders were taking negative delta positions and we'll take a look in just a moment and uh we can see more closely what they were doing so this set up a nice divergent short so price oscillated up and down and then finally started to move lower right around 1030 the 1030 reversal as options traders were taking negative delta positions so this was a divergent setup it took about an hour to play out let's go take a look at book map we'll go back to the sb 500 so let's zoom in a bit on this chart and see what clues we can find at order flow for this short setup so we know that both the sbx and es were trading around their upper daily expected move so statistically there is a a likelihood of price moving lower notice in the sub chart here there was really no support for a move higher other than the first five minutes aggressive buyers coming in that show bother all the green volume dots those are buy minus sell aggressive buyers also a little bit of a stop run so the cvd showing that aggressive buyers coming in rising yellow line there showing a stop run up to that spy 443 level and then price moves lower so that was the initial move aggressive sellers notice during this time really not much activity no activity from aggressive buyers or stop orders or large traders with iceberg orders nothing to force the price higher at the same time we know that options traders we're taking negative delta positions so we're just waiting for really waiting for a good entry point for a short and that comes right around 10 30 again the kind of the 10 key 10 30 reversal time and price starts to move lower and as price starts to move lower aggressive sellers come in sell stop orders shown by the yellow line start to fuel the move lower and then large traders come in with iceberg orders as shown there by that ice icon that is a hundred uh that's a thousand contracts executed those are sell iceberg orders large traders used to hide their size that's also shown by this drop in the light blue line there so as price starts moving lower at 10 30 again we know that options traders were taking negative delta positions and then the aggressive sellers large traders with iceberg orders and sell stop orders helped to fuel the move lower down to the 4415 volatility trigger a level that you would expect to act to support all right so there's the short setup in the sb 500 this morning nice divergent short set up with options trades and then confirmed in book map and order flow all right let's go back and take a look at hero again and notice as price came down to that 4415 level that's where it looks like where sbx is right now options traders started taking positive delta positions moving price back up to that upper daily expected move and now price is back down so options traders have uh other than this first divergent setup have provided a very good confirmation the very strong correlation between options trades hedging flow and price action let's see what traders are doing so we can separate out puts and calls so today and this is pretty typical uh although these lines are usually flatter traders are buying puts and shown by the negative notional value for the blue line also the the falling blue line indicating traders are buying puts negative notional value and then they're buying calls shown by the orange line and the positive notional value there let's take a look at the total signal and the total signal is showing the combine puts and calls negative notional value put buyers more aggressive but again a very strong correlation between options trades hedging flow and price action today let's just take a look at the the zero tte that's shown by the green line and notice the strong uh correlation very close um correlation between the total signal the purple line is showing all expirations today tomorrow friday next week next month showing all expirations and then the green line is showing options that expire today and notice that is um actually lower more uh negative notional value than the total signal so anyway you can just see from the closeness of the lines of the purple line all expirations and the green line zero dte that uh zero tte traders are having a really controlling options trades today the bulk of the volume in options trades is going to be uh zero dte today so often uh spot gamma will publish the statistics at the end of the day of the amount of zero dte trades and uh today it looks like they're quite involved with again zero dte options all right let's take a look at nasdaq so this is a combined signal for ndx and qqq and pretty similar to smb 500 options traders were taking negative delta positions from the open and also setting up a nice divergent setup around 1030 let's go take a look at book map let's go over to go to nasdaq now zoom in so here's the 1030 divergent short set up just below the qqq 367 level and the uh nq100 level and not these sub chart here showing not a lot of support from cumulative volume delta a little bit of uh buying from large traders with iceberg orders uh but not much support again from aggressive buyers and stop orders fueling a move higher and as price starts to move lower you can see the shift to magenta volume dots those are by minus cell the magenta color indicates more sellers than buyers helping to uh move the lower fuel to move lower as options traders were taking negative delta positions so it took the patience this morning uh to wait for that 1030 time frame that first hour and again options traders setting up this divergent short for uh smb 500 and nasdaq all right let's take a look at some stocks now all right so mike p says uh hello hello mike could you share your thoughts on tesla for this week sure yeah well uh when i get to uh i'm going to go through a couple of stocks and then we'll take a look at tesla and normally i'm looking from day to day so we will uh we'll take a look at tesla we can take a look at equity hub and see what information is in there that uh you know that might that might guide us for uh for the week all right so there's nasdaq just like the smb 500 trading at a range up and down qqq 367 acting as the top end of the range and then nq 15 000 more or less acting as the lower end of the range with uh this ndx 15 000 somewhere in the middle all right let's take a look first of all at meta and i'm going to take a look go to hero let's go to meta notice that 290 is the key gamma strike another divergent short here just a few minutes after the open traders started taking negative delta positions and then right around oh 1015 meta made started making a series of lower highs and then broke below that 290 key gamma strike as traders were taking negative delta positions let's go take a look at book map and i've got this marked in um in book map here strong move higher and then the break let me just zoom in on this trend break price broke above the 290 level and then started making a series of lower highs broke the trend and then broke below the 290 key gamma strike all right so about a four point move lower uh from the 290 level for meta nice short setup let's take a look at invidia so invidia has recovered very well but this was a good short setup this morning we'll zoom in on that then we can we'll take a look and see what invidia is doing after finding support at the 450 level zoom in on this just a little bit right so let's go take a look at hero actually before i want to uh want to take a look at some background information for invidia i'm going to start with the this risk reversal what this chart is showing and this is in spot gamma equity hub it's available to spot gamma pro and alpha subscribers this line is the risk reversal line this line is price the risk reversal is showing the implied volatility of a 25 delta call minus the implied volatility of a 25 delta put and when there's a demand for calls or puts let's say there's a demand for calls the implied volatility of the calls will increase and price will increase you know if there's a demand for anything price is going to increase so what this chart is showing is there has been a persistent increasing demand for calls took a while for price to respond so traders are buying calls when traders buy calls market makers sell the calls they have to buy stock to hedge their delta exposure and that really kicked off a rally starting around the beginning of the year and note that recently this persistent rising demand for calls began to decrease and price has stalled or leveled off as that persistent demand for calls at least for the time being has slowed down so we know that there is a declining or waning demand for calls for Nvidia that has driven Nvidia much higher let's take a look at something more recent here we'll look at the key daily levels and this is comparing the last 10 days for the key daily levels so what this chart is showing from last friday to today the key gamma strike dropped from 500 to 450 that's bearish hedge wall dropped from 467.5 to 450 that's also bearish call wall remains at 500 and then the put wall dropped lower from 457.5 to 430 so overall bearish drops in the key daily levels for Nvidia for today we know that that demand for calls has been declining right so let's go take a look now at hero go to Nvidia so our pre-market prep planning process looking at Nvidia would give me a bearish directional bias now i'm going to look at hero now that has you know certainly turned around today but let's just focus on on this warning so at the beginning of the day my directional bias was bearish and the hero signal i'll look at that at a minute was weak when i ranked the my watch list by the hero signal from weakest to strongest Nvidia was at the top of the list and they're typically for Nvidia there's a very strong correlation between options trades and hedging flow and price action and i've heard people people say that Nvidia is the new tesla and it certainly is driven by options trades is you know clearly shown in this chart so traders started taking negative delta positions oh just maybe 935 936 just a few minutes after the cash open price started moving lower good entry point after seeing that move lower and hero was right around the 460 level and then that was good for a 10 point drop down to the 450 key gamma strike hedgewall level right there so let's go take a look at book map i'm going to zoom in well this is pretty close this is good enough so here's the reversal right around 935 Nvidia moves pretty fast good entry point right here at 460 and a quick move lower to the 450 key gamma strike hedgewall notice the buy sweep down at this level that's shown by the bright green small bright green dots that's a buy sweep and then price starts to move higher at a level that you expect might act as support right so let's take a look let's zoom out now actually we'll scroll over to the right a little bit let's just zoom all the way out and options traders started taking positive delta positions we'll go back and look at that in just a minute and price started to move higher let's take a look at cvd not much of a clue there let's go back to hero zoom all the way out so it's pretty clear just around 955 10am options traders started taking positive delta positions and price reversed at that level the 450 key gamma strike also a high liquidity level in book map so let's see what traders were doing so they started so initially they were selling calls and buying puts those lines reversed right around 955 so they have been buying calls that is really what has been driving price higher primarily not the strong correlation between the rising orange line showing call buyers notional value is positive traders are buying calls they're also selling puts so Brent in spot gamma founders notes has talked about this recently the confluence of having the calls and puts moving in the same direction is a very strong signal so for nvidia starting around 955 traders started buying calls and selling puts helping to fuel the move higher back above the opening print let's go back to take a look at book map so back up toward the past the opening print right around 465 and didn't quite make it to the 470 liquidity level back to hero and now mike p wants to take a look at tesla we can do that tesla pretty choppy day today we'll take a look at book map and then we'll dig through equity hub see what we can figure out for the week to book map tesla so tesla pretty pretty good short today trading under vwap that's shown by that light blue line good shorts at vwap so in this case cvd cumulative volume delta providing a good clue to direction let's go back and take a look at hero and recently for tesla i've had tesla hero for tesla has not been as clear typically as it is in the past the the correlation that has existed in the past between options trades hedging activity seems to be not quite as clear now let's just see what traders are doing not nearly as clear as nvidia so really today traders are both the numbers are positive so they are buying calls very small number 14 million and they're also selling puts both the numbers positive the blue line blue number 61 million all right let's take a look at equity hub go to tesla first of all let's take a look at the risk reversal and note this chart is a little distorted due to stock split here that's shown by that line this chart does not take into account the change in price due to a stock split but this chart just like in nvidia is showing a declining demand for calls so that persistent demand for calls that can drive a price higher has slowed down and that happened right around uh june 20th that's shown the the peak of the chart there the risk reversal chart at uh june 20th and again this risk reversal line is showing the implied volatility of a 25 delta call minus the implied volatility of a 25 delta put so a rising line indicates an increased demand for calls and a falling line indicates an increasing demand for puts in relation to calls right let's take a look at history now to get a more clear picture of the last few days right so for tesla the key gamma strike did rise from 230 to 250 today hedge wall also increased call wall increased put wall remains the same so uh for uh mike this looks bullish to me if the call buyers can uh step up to the plate then um then tesla might move higher but it looks like again this these increases in the key daily levels that looks bullish to me all right any other questions anyone has uh does anyone have any other stocks they want me to take a look at all right mike you're welcome all right let's go back to the um go back to hero let's see what's happening with the sb 500 we'll take a look at look at nasdaq in just a minute so now sb 500 at the right around at the 4415 volatility trigger again as options traders started taking negative delta positions at the upper end of the range upper daily expected move and they have not started buying yet so still sb 500 holding down around the low let's go take a look at yes still finding support at the 4415 level no support from aggressive buyers large traders large traders really fading this move today so far cumulative for the day since i opened book map around 7am eastern time uh 5,210 iceberg sell orders large traders selling with iceberg orders they use to hide their size so it looks like it'll take some positive delta options positions and or uh large traders coming in uh to move yes the b500 higher right floyd's garage wants to look at disney we can do that now i don't have disney and book map but we can take a look at it in spot gamma to search for disney all right what this chart is showing is most of the most of the options trades and hedging flow was in one large uh order there so a large block order institutional order came in let's see what that was so this large order one large block order of calls somebody bought a lot of calls and that happened after price already started to move higher and this is about a one point move higher from 83 60 to 84 60 so disney not really uh especially actively traded um small move today and v who asked uh hello hello v who does the spot gamma only tool to see the stock options data or any other website or tool we can check spot gamma is what i use i i think there are other tools um you can just do your research just do a google search um you know you should find some competitors i think spot gamma is the best that's what i use i think it was one of the first out and um certainly the best provides the most information again that's what i use let's take a look at nasdaq all right tumen says another good thing about nvidia is that it respects a vxn very well unlike tesla all right be who you're welcome so nasdaq uh nvidia is a key driver of the smb 500 as well as tesla but nvidia i'd have to check the market cap i think it's probably higher than tesla at this point i'm not sure but yeah nvidia has been a key driver of nasdaq and the smb 500 all year so nasdaq options traders taking negative delta positions cumulative uh notional value here for the day 107 minus 107 billion we'll go back and take a look at book map so uh smb 500 es still hovering just above the 4415 level nq trying to move higher just above the qqq 365 level let's take a look at nvidia still trying to make it up to that 470 level notice the uh the shift in order flow here all the magenta volume dots a lot of aggressive sellers coming in as prices uh around the high of the day let's go back to hero nvidia so options traders have taken their foot off the gas more or less hero line is slightly sloping down slightly from about 130 135 and price has corresponded by chopping around now it looks like options traders may have started to take positive delta positions again so worth keeping an eye on if uh just watch nvidia to see if they can make it up to the 470 level let's go back to book map right so we know that options traders are starting to take positive delta positions again but aggressive sellers are in here that's shown by the all the pink volume dots that started to come in around the 465 level just after 1pm and note the sharp shift lower and cumulative volume delta there all right so we know that the SME 500 still stalled around the 4415 level nq around the qqq 365 level and in nvidia there's a battle between the aggressive sellers and options traders all right my time is up vhu you're welcome and let me i'll answer your question then we'll wrap it up for the day so vhu says based on the hero chart how to make a decision to enter the trade when down move is happening that's where the combination of book map and spot gamma comes in so i i'm not making a decision on spot gamma only or only book map only or spot gamma only i'm looking i have two screens i'm looking at both at the same time and i could see for example let's take a look at meta so this was really clear this pattern in the chart the trend break the wedge pattern and then the break lower at at the 290 key gamma strike so that was very clear so i'm looking at book map and at spot gamma so i know that that was that divergence was setting up traders were taking negative delta positions and i was just looking for a confirmation in book map for this short setup here so very pretty clear illustration in meta there all right so i hope that answers your question combination of book map order flow and spot gamma understanding what options traders are doing and putting that together for a setup all right thank you very much thanks for watching thanks for your questions and comments you're welcome everyone and i will see you tomorrow thanks again bye


What's going on everyone Sam here with late in sports cards. We are ripping 2022 a panini flawless collegiate hobby one box break number Two left side serial number stop. So here's a look again at your random results As always you can find these on the website under the results tab as well as a link that's currently in chat Give you guys a second just to find your number again These are on the website and like I said and also in the link in chat, too. So good luck here everybody Me do this Here we go. Good luck. That's a great inner box. Holy cow, man Wow, that's solid. That's really solid Yeah, there's some some good stuff in here for sure. All right, let's start we've got Ohio State triple that's 21 out of 25 Ryan she's here Joey bossa Nick bossa some legendary defenders 21 spot Michael V Congrats on that.  This next one is insane We've got go into Ruben Y at the four spot four of five triple patch Cooper cups the fond digs and Mike Evans.  Look at the Maryland patch on the digs. Holy cow So sick man. Let's go. We can probably nag this one. This one's so disgusting Can crats on that Ruben? That's awesome, man Yeah, great trio on that too three Probably top 10 receivers. I would say top 15. What's their names? Cooper cup DJ more step on digs and Mike Evans. Yeah, so so top I'd say top 10. Yeah Yeah, you got to say they're top 10 Mike Evans is only if you want the other two are probably top five I think Mike Evans is top 10. I'm a Mike Evans truth there for sure. I love my All right, we've got go into Scott F at the two-spot Matt Corral Nice one there two of five do this next one so freaking cool. We talking about this guy earlier, too Congrats Scott nice Corral about 16 of 20 going to Michael V That's gonna be Jeremy Shockey. Oh my gosh As a Carolina or as a Miami hurricane, that's insane game worn on that to game worn Shockey. Wow, dude That's probably okay 16 nice one there congrats there you go Michael Next up going to John M in the 10 spot. We've got RPA. That's gonna be Carson strong Congrats on that Carson strong the battle wolf pack legend This one's freaking cool, too. This one's gonna be 21 out of 25 going back to Michael V at that 21 spot How about a hunter Renfro? Player worn on that as well. Nice Renfro the damage on that window So we'll send the empty box and wrapper with you Michael sorry about that man Nice one here. This is going to Benjamin F at the 11 spot 11 out of 15. It's gonna be AJ Brown Ole Miss legend right there On the Jersey auto player worn on that as well I do yes, I do think he's better than AJ Brown. I Love my he gets a thousand yards every year. You could guarantee he's got it every year since he's been a rookie 10,000 years with James Winston thrown on the ball His rookie year with some trash pile throwing him is Probably Josh free to the end of Josh Freeman's career Or like Josh McCown might have been there at that point Then we've got going to Michael V at the one spot Matt Corral one out of 25 on the RPA Congrats on that. There you go, Ben. Nice man Nice corral empty empty got ourselves a good inner box here guys are outer. I guess you can call it Gonna start with this one going to Scott f Two out of 25 canine Kenneth Walker on the diamond card. Congrats Scott Nice hit for you there, buddy. Yeah, rookie diamond. Exactly. Yes, sir Yeah, absolutely nice one there Scott congrats man He's next to a crazy man We've got two out of five going back to Scott F Kenny pick it on the rookie emerald Congrats Scott. There we go, dude Nice one there man. Pick it up both the diamonds With that two spot There we go Scott nice one there man. Love it. Love it and then go into Robert at the six spot RPA of Kenny pick it boom To nasty Kenny pick it's in that one. It's pretty gross. There we go. Congrats Robert six out of 20 Unbelievable man Great way to end our case right there. I have to say Empty case no recap again guys since this is all hits Thanks again for the fill next up. We've got two more of these


Ischemic stroke is caused by a blockage of the blood supply to the brain, which leads to irreversible damage or dysfunction of the cells in the affected area. Research suggests that excitotoxicity, oxidative stress, inflammation, and cell death are all involved in the progression of the lesions. Recombinant tissue plasminogen activator, RTPA, is the current standard of care for acute ischemic stroke, but its efficacy is limited due to the downstream effects of reperfusion. Antioxidant therapies have been explored as a way to reduce the extent of injury resulting from ischemic stroke, but their effectiveness has yet to be proven. Recent advances in understanding the mechanisms behind the production and accumulation of reactive oxygen species, ROAS, suggest that combining antioxidants with existing thrombolytic agents or novel neuroprotective agents could provide a promising alternative for treating ischemic stroke. This article was authored by Rachel Shirley, Emily N. J. Ord and Lorraine M. Work. We are article.tv, links in the description below.


Coming to UWM was the best decision I ever made. I studied engineering abroad and I had six internships before graduating with a career I was really excited about. I just finished my first internship and loved it and I also love UWM's engineering community. My professors care about my success and I feel like my voice is valued in the classroom and in the lab. UWM was my first choice. And mine. Make it yours. Enroll now.


from the makers of demonetization. 500 and 1000 and more comes a mega policy that pledges to change the economic landscape of India forever. GST For those of you who do not understand the GST well, neither do we. The GST is supposed to be a revolutionary transformation of India's tax system. The GST is supposed to do many good things. Eliminate tax evasion, reduce the cost of tax collection, bring foreign investment, unify the nation, eliminate terrorism from Pakistan and save all cows of the motherland. Okay, maybe not the last two. Prime Minister Modi thinks it to be so revolutionary that in a recent trip to the United States he suggested the Americans should learn a thing or two from GST. So for those of you who are still wondering what on earth is GST? Goods and services tax once implemented will replace almost all the indirect taxes that central and state government levy on goods and services. Till now, under India's federal structure state governments had the right to determine the tax rate they levy on different commodities. For example, cars cost more in Haryana than in Delhi. This gave different states the flexibility to tax goods based on their needs. So a poor state may decide to levy higher taxes than its states on luxury goods to help pay for education or, say, health care. Kerala, for example, charges luxury taxes on cars priced higher than 20 lakhs and on apartments bigger than 2,000 square feet. Great, right? Nope. There would be a GST council that would decide on the tax rates. Now the GST council would consist of all the state government representatives plus the central government representatives. So suppose I happen to be in a particular state government and I want the tax rate to be changed. In that case, I would have to approach the GST council where I am only one of the members. As a result, my autonomy in fixing the tax rate that I believe is essential for raising greater revenues in the states is something that completely goes. States will effectively become the tax collectors of the centre. Much like commission agents, they will receive a cut. The government argues that tax collection will become easier and corruption in the process will decline. But if the same old institutions are implementing new policies, change is far from certain. Old wine in a new bottle anyone? One of the arguments is that GST will unify the market in India, making it one nation, one market. Now I just want to bring to your notice the fact that the most powerful capitalist country in the world is the United States which is the leader of world capitalism and the US not only does not have a uniform GST across the states, different states have different exemption limits, different states charge different taxes, it has a plethora of taxes. Now who is going to tell me that the US does not have a uniform national market? Fun fact, did you know that back in 2011 it was the congress government that pushed hard for the GST in parliament? But the bill was repeatedly stalled by guess who? The BJP. Now let's come to the GSTN, the back end of the GST. The GSTN is a special purpose company established to provide IT support to implement GST. It will also serve as a repository for all GST related data. But the majority stake in GSTN is you guessed it right, privately held. Central and states each hold 24.5% in GSTN. LIC housing finance holds 11% while HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and NSE strategic investment company hold 10% each. And if things couldn't get murkier, Naveen Kumar, the head of GST network has said that software testing for the implementation of GST is not fully done and cannot be accomplished by the July 1st deadline. In fact, the GST server went down on the night of June 30th one day before its launch because there were too many users logged in. So if the software is not ready, why is the government bulldozing the entire country into the GST? Can India, reeling with farmer suicides and unemployment, afford another poorly thought out economic policy at this time? Let's find out.


Good afternoon. I am Councilwoman Tamika Isaac Devine, currently serving as Mayor Pro Tem for the City of Columbia. It is indeed my honor to recognize and welcome all of you here to your City Hall, here in the City Hall of Columbia, South Carolina, and our recognition of Go Red for Women Day. For many years, we at the City of Columbia have been recognizing in partnership with American Heart Association Go Red for Women and Heart Month as an opportunity for us to make sure that we are encouraging all of our citizens to know their status, understand risk factors, and do what they can to prevent heart disease. As most of us know, heart disease is the leading cause of death in women, claiming the lives of one in three women annually. And as I was looking this morning at the news reports, and Amanda may mention this, but there's a news study that talks about over the last three years, even with all the awareness that we're doing around this issue, the numbers have been creeping up and they've been increasing. So, it clearly shows us that what we're doing here today is so vitally important, not just to us, but to our families, to our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, everyone in our community. And so, if we at the City can continue to elevate the voices and bring together amazing, beautiful women and men like you to bring awareness around this issue, we know that we are striving to educate people so that they can take the proper steps to ensure their health and wellness. So, before our American's here, he's going to bring some remarks, but I wanted to just remind you guys, and we say this every year, but it can't, we can't say enough, the stress enough, the importance of knowing and understanding our health. Last year, we had an amazing talk by Kimberly, Suber, and Juan Finch, and Juan shared with us her personal story about, as a busy, working mom, community advocate, running around the community and not understanding or not really paying attention to the signs that her body was telling her. And most of you know, I do a lot of running around. I get people who jokeily tell me all the time that they get tired just watching my social media feed. But I do have also, I also have a very busy life. I run around and, but I also know when my body is telling me to make a sit down, to make a rest. You can't be here doing everything for the city and for your family if you don't take care of yourself. And so it is so important that all of us know our numbers and know the things that will be risk factors. So the five numbers that every woman should know to take control of her heart health are the total cholesterol, our HDL, which is the good cholesterol, our blood pressure, our blood sugar, and body mass index. It is time for all of us to learn these critical numbers and understand what they're telling us about our overall health, about our well-being, and to know what we need to do to make those things better. And so these are some things that we need to do. We need to understand our risk factors, take control of our health. The risk factors include blood pressure, smoking, cholesterol, lack of regular physical activity, and some of us, and some things that we can't control like age, gender, and family history. But if we understand our risk factors, we know what we can do to prevent it. We also know our numbers and learn our family history. And we need to discuss our risk factors with our healthcare practitioners. In today's day and age, there are so many things that we can utilize that our healthcare practitioners can tell us about to help us address these things. I'm in awe when I see the different apps and the different things that people have to let you know what your body mass index is, what your blood pressure is, so that you can keep those things in the forefront and you know how to control those. Five numbers that we can change in our life, our total cholesterol, our HDL, our blood pressure, our blood sugar, and our body mass index. And I'm so grateful today for the partnership for Southeastern Institute. So after we finish today, you can go downstairs. If you do not know your numbers, you can have a health screening. You can get your blood pressure checked so that you know what that is and you can understand what that's telling you about your overall health. And then lastly, I want to encourage you to take action to manage our numbers. Schedule a separate visit with your healthcare practitioner. Make sure that you know these numbers, you commit them to memory and you look at them on an ongoing basis. So many times people do not go to the doctor. They don't see their healthcare providers. They don't know what things are until it's too late. But we don't want you to wait till it's too late. We want you to know those numbers and actively work to address them. I'll share it with you personally. I've had high blood pressure since my second pregnancy and I check my blood pressure not just when I go to the doctor, but in between going to the doctor. I make sure I take my medicine, but I also make sure I've changed the way I eat. I change the way I exercise. I make sure that even though I think I'm active, that I'm active in the right ways, that I'm walking, that I'm taking steps, that I'm doing things that keep me healthy. And so those are the way that I've tried to address my blood pressure and I've seen a difference. And so we can take control over our numbers. We also need to work to improve our numbers regularly.  And we know that that is a factor. It is the way that we're managing stress. Those are things that we can do to take control of our health. And again, thanks to the partnership with Southeastern, which I'm really, really excited about, after today's press conference, you can go downstairs and get yourself a wonderful massage. So that is something also that you can do to address it. But these are some things that we wanted just to share with you today on ways that we can continue to take control of our personal health, but also to educate our sisters and people within our communities so that they're taking control of their health. So with that said, it is my honor to introduce the handsome man in the red jacket in the back of the room. Our mayor, Mayor Stephen Kate Benjamin, who is mayor of the city of Columbia, also president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors to come forward and bring some remarks. I'm always so happy to be here. I figured I come as a superhero this year. I come as super cappaman this year just to show our incredible support for the work that some of you do in just constantly beating the drums of awareness, helping us realize that small adjustments to the way we conduct our daily lives will significantly impact our quality life and the length of life and the time we're able to spend with the people that we love here. Everyone in this beautiful historic chamber has stories, stories that are stories of joy and pain of love and lost. And we know that there are things that we can do and we can do and encourage the people, prod the people, push the people that we love to do more to take care of ourselves that will significantly enhance our lives. So it's my job to try and look a little dapper every year. This is the only time of the year I wear a red blazer, I think. And I had the other one that I wore last year in which my wife, who I don't see, I think she has a, she's sitting on the bench right now. I think she and my girls are going to be here before it's over, telling me that that blazer was out of season. So my cap of blazer is the only other red blazer I have and I never wear it. So it became cap of day. So we're capitalized. Thank you to the American Heart Association. Thank you to all the incredible staff there, the professional staff, but just the women and men, the volunteers who do the hard work every single day to make sure that the people of Columbia, the people in this metropolitan area can live the highest quality of life we possibly can. Ladies, we love you. We're thankful for you. And we know that by working together we can really make some incredible change. So thank you to Mika. Thank you. Appreciate you. Appreciate your leadership. And we got you back all day long. Am I doing this? All right. And every year I swear these letters get smaller and smaller. I thought I might grab my reading glasses before I left the house this morning. It's a little slower. We know we know whereas cardiovascular diseases kill one in three women in the U.S. yet 80% of cardiovascular diseases may be prevented. And whereas cardiovascular diseases and stroke kill one woman every 80 seconds in the United States and whereas an estimated 44 million women in the U.S. are affected by cardiovascular diseases and whereas 90% of women have one or more risk factors for developing heart disease or stroke. And whereas women are less likely to call 911 for themselves, are less likely to call 911 for themselves, if you guys take care of everyone else, for themselves when experiencing symptoms of a heart attack than they are of someone else who are having a heart attack. Whereas only 36% of African American women and 34% of Hispanic women know that heart disease is a greatest health risk compared with 65% of Caucasian women and whereas the American Heart Association Go Red for Women movement motivates women to learn their family history and to meet with the healthcare provider to determine their risk for cardiovascular diseases and stroke. And whereas women involved with the Go Red for Women movement live healthier lives. And whereas Go Red for Women encourages women to take control of their heart health by knowing and managing these five numbers, total cholesterol, HDL, good cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, and body mass index. Now therefore I, Stephen K. Benjamin, in recognition of the importance of the ongoing fight against heart disease and stroke do hereby proclaim Tuesday, February 1, 2019 to be National Wear Red Day in Columbia, South Carolina, and urge all citizens to show their support for women and the fight against heart disease by commemorating this day by wearing the color red, by increasing awareness, speaking out about heart disease and empowering women to reduce their risk for cardiovascular diseases, we can save thousands of lives each year. And testimony we're about here unto set my hand and cause to be a fixed great seal of the city of Columbia this first day of February 2019. For those of you who might not know, Mayor Benjamin is not just coming and supporting here, but he practices what he preaches. So he started move with mayor where he encourages citizens to come and work out with him. Last year in 2018, before every single council meeting, he weighed in so that he understood he was accountable to everybody that he was constantly working on his personal journey. And he shared that with us. And so certainly he is an example for all of us on taking control of your health. So with that said, I would love to introduce Amanda Butler, who is the executive director of the Midlands American Heart Association. We have had this partnership with AHA. Are we going on like seven or eight years? Maybe it's been a while. But it is always a pleasure to work with them, not just on this day and this month, but throughout the year on bringing awareness and all the amazing work that they do in our community to help people who are dealing with cardiovascular disease. So it's my pleasure to introduce Amanda Butler. Well, thank you so much.  And just a shout out to our Go Red for Women director, Stephanie. She's gotten the whole town to go red. So if you're down in five points, you'll see that if you're in Lexington, you'll see that. I'm just so proud of all the work that you all are doing. And we're so grateful. So first and foremost, I'm going to ask you guys to interact with me just a little bit.  Thank you for being advocates and for being here today. I want to ask the rest of you, if you or someone that you love has been affected by cardiovascular disease or stroke, would you stand up? You guys look around. Look at this. This is so powerful. We have all just been touched and affected by this and and it's devastating. And we have so much work to be done. And thank you all for taking a stand today and for going red. You can sit down now, but you did. You took stand. So yesterday our CEO Nancy Brown gave us a staggering statistic. And I want to share that news with you. 48% of Americans have some form of cardiovascular disease. So nearly half of our nation is affected by this.  But this should be a call to action for all of us. We should all be involved in making a difference in our community. And Go Red is here to do that. It's a trusted, passionate, relevant force to eradicate heart disease and stroke here in the Midlands and across the world. And it was launched in 2004 as an awareness campaign, but now it's a real platform for change. And it's an international movement. Today, more women than ever recognize heart disease is the leading cause of death. But the work isn't over. And so the next phase of Go Red is going to focus on inspiring and empowering women to better achieve health and well-being. We're going to have an emphasis on improving diet, increasing physical activity, and managing our blood pressure through personal action and collective impact. And to achieve this, Go Red will create powerful collaborations, and we're doing that right now. And we're going to accelerate community-based solutions. We're going to integrate health technology, increase awareness, and amplify influencers. And it's no longer about just wearing red. And it's no longer about sharing heart facts. It's about us taking a stand together and making a commitment to Go Red. So I want you all to join us in doing that. And thank you all for being here today to our chair and to our board members, to all of you, and a special thank you to Councilwoman Tamika Isaac Devine and Mayor Steve Benjamin, because you do this every year and it's important to you. And we're so grateful. And I would love to introduce one of our survivors, Sarah Beth Sheridan. She's going to share her story with us. And we would love for all of you to join us at our Go Red for Women luncheon. There's information if you guys want to buy tickets. It's May 10, 2019. And our heart walk is April 6. Then it's a free event and it's family friendly. You can even bring your dog. My name is Sarah Beth Sheridan, and I'm an 18-year-old senior at Great Collegiate Academy. My heart story begins not that long ago. For the past two years, I felt sick. I would have really bad headaches. I would pass out a lot. I just felt like something was wrong. My heart would beat really fast and I didn't really understand why. But I loved cheer and I thought, you know, I'm an 18-year-old girl, nothing can be seriously wrong. But I have a nurse for a mom and she decided to take me to all these different doctors. I went to allergist, I went to my pediatrician, I even went to a neurosurgeon, and I even went to an eye doctor just to see maybe that was wrong. But they pretty much told me the same thing. Everything looks fine. Maybe you're just stressed. Maybe you need to drink more water. Maybe you need to sleep more. But I knew my body and I knew that there was something wrong. And it wasn't until this October when I was lying in bed that my heart started to race again. And it did this about once a day so I just thought, oh, it's going to stop in a little bit. But one minute went by and two minutes went by and three minutes went by and it wasn't stopping. And I got really, really scared. So I ran downstairs to my mom and I had her listen to my heart. And my mom was a picky nurse while I was growing up so she really doesn't get scared about a lot of things. But when she was listening to my heart, she looked up at me and she had fear. She was scared. And she told me that my heart was beating about 200 beats per minute. And that the worst part was that it was beating really fast and then it stopped for a split second and then it just started beating normally. And I was used to it. It happened every day to me. It wasn't anything new. I didn't know that it could be something wrong. So I went to the cardiologist and it started out like every other appointment. Telling me, oh, you know, it might be this, it might be that. We'll try a halter monitor to see if that might be what it is. Then he took one look at my EKG and he turned to my mom and he started speaking in what I like to call Dr. Lingo. I didn't understand anything they were saying. But I understood that my mom was scared. And when they find, I was like, hey guys, I don't understand anything you're saying. Can you tell me what's going on? So they turned to me and they told me I have Wolf Parkinson's White Syndrome. And it just meant that I was born with an extra electrical circuit in my heart. And that would cause my heart to beat really, really fast. And he said that he wanted me to go see the surgeon. So I saw the surgeon two days later. And the surgeon told me that he needed to get rid of it very quickly. And so he scheduled me for the first available surgery, which was four days later. Well, when we were leaving, he leaned over to my mom and he said, you're very lucky your daughter's not a statistic. Because I am a cheerleader. I work out one to three times a day. I'm 18. I never thought it could happen to me. I never thought I could have a heart condition. And I, it felt like my world stopped. I thought two minutes earlier I was thinking about, I was hoping this cute boy would ask me to prom. And now I'm thinking about, am I going to be able to cheer? Am I going to be able to live a normal teenage life anymore? So being told that I was very lucky was kind of scary to me. And I'm very lucky that my mom knew the signs. I didn't know them. I didn't know teenagers could have it. No one in my family has a heart condition. No one in my family has lived with this. And I never thought I would be the one. I, I'm relatively healthy for a teenager. And I work out a lot. So I wasn't expecting it. But the surgery went well. I was able to recover. And the amazing work that the American Heart Association has done actually allowed me to recover very quickly. And two weeks later compete at state for cheerleading with my cheer team. And for the first time ever make top five. So that was pretty cool for us. And, but my story doesn't end there. I want to be able to share my story with others because I know I'm not the only one that didn't know the signs. And I'm lucky that my mom did. But I think of all the other teenagers out there and all the other people out there who don't know the signs and who don't know what to look for. And maybe they won't end up as lucky as I am. And that scares me. I want to be able to use my story to share it with others to make a difference in this world. And that's why I love Go Red for Woman. Because that's exactly what we're about. Making a difference. And sharing our stories to uplift others. And I'm very thankful to be here. And I feel, I was very overwhelmed when we all stood up because I realized that I'm not alone. When it first happened I felt very alone. And now I know that there's a whole group of people behind me. And that's amazing. Thank you. Sarah, thank you so much for sharing your story and for your bravery and being an example. We thank you so much. Let's give her another hand. Okay. So now we are at the really, really fun part of our program. So the speeches are over. I want to ask that if you guys would please join me along with all of our friends from the American Heart Association as we take our community photo that we do every year.


to give a talk about how it came to be and how I came involved in this. So before we move on to the rest of this, essentially at a conference myself and Julie started talking about the environment of English for academic purposes and kind of the network available for those involved in EAP. And while we have ELT Ireland, there wasn't anything quite specific to EAP. So we decided to kind of create that organization and that took place about six months ago and we started the organization three months ago and it's taken off. So I'm going to focus kind of on what we've done and how technology has actually helped us build the organization. Alright, so essentially we came to come up with a couple of aims first of all. So we wanted to create a community for those involved in academic English or academic skills in Ireland in any capacity and also to bridge the gap between research and practice, give space for the platform to share perspectives and experiences and to share best practices and research. So we took a grassroots approach and we held meetings in different areas. We went to Cork, then we were at Galway, Dublin and we had about 40 to 50 EAP professionals come, so researchers, teachers, Dosses, etc. all came together and we did mind mapping to kind of guess the perspectives of everyone and that was how we decided to take the direction of the organization rather than us kind of saying this is what we're going to do and take it that way. We wanted it to come from those who were involved and then we had a volunteer committee and we actually had our first committee meeting yesterday in Cork and it was amazing and Chris skyped in which was great so we used technology there to kind of bring everyone together even if you couldn't physically travel and we're actually going to take the ELC Ireland approach from now on and do committee meetings in different cities and then combine kind of the notes in the minutes. So the mind mapping results we went and we said what are you satisfied with in terms of EAP in Ireland? This was the most difficult question as most people said nothing and we forced them to come up with good things about EAP in Ireland and what needs to be changed and develops and then how could it be developed so instead of just sitting there and complaining essentially, actually coming up with stats that we could take to develop. So for question one everyone was saying both potential, the caliber of the professionals. So again as ELC Ireland does recognizing just the expertise of the professionals. So the initial meetings, the committee meeting and then we've also started a shared resource database on Google Drive so if you have permission to upload materials or lesson plans you pop it on to the Google Drive and it's shared with everyone who's teaching EAP or academic English in Ireland. So we have various institutions, so higher education, private institutions, other organizations and individuals. So we have a lovely picture here, if you recognize this guy here. So this is just some of our images from the mind mapping and the initial meetings. This shows a variety of people. And this is our shared resource drive so if anyone is interested you can shoot us an email and we can add you to the drive. And so this ability, so we have Facebook, Twitter, websites and then through Twitter we actually got picked up by Bolly in the UK who asked us to write a newsletter and we've been speaking at different places and discussed sponsorship and funding in different places as well. So this is our lovely newsletter in Bolly. So focusing on the technology aspect this is what really surprised us and neither Julie nor myself had really experience with how quickly things on social media get picked up. In less than one month we have 686 plus views on websites. About 100 users on the Facebook group which is what our initial platform was. And then on Twitter we have 93, well we currently have 93 followers. And again this is all basically the last of the month which once we got into Twitter that's where people started picking up. And so all of you guys tweeting. It was something that's really useful I think for schools and professionals and something that I've never had it. So this is our website where we place news, events, postings, etc. Just a little where people are looking from. And our Twitter there. And then our long term aims. So these were actually refined yesterday plus basically annual conferences, regular CPP and training around Ireland for EAP specific. Creating local EAP reading groups and initiatives, setting up a journal for EAP and creating a framework. Promoting EAP action research which I know that CES does a lot of. And there's groups for action research throughout Ireland. And I'm creating a predation body for EAP. And then collaborating with institutions. Not just higher education but also all of the private institutions that are aimed to bring their students into higher education. So that would be general English schools that are looking towards IELTS or EAP. That would be pathway programs, pre-masters programs, higher education, etc. So that's basically all I have.