Hello everyone. Welcome to Options with Doug. Streaming live daily on BookMap Discord and the BookMap YouTube channel, excuse me, on 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, creating futures equities and options involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Pass performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. The focus of my presentation and the focus of the Options-Doug chat channel in Discord 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 at the first is planning and I use positional analysis. I look at how traders and market makers are positioned in the options market and how those positions change from day to day to develop a thesis regarding the expected trading range and volatility for the day as well as a directional bias. And the second step in my process is execution. And I look at real-time order flow in BookMap and real-time market maker hedging flow in SpotGamma Hero to confirm my thesis and for setups for entries and exits. And just to be clear, I will talk about setups today and I will be talking about an underlying whether it's ES or NQ futures or stock like Nvidia or Tesla. But I'll be talking about setups in the underlying and again you can take those trades any way you want with futures with options or shares of stock. And finally questions and comments are welcome and I'll be watching the option stash dug chat channel and discord and the chat and YouTube for your questions and comments. So please post your questions and comments. It makes it makes this session more interesting for me and hopefully for everyone else as well. All right let's get started. My agenda for today what I want to talk about first of all news items for the week events wrap that up for the week. I'll talk about my positional analysis and then talk about setups. So first of all today there was some PMI data out at 945 a.m. Eastern time and then the big event today is options expiration and that is the monthly April monthly options expiration. And there are a couple things to note about that. Let's take a look at that now. So the first thing I'm looking at SPX data this is from spot gamma and this is the expiration concentration showing delta notional on the vertical axis and date of expiration on the horizontal axis here. So this is the April expiration right here and the this is showing call gamma or called delta delta this is showing delta call delta or positive delta above the zero line shown with the orange bar and then put delta shown with the blue bar below and you can see the orange bar is larger than the than the blue bar indicating this is a call dominated expiration. So that's one thing to note and then let's take a look at the this gamma model here and this is showing the gamma curve market makers position and there are a couple lines here this kind of light green line is showing the current expiration and then this gray line like gray line is showing the next expiration. So this is showing that how gamma will change from today to Monday showing that the gamma the positive gamma up here will be reduced to the next expiration. So some of the positive gamma that's in the market excuse me some of the positive gamma that's in the market now will be reduced and that positive gamma remember when market makers position on the gamma curve is positive that means they have to trade excuse me they have to trade against price to hedge their delta exposure and that tends to subdue volatility and leads to lower trading range again market stuck in a range so that will be reduced after expiration next Monday so that should open up the market for more volatility and spot gamma is looking for more downside movement starting next week and I've talked about this before and they have talked about it as well some previous expirations that were call dominated positive gamma were August of last year and then February of this year and the markets did drop a little bit after the expirations those again the August 22 and the February 23 so just something to keep in mind that that positive gamma will be that supporting the market will be going away next week after this monthly expiration all right let's take a look at positional analysis now so let's start with start with charts here go over the levels that are in play for today and this is the excuse me I'm sorry having a little bit of a problem with my voice today it may be spring allergies right so this is the ES futures SAP 500 futures and book map and before I dig into this chart before I go into further detail I'm going to take a look at a larger time frame so I'm going to start with a thinkorswim chart this is SPX and it is a 20 day one hour chart just showing price and key gamma levels and I'm also showing the lower and upper edge the expected move for the week that show them with this purple line there's the lower and the upper shown with the upper purple line and then I'm also showing the lower edge and the upper edge of the daily expected move and I'm starting to track that and so far my experience has been that SPX is trading within that daily expected range indicating to me that it's better to sell premium if the expected range is less than the actual range implied volatility greater than realized volatility in my mind that leads to or suggest selling premium all right so that is the again the upper and lower edge of the daily and weekly expected moves now let's take a look at some key gamma levels so first of all here's the spot gamma put wall that's the strike with the largest net negative gamma and note that that level did drop from yesterday it was 4,000 yesterday drop back down to 3,900 and then the key gamma strike remains at 4,150 that's right in here in this cluster of levels also the volatility trigger is just below that at 4,135 and that is spot gamma's proprietary gamma flip level below that level market makers position on the gamma curve is negative and they have to trade with price to hedge their delta exposure and that tends to increase volatility and that is typical of a negative gamma environment and then above that level just the opposite market makers position on the gamma curve is positive and they have to trade against price to hedge their delta exposure and that tends to subdue volatility and note the 4,150 is also the call wall and that drop down from yesterday at 4,200 yesterday to 4,150 so those are the primary levels the call wall put wall volatility trigger and key gamma strike or absolute gamma strike and the call walls the strike with the largest net positive gamma and that can be expected to act as resistance right so those are the primary spot gamma levels that provided to spot gamma subscribers and for a variety of platforms here we're looking at thinkorswim again let's take a look at one other thinkorswim chart and this is for today showing a one hour one minute chart showing the levels that are in play and so far the primary levels have been this 4,135 volatility trigger that acted as resistance price moved down and reversed higher just above the lower edge of the daily expected move and note for those of you who have asked about this and watching it this is I'm this is was set at the open today so I looked at the daily expected move plus or minus and I added that and subtracted it from the opening price of SPX so the volatility trigger level has been in play also this lower edge of the daily expected move and then also this 4125 large gamma to level has acted as a big magnet for price reversion to mean up up and around that and looks like most recently now acting as support alright so that is SPX again with a one day one minute chart now let's take a look at book map and I'll go into more detail with setups in a few minutes I'm just pointing out the key levels right now so here I have the same levels on a couple of different columns the first is the spot gamma cloud notes and again these are provided to spot gamma subscribers for a variety of platforms and here they're shown for book map and the form of cloud notes that are updated automatically and I'm using a slightly lower point difference between ES and SPX and I'm showing those levels and my cloud notes columns so I'm showing here for example the volatility trigger 4135 with the 22 point difference between ES and SPX so that's why the volatility trigger the SPX 4135 volatility trigger is shown at 4157 for ES and note it did act as resistance at the open in about an hour later at 1030 and I'm also showing spy levels and here's the 413 spy 413 volatility trigger and also the ES big round number levels the zeros in the 50s so pretty choppy day in ES SPX definitely a range day today alright that is the S&P 500 again I'll talk in more detail about setups in a few minutes the range day setups alright let's take a look at the NASDAQ now and I've started to track this more in a positive gamma environment there's not a lot of movement in the S&P 500 there's typically a little bit more movement and more volatility in the NASDAQ so I've started to track that and I've got again the same same notes first of all from spot gamma here these are NDX levels and spot gammas was you was using a 23 point difference between NDX and NQ I think they just take the same number they're using for ES SPX that was not even close I calculated an 87 point difference so I'm showing those revised levels in my cloud notes here so right now it looks like NQ is trading just below the 30-20 volatility trigger for NDX and also there are combo levels here this is combining NQ and QQQ levels into one common number converted to an equivalent NDX number and then converted to an equivalent NQ number and I'm also showing the key QQQ levels here this is the 316 volatility trigger for QQQ and that has acted as a magnet for price today both as resistance there for a short setup and again resistance for a short setup and then finally as support and note that price is clustered really around the QQQ 316 level maybe the the NQ 1350 level and the 13,000 level maybe more accurately actually the NDX 13,000 level and that's shown with the session volume profile here and I see trader HE has joined us so I welcome any comments on NQ he's the expert on trading NQ all right so those are the levels that are in play for for the S&P 500 and for the NASDAQ combination of for the S&P 500 the combination of the SPX and spy levels and then for NQ a combination of the QQQ NDX and NQ levels have all been in play for today all right let's talk about shifts in levels now and there were quite a few first of all for SPX as I mentioned before the put wall move lower from 4,000 yesterday to 3,900 today and the call wall also moved lower from 4,200 yesterday to 4,150 so that's for SPX again put wall call wall all moved lower I interpret that as bearish and then for spy the volatility trigger drop slightly lower from 4,14 yesterday to 4,13 today and also the call wall drop lower from 4,20 to 4,15 and the key gamma strike drop lower from 4,15 to 4,10 so the main thing there was the call wall and the key gamma strike both drop lower and again I interpret that as bearish and for NDX the volatility trigger put wall and call wall a moved higher I interpret that as bullish and then for QQQ the volatility trigger dropped lower from 3,19 yesterday to 3,16 and also the key gamma strike drop lower from 3,20 to 3,15 all right let's take a look at the gamma levels and we'll see where those levels come from so let's go back to our indices chart here start with SPX and here is the 4,150 level and that's the key level in play that is the key gamma strike or the absolute gamma strike the strike with the largest absolute gamma and that is also the call wall and then here's the put wall down at 3,900 so the put wall is the strike with the largest net negative gamma that can be expected to act as support and the call wall is a strike with the largest net positive gamma that can be expected to act as resistance and again remember that's the key gamma strike or absolute gamma strike as well and note also the significant amount of gamma at the 4,100 level so that's SPX let's take a look at spy and to zoom in on this chart so for spy now the key gamma strike has dropped down to 4,10 the strike with the largest absolute gamma that can be expected to act as support or resistance or a magnet for price and right now today spot gamma was looking at it the 4,10 level as support that was noted in the AM founders note and then here's the 400 put wall the strike with the largest net negative gamma support level and there's the call wall at 4,15 expect expected to act as resistance and that was also noted in the spot gamma AM founders note let's take a look at QQQ see if we can show that without a refresh no let's go to QQQ so for QQQ the primary level here is a 3,15 level that is the key gamma strike and that is also the put wall and that's pretty obvious the strike with the largest net negative gamma as well as the strike with largest absolute gamma and then the call wall remains at 3,20 and then finally let's I'm going to start taking a look at NDX looks like I'm going to have to do a refresh again let's go to NDX and not much to look at here except the 13,000 level and 13,000 is the put wall and the key gamma strike so that's where that's where the gamma is concentrated for NDX at the 13,000 level alright so we've looked at the expiration concentration we know that this is a call dominated expiration we've seen that from the expiration concentration again and from the the gamma model let's take a look at the Vana model for SPX and I'm going to go over this just for anybody that may be new here this is showing two curves the first curve is showing how and then just the light gray showing how market makers delta notional shown on the vertical axis changes with price with strike price and what this is showing is that market makers delta notional remember market makers want to remain delta neutral their delta notional will increase as price increases and they have to sell futures to hedge their delta exposure so that is just showing just accounting for the change in price and then this kind of like pink purple line is showing how market makers delta notional changes with changes in price and implied volatility and that's the Vana effect the change in delta with a change in applied volatility and this is showing on the upside here that there's not much difference in the delta only curve and the the curve that includes implied volatility and that's indicating there's not much of a Vana tailwind for markets for the SPX and that is pretty typical of a positive gamma environment then on the other hand if price drops and implied volatility increases market makers will have to sell futures to hedge their delta exposure and that tends to tends to increase volatility in a negative gamma environment all right let's take a look at some data now this is from spot gamma AM founders note and I'm just going to point out this gamma notional here shown for SPX spy NDX and QQQ and this is market makers position on the gamma curve and this in these numbers are all positive indicating on this position of the gamma curve that traders are short calls market makers are long calls and that hence the positive gamma environment and they have to sell futures as price increases again to hedge their delta exposure so these numbers are all positive and they did increase from yesterday so market makers position on the gamma curve for all these index products became more positive from yesterday all right so that's my positional analysis and let's take a look at some setups so I'm gonna go take a look at the hero indicator for those of you may not be familiar with us this is showing this is from spot gamma the hero indicator hedging impact of real time options there are two lines here the first the white is just price in the second this is the hero signal showing options trades and market maker hedging activity for a combination here combined signal of SPX spy XSP and ES futures XSP is not significant so essentially this is just showing the hero signal for SPX spy and ES and the direction indicates delta positive delta for a rising line negative delta options positions falling line and so far the total notional value for all options trades across the across the S&P 500 complex is positive looking at this number on the far right 1.7 billion that's the notional value positive all right let's take a look a closer look at this now and actually before I do this this again this is a combined signal and we can slice and dice this any number of ways first of all I'm gonna show the components of this so there's SPX and this is a little bit easier to read especially starting around 1045 traders we're taking positive delta positions in SPX note the rising purple line notional value 1.47 billion and not too far off the total signal and the next component is spy and spy is actually negative for the day and this is pretty typical that SPX going to one way and spy going the other way SPX so far strong showing a lot stronger correlation to price and then finally let's look at the futures and positive for the ES futures so again we'll end up with a combined signal shown here again with the S&P 500 and then let's take a look at some setups so I'm going to zoom in and this is typically what the signal that I use for trading the S&P 500 whether it is futures shares or SPX or spy options and a little bit of a little bit of a difficult read this morning so the first setup that I want to take a look at is around 950 and just just a reminder when I'm using this I'm looking at I'm actually looking at two or three different screens so at a minimum I'm looking at book book map on one screen and hero on another screen all right so let's take a look at the first setup and we really have a non confirmation from a hero or it took a while for a hero to start dropping lower but price started moving lower around 950 so let's go take a look at book map now zoom in so we can see see this closer all right so here's the first setup and I'm reading when I'm looking at this I'm reading order flow and hedging flow and here's the first setup this break of the trend line and it reverses lower just below the 4135 volatility trigger the spy 412 level and also this 4135 level and note in the sub chart here order flow is confirming that the following pink line there showing cumulative volume delta and that's pretty obvious you don't even need to look at that line you can see all the pink dots pink volume dots coming in there market sell orders aggressive sellers moving price down toward the lower edge the daily expected move and I'm showing a something a little bit different for futures this is something that I sat at the close yesterday and that's down there all right so that was the that was the first setup then let's go back to hero and this was a much easier read here around 10 o'clock there's a slight divergence hero starts to rise and then price follows just a few minutes later note the purple line increasing first then the white line so let's go back to book map now zoom in again so here is the here's the long setup just after 10 a.m. and we'll read the order flow first of all note the iceberg buys that shown by this light blue line in the sub chart iceberg buys these are order types that larger traders used to hide their size also shown with the on-chart indicator here that one is kind of obscured by the by the sell-stop order so larger traders buying this move down with iceberg orders they're using to hide their size then order flow shifts bullish note the green volume dots market buy orders aggressive buyers start to come in as options traders were taking positive delta positions and price moves back up all the way to the 41 35 volatility trigger level looks like it spent a little time at the spy 411 also the 41 25 level spy 412 and then makes it all the way up to the 41 35 volatility trigger and a new to Paul ask hey Doug any discounts right now not that I'm aware of probably not the not the time of year for discounts so I use book map and spot gamma and again I'm not aware of any any current discounts and typically those products both book map and and spot gamma are not discounted but a you know I suggest taking a look at the taking a look at the Twitter feeds for both book map and spot gamma for any potential discounts alright so there's our long set up we saw again in spot gamma that options traders were taking positive delta positions before a few minutes before price moved up and we also see that large traders are buying weakness they're buying this move down with large iceberg orders they used to hide their size and them as the price reverses aggressive buyers come in and also the yellow line indicating that bystop orders are fueling the move higher and price makes it all the way up to the 41 35 volatility trigger before order flow levels off looks like price makes a kind of a head and shoulders top there then moves lower let's go tip back and take a look at hero now a little bit easier see there so this is the the move lower shown with hero so this was a after the initial move we saw a divergence long and this is a divergent short let's go back and take a look at book map and there's the short again the head and shoulders top at the volatility trigger order flow shifts bearish cumulative volume delta falling then sell stop orders start to feel the move lower more aggressive sellers coming in pink volume dots and price moves down toward the 410 level and I should have should have noted that that is the the key gamma strike so that should be should be red or white background with red text indicating that is the 410 key gamma strike so I just didn't update that level in my spreadsheet so there's the move down so far we've seen three range day type moves all right let's take a look at at hero again you know another divergence long hero starts rising price moves up a few minutes later and this starts about 1045 let's go back and take a look at book map almost go right so here's the move higher note again iceberg orders coming in as price drops here here so we know that traders are taking positive delta positions like blue line is rising traders are taking long positions with iceberg orders and looks like price gets stuck at VWAP all right and Hector asked what is the purpose of this section and he's referring to this right here and this is just showing data that is in the sub chart indicators and I have a bunch of stuff that I'm really not looking at I need to turn this off so I have the main thing the main things are icebergs stops and CVD and I think some time ago I I separated out the CVD to show larger orders I I just don't look at that typically I'm just looking at CVD but this is showing CVD for orders greater than or it may be in a range again I haven't looked at that in a while so the main numbers are shown here and this is just the cumulative value of the three lines in the sub chart there icebergs stops and CVD for whatever position I'm looking at you know whatever the current time in the as I've dragged back and forth so I've frozen my screen here and this is the these are the icebergs stops and CVD for this current level of price of time I'm sorry right so let's get back out so and you know after this down move up up move down move and then up move again quite a bit of consolidation between the 41 25 and the 41 30 level and then finally it looks like this is resolving higher order flow slightly bullish let's go take a look at hedging flow now so overall for the SPX signal bullish positive 2 billion that's the notional value all right so that's the SPX and when we zoom out we can see the overall signal again is is bullish all right let's take a look at the NASDAQ now and then after that I'll look at a few stocks let's zoom in so in the NASDAQ pretty similar pattern to the S&P 500 in this morning this morning maybe a little bit more clear for a short setup anyway this is what I was looking at that hero really wasn't supporting a move higher and then watching order flow in the NQ and QQQ and the same trend break set up in NQ QQQ as as I just showed an ES so the first setup was a was a short then a divergence long and this divergence short was a little bit clearer and then a confirmation long so short long short long all right let's go take a look at the NQ now all right trader HE if you're listening I again welcome any comments on NQ he's the again the expert on NQ so I'm going to zoom in here so again I'm looking at two screens at the same time and I'm looking at again book map and hero on two different screens so here's this short setup trend break at the 316 volatility trigger level this is the QQQ 316 volatility trigger definitely bearish order flow a lot of the pink volume dots market sell orders and to move down toward the lower edge of the daily expected move so prices heading down toward that target doesn't make it there before price starts to move higher so heading down toward the 314 level the QQQ 314 and again the lower edge of the expected move for the day order flow shifts bullish note the green dots coming in here and there are also some iceberg buys not nearly the size of ES that's pretty typical NQ that the order size is a lot smaller and price moves up back toward the 316 level and above so this first setup really was a little bit clearer to read this first short a little bit easier to read in order flow here and the second stop setup remember we have a divergence long now let's take a look at the next setup a divergent short at NDX 13000 or just below it so price spend some time at the QQQ volatility trigger before moving lower order flow shifts bearish this was a divergent short with hero so hero confirming the short so we're looking at range day trades and the NQ NASDAQ as well and then a divergence long finally just above NQ 13000 and again the shift in order flow pink dots on the way down large traders are buying they're buying weakness with iceberg orders and there really was not of much of a shift shift bearish in the order flow so price moves higher for the last setup this divergence long so more range day setups in NQ both short and long and RJ ask would I be looking short now at the call wall for which instrument in Q so let's see are we up against the so the QQQ call wall is at 320 and the let's go take a look at the NASDAQ call wall is pretty far up here as well so I have it all the way up here alright so NQ the call wall is at 13100 and again remember I am looking at an 87 point difference between NDX and QQQ let me show you so I added right now it's even higher so I added another another little widget to my think think or swim chart another think script this is NQ minus NDX shown a real time and right now it is 88 89 90 points I was using 87 so that changes quite a bit so the call wall for NDX is quite and that's right so RJ asked the call wall for in terms of an NQ number is 13100 NDX 13100 plus 89 so I've got the call wall way up here and then note also the here's the 320 QQQ 320 call wall so both are not really in play at least for right now unless the NASDAQ really gets going so right now I have the NASDAQ trading around the NQ volatility trigger and this 13 025 large gamma 3 level alright let's take a quick look at some stocks and the first one I want to take a look at is Amazon nice nice uptrend in Amazon today let's take a look at hero start with Amazon and that is a beautiful setup in Amazon today and traders are buying calls and selling puts that's shown by the orange is showing the call buyers both lines rising traders are buying calls and selling puts and that is just a steady steady uptrend so that's Amazon here's Microsoft this this vertical line here shows a large block order and institutional order and let's see what they were doing so a large order of traders an institution somebody large selling a lot of puts so you know it's hard to hard to know if they were selling let's take a look at the next expiration see if it is options that expire today and yes it is so they were they were selling puts that expired today that shown by this I turned off the all expirations talked about all expirations and then this is showing the zero DTE the next expiration again showing this large vertical line right here whoops somebody selling a lot of puts to expire today and they could have been taking profits I know who knows right so there's a question about options trade and equity indexes and that thank you very much RJ for reminding me I meant to talk about that so here's how I've been approaching the SPX versus versus NASDAQ trading NASDAQ since it's a higher volatility higher beta larger trading range and then selling options in the SPX so this is SPX a an iron condor legged in so short put vertical in the morning and then as price moved up then a short call spread really didn't add a lot to it only for only 40 cents added added some risk and this is per one contract so RJ that's that's how I'm approaching it options trades with S with SPX and let's just go back and take a look at hero so I'm just looking at first of all let's go back to the SPX so looking at as heroes rising and heroes starts to rise as price approaches that lower edge of the daily expected move then I put in that short put vertical just below that lower edge of the daily expected move so for the daily expected move that I set at the set at the open today was that 41 12 so let's go back and take a look at thinkorswim so that is a 41 10 4105 put vertical so just set it and forget it order flow and hedging flow birth both confirmed that price was going to move up and I assumed that that lower edge the daily expected move would hold okay that is that's all that I had for today so we looked mostly at the indices the S&P 500 and also Nasdaq and there were some a few stock setups Amazon we looked at Microsoft both nice uptrends confirmed by hedging flow and there was also a good setup in Nvidia divergence long as well but my time is up I'm going to wrap it up for the day and for the week hope everybody has a great weekend thanks for watching thanks for your questions and comments and again have a great weekend I'll see you next week thanks bye


Angela, thanks for joining us on This Is Purdue. Yeah, I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me. So you've been a fan of racing for a long time. What's like your earliest memory of racing and of kind of falling in love with it? I have a very distinct memory of being, I don't know, pretty young, like maybe five years old. And our local track was Berlin Raceway up in Michigan. And I was there with my dad. And I'm sure my mom was there too. But I specifically remember my dad being there. He helped me out the steps. And I remember it being very scary, because there were these big gaps in between the steps. And he was helping me climb up. And we sat down. And he had bought these gargoyle sunglasses, which were popular at the time, because Dale Earnhardt had gargoyle sunglasses. And he picked me up to put me on his lap so he could watch.  So you talked about Dale Earnhardt. Was that like your favorite driver back then? Oh yeah, it was like borderline obsession, like really obsessed with him. Yeah, he was easily my favorite driver. Why was he your favorite driver out of all the other drivers? I guess because my dad liked him. So we just have that in common. I kind of picked up my love for racing for my dad. And so it was a common interest we had. And so I saw him rooting for Dale, so I did too. So I read also that you maybe wanted to become a driver at some point. But then you realized you had these really strong skills in math and science. So then you were like, I could be an engineer. How did that path come about? And how did that story come about?  I'm going to be president. I'm going to be a doctor. I wanted to be involved in racing. I knew I really loved it. And then once I started to get older, I started to understand what I was good at, what I enjoyed. And that's kind of when I started thinking about, OK, well, what can I actually do with the things that I like and I'm good at, which math and science? And how can I apply that to something I like so that I can work in the field that I like doing something that I'm good at? And so that's kind of how I ended up going down this race engineering path, because engineering was a natural fit for me. And motorsports was the field that I wanted to be in. Yeah, and a lot of people aren't that lucky. They have passions, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they'll get to spend their whole career being around their passions. Were you in high school when you realized that you could really pursue motorsports as a career? What point did it really click that you could become an engineer in your passion of motorsports? So early in high school, I thought, well, I'm good at math. I'm good at science. What can I do with those? And I thought of traditional things like accounting or maybe all major in physics. And I didn't really grasp what engineering was or what engineers did, because the field is so broad. And as an engineer, you can do so many different things. And it didn't even really occur to me that engineering was a path until my dad said, we had to sit down when I was maybe a junior in high school. And he asked, what do you think you're going to do realistically in college? What are you going to major in? And I said, I really don't know. I just know I like math. And he was the one who said, you should really think about engineering. I think you'd be a natural fit. It would be great for you. And I don't think I questioned it after that point. I did a little research and understood a little more about what the field was. And here you are. Yeah. So let's transition to Purdue then. How did you know you said you lived in Michigan? How did you first find out about Purdue? I got a flyer in the mail. And I showed my dad and I was like, wow, wouldn't it be really cool if I could actually go here? And I didn't really think at the time that it was possible. I thought for sure, since I was young, that I was going to go to University of Michigan because it was a great engineering school. And Purdue wasn't even on my radar. And when we went and started visiting colleges, the first step on campus I just fell in love. And I knew that was where I had to go. I had to be at Purdue. And yeah, I know engineering is obviously a very hard degree to earn at Purdue. What was it like your first year?  What types of steps did you have to take to really buckle down and know that you were on the right track? I think it was in shock after my first year because I was used to being the best student. I was valedictorian. School was always easy for me. I never really had to try that hard and I was so good at it. And then I got to Purdue and it was really, really hard. And I suddenly wasn't the smartest person there. And I had to study and I had to try really hard to do just okay. And yeah, it was a shock, but my competitive nature kind of kicked in.  And so I just did it. And what kind of skills did you learn, whether it's inside the classroom or outside the classroom? This is not a typical job, obviously. So how did Purdue kind of tee you up for this? I mean, the biggest thing I learned in school was how to think, how to problem solve because that's what I do day in and day out is I get presented with new problems every day and stuff that I am not an expert in that I don't really have any knowledge on. And I have to figure out, given, find, solve, what do I know about the problem? What am I trying to figure out and how am I gonna get there? And that was what my engineering degree gave me was that problem-solving technique. Right. I've heard that from other guests as well, but that was really key for them. Tell us more about the formula SAE that you were involved in at Purdue. Formula I got involved in I think my sophomore year. And I can't remember how I even found it. It was a friend of a friend who was like, hey, have you heard about formula? Do you know what it is? Because I think you'd be really interested in it. And I was kind of on the fence. And then I was all in as soon as I figured out what it was. It was an excellent experience for me because through your classes, obviously you get all of the practical knowledge and the book smarts. But Formula SAE gave me the teamwork aspect. You had to work to a deadline, produce a product. You got to actually compete and put the thing that you made, this race car to the test against other groups of students who had worked on the same project. So you kind of had a natural grading scale. There's no curve. Like you either, your car's either faster, it's not. You either designed it while you didn't. You also learned tangible skills, like working machine shop, you learned how to use all the machines. You learned basic mechanical skills, how to use tools, stuff like that. All of those skills were so invaluable. It was a really great experience. Do you have any favorite stories or like one favorite memory? I believe there's a stretch of time I stayed up for three days straight working on the car. For a race? Yeah, before competition. Yeah, it was in the final stretch and we were kind of a little bit behind schedule. And how did that happen? Just lots of coffee or? I don't drink coffee. I think we had a thing that year with grape soda. Oh, okay. And we, yeah, we bought it in bulk. So just lots of caffeine. Lots of grape soda. Yeah. You know, Purdue has ties to space, ties to NASA, a lot of engineers at NASA are Purdue alum. Is there anyone in the racing world that you've run into or is there a group of you guys that are engineers? There are Purdue engineers everywhere. I know it more from the engineering side. I mean, everywhere I've been, there's other Purdue engineers and there's a few right here in this building. And I mean, one of the most popular drivers in Ascot, Ryan Newman, he's a Purdue grad. Probably the most popular one, at least in the motorsports scene. But that's a great thing about Purdue is that wherever you go, there's someone who has that common tie with you. Do you guys like talk about Purdue stuff or is it like a bond or? Actually, one of the guys who works here with me is a really good friend and he and I actually did our senior design project together. And so we talk about that all the time, like, oh, hey, you remember when we did that? Yeah. Oh, I'm sure. Okay, so walk us through your career because you've been in NASCAR, now you're in IndyCar. I'm sure you started even smaller, kind of worked your way up. So tell us more about that. So straight out of college, I wanted to go into racing. I didn't find an opportunity right away and I did have an opportunity to work in the automotive field still. So I got an offer at Chrysler and it was for a rotational program. It offered me a chance to get my master's degree and it was a really great opportunity. So I took it. One of the great things about that opportunity was that they were lenient with where you got your degree from. So I went through the process and got Purdue approved for the degree program. So I did my master's degree through Purdue while I was working through my rotational program at Chrysler. So after I finished my rotations, then it was time to choose a permanent position. I had a spot lined up at Dodge Motorsports, which was a perfect fit for me. And two months before I was supposed to start that position, the Motorsports program shut down. So that was a bummer. And I had to figure out something else to do. So there's a smaller group of people there that are really passionate about performance vehicles and it's called SRT, Street and Racing Technology. And so being that it's a small group, it's kind of tough to get in, especially as a newer hire, but I found a spot there in SRT Drive Line and they took me on. And so that was my next two and a half years. I got to work on the very first Hellcat program, which was the 6.2 Supercharged. Really awesome. I got to do so many cool things, like we tested at the racetrack and I got to drive and we tested a lot at the drag strip and I got to drive a lot for that. And so that was all really great experience. And it wasn't really racing though. So fast forward a couple of years, a friend I had got a job at Rush Fenway Racing and he said, I know of another position that's opening up. If you're interested, yes, please. Because I still really had that passion. I knew I wanted to work in racing no matter what. So the position opened up and I applied and they took me on and I worked my way up at Rush Fenway from an assistant to the assistant engineer. I was like a super support role and then the next year I got moved up to managing that group and then the next year I got moved up to a race engineer in the Xfinity series. And then after half a year as a race engineer in Xfinity, I got moved up to a race engineer in the Cup Series. So I just kind of progressed through that. And then after four and a half years there, then I got an opportunity to come here to Chip Ganasi Racing and work in IndyCar, which was an absolute dream. And so I jumped on the opportunity. I was really excited to come back to Indiana, to get back to the Midwest, work on a more manageable schedule racing-wise. And there was a lot of more technical work that really interested me. So it was a natural fit and I'm so glad that I'm here. Yeah, walk us through your job because obviously it's different every day. It's different certain weeks leading up to races versus the off season. So tell us a little bit about your role. But in a very, a way that everyone can understand because I'm sure it's very technical. My job is different every single day, as he said. So my main role is data systems engineer. So there's an electrical box on the car and it collects data from hundreds of sensors and we have thousands of channels of data. And I set the calibrations and the logging rates and collect all that data and write math to make it usable and distribute that to the other engineers to use. And then I also work on tools to consume that data and make it easier to digest for the people who need to make the decisions. And how do you work with the driver when it comes to that and how to do the team of engineers kind of help, I guess the driver digest that too. So normally when like the driver will either ask for specific requests for his aids in the car and anything on the steering wheel or like cockpit controls I can just change those things directly. But then if it's something about how the car is handling normally the race engineer will handle those requests but a lot of times I'll help out with the data analysis side and getting data in front of the driver. So I'll work on things like developing a tool so that the driver can get data immediately when he comes into pit lane. As soon as he stops, he's got data in front of him and he can pull up the data and look at it himself because as he heard like a picture's worth a thousand words while trying to describe someone what the data looks like and where they're losing time compared to another driver. Like you can only describe so much but if you can put it in a visual format that's easier for them to visually see, okay, here's an ED compare of here's where I lost time I'm plus time here, I'm minus time here it's really easy to see for them. And then can you, when you talked about changing the steering wheel or like is the driver during races giving you that info and you can quick do that on the spot or do you have to wait till he's in the pit stop? So we can't send data to the car by rule while the car's running. So during practice we're making those changes on the fly and normally like I'm evaluating shift points and driver reaction time and changing like shift lights and shift patterns. If it's things on the steering wheel that he wants different or like lights different or driver alarms for like fuel or limiter time or stuff like that. Now I can change that stuff really quickly it'll take me a minute or two and send it to the car while he's in the pits and then between runs we can change it but normally once you set sail on the race you've got what you've got, yeah.  Are you working twice as hard or do you think that as time passes it's getting better and there's more and more women coming into this field? How has that been with your career progression I guess? At the very beginning I felt like it was more difficult to get a foot in the door it was harder to get recognized. I definitely felt like I had to work harder to prove that I was capable and knew what I was doing all that sort of stuff and I think part of that too is just in the back of your mind you know that you haven't you know you haven't seen many other women around and there's probably a reason for that and you know in certain groups of people definitely not here at Ganassi but you know in previous roles there are certain people who you know don't want you there to be Frank I mean and it's sad that it's still that way I think it's good for you though because it makes you a better engineer I think you get better at your job as you go and then the other part that's really refreshing is that the longer I've been around the more women I've seen the number of females in the paddock has grown every single year one of the really fun things we do at Indy 500 is Kara Adams who's one of the Firestone Engineers she organizes this women of the Indy 500 photo and we take a grid photo on race day every year and it's really fun and interesting to see how every year the picture has grown in size and last year we had to take two pictures because there were so many of us which is really cool. That's amazing wow and then I know Chip Ganassi and PNC Bank are launching a special initiative for women in motorsports which is awesome tell us a little bit about that so that is really cool initiative by PNC Bank and it's just meant to give some females an opportunity to get a foot in the door and get some experience in the motorsports industry an opportunity that they might not otherwise get or might not otherwise consider which I think is really important, you know just those opportunities don't come very easily so I think it's something really great that PNC is doing and Chip Ganassi Racing is partnering with them to facilitate that with the women in motorsports program it looks like we may have a fellow female from Purdue Engineering which I am so excited about so yeah I hope to see her around the building and then is the goal to partner with you as a female engineer or just kind of learn from everyone on the team? The goal is just to immerse them fully in the culture so I'm sure that I'll be working with them but also everyone else from their respective groups will be too. When we go back to talking about the data and analyzing it and working with your driver what kind of impacts can these little tweaks make like when it comes to race day or you know have you seen anything that's like oh wow I really had this problem and then we solved it because of XYZ are there any like stories like that? I think a lot of what we do are incremental changes you don't often change a spring and have the car be a second faster especially when we go to Indy we're looking for fractions of a mile per hour and with stuff I work on there's no obvious upfront gain a lot of times it's you know working on tools that improve our efficiency. One of the tools I've been working on is the race field program and I've been working on it for I think two years now just like tweaking and tweaking and tweaking away but I get into race situations every once in a while where a feature I've added comes into play and it's like wow I was able to answer that question really quickly on the spot and I don't think other teams would be able to do that and that gives us an advantage and so that kind of stuff comes up all the time. So it's a lot of like little tweaks and changes over time yeah that okay okay. What you know when we talk about race seasons kicked off what is a typical week like when you're leading up to that race for the weekend? So I'll normally spend at least a day on the computer getting this setup ready for the data logger we're putting in a bunch of constants and motion ratios and suspension geometry all of these things that help all of these math channels that are running on board calculate correctly and then as the car is getting put together I'll come down and plug into the car and do a systems check. So we'll check every sensor in the car check the nominal voltage check the calibration and make sure that everything's working correctly program the steering wheels just do a once over on everything in the car then I'll have a couple days of just preparing data scenarios I'll spend time doing pre-race strategy pre-race fuel scenarios I'll be looking at previous race data stuff like that. What is the teamwork and the camaraderie like when it comes to race day? I'm sure it's high attention but what does it mean when I know Marcus won two races now what does all that teamwork kind of build up to when you win? It is just indescribable for me like last year at Detroit it was my first ever win and it felt like something I had been working toward my entire life and there were so many times that we were so close to winning or should have won and something small happened and we didn't and the number of things that have to go right for you to win a race is unimaginable and when it finally comes together it's like you almost can't believe it and then you've got this group of people who you spend so much time around and they're almost like family because you travel with them week in and week out and you spend all day with them at the shop every day to celebrate with them is it's a big deal. I'm sure. So when you think about there's a lot of special races throughout the IndyCar circuit but the Indy 500 is kind of the pinnacle right? That's the one. Yeah. What is it like preparing for that race and what does that day mean to you? It is incredibly stressful preparing for that race.  The amount of preparation is just incredible and the amount of attention to detail and time that you spend on that one race is far and away more than any other race of the season. What's the excitement like that day? So my first year was 2020 and that was the year without fans and I will never forget it because I've been to the race as a fan and like the excitement is palpable like just all of the pomp and circumstance and like hearing back home in Indiana and like the pretty marching band coming and doing the walk down pit lane, all that stuff. It's just like an entire day of buildup and then that first year I went and it was just completely silent. Running a race in complete silence was something I will never forget because it was so strange.  It wasn't normal Indy 500. So really this year it's gonna be my first full-fledged Indy 500 as a participant. That's exciting, we're rooting for you. What is a week like when it's the off season out of curiosity? Do you guys still come into the office or what's that like? I would say I am just as busy in the off season as I am during the season. Normally you have projects like larger scale projects that you don't necessarily have time to work on or give your full attention to during the season. And so throughout the season I just have a list that just starts building up and over time I just prioritize those like okay like I really wanna work on, I really wanna rewrite the fuel strategy program. I really wanna do live metrics. I really wanna do this and this. And so you work on those projects and really it's a short period of time from the end of the season to the start of the next season because you've got testing jammed in there and you've got holidays and things like that. It goes by really fast. So you have to be super focused and set deadlines still even though you think like well you've got a couple months or a few months. You really don't. You've got 10 projects that you have to get done before the start of the season. So you're like okay I've gotta get this thing done in one week and that's all I have. Okay. So it's not just a piece of cake during the autumn? No, no. You were telling me before this that your husband also went to Purdue. Yes. But you guys met through motorsports?  He is older than me so we didn't actually go to Purdue at the same time but we kind of took a similar path. He went through mechanical engineering just as I did. He did formula SAE just like I did and then he took a job at Chrysler just like I did. But we met through a mutual friend at Chrysler when I was there as an intern and she knew that we were both really into racing and so we hung out for the first time and went to Mid-Ohio to an IndyCar race and it poured down rain on us and I guess it was meant to be because both of us had a great time. So your first date was at an IndyCar race? Yeah. That's amazing. Does he still work in racing? Yeah, he's actually an engine calibrator at Honda. Okay, so is that like a competitor? No, yeah, we run Honda cars so yeah, he works closely with the calibrators that I work with on my car. When you look back at your time at Purdue, why do you think Purdue is so unique and how did it set you up for something as unique as this job? The thing about Purdue is the engineering program is just so good. It's nationally ranked. It's really well respected. It doesn't matter where you go, you can say Purdue and people know what it is, what it stands for and how good of a school it is. It's instant respect. If you made it through the Purdue program, then people know what you're about. Having a Purdue degree is, it's part of my identity really. It's just an excellent school. What is the community and that Boilermaker spirit mean to you? Just that you can connect with someone no matter where you are. It wouldn't matter if I moved to Canada. I bet you whatever town I was in, I could find someone who went to Purdue. You can always find someone from Purdue and there's always, I don't know, just like a mutual respect because you both kind of know where you came from. Is there like a favorite class or professor or anything? Favorite professor. Yeah, Professor Crowdsgrill was one of my favorites. I mean, I had a few that I still remember and were really great. Professor Crowdsgrill is like one of the best teachers I've ever had just from the standpoint of making me excited about learning the topic he was teaching and helping me to understand it really well. He was just so good at it. I don't even understand how he did such a good job but I just loved him as a teacher. And then my professor for vehicle dynamics, Professor Starkey, he was just so great. And I worked with him on my senior design project and he was really flexible and helped us pick a project that was interesting to us and not really traditional and kind of down the racing path. And I just really appreciated his tie into the motorsports realm and his appreciation for what I was trying to accomplish with my senior design, not just to do a project and check the box but do something that actually meant something to me. Yeah, that's great. Is there anything else that you wanna share with our listeners? Boiler up. I love it. Okay, we are gonna do a few rapid fire questions but they're really easy. They're about Purdue. This is the first time I'm doing this so I'm testing it with you. Okay. Okay. What's your favorite spot on campus? The clap circle. I love the clap circle. That's amazing. I would not be able to think of something about it. Favorite Boiler Maker tradition? Ooh, running the fountains. Yeah. What's your next small step or giant leap personally or professionally? Winning the Indy 500 this year, I hope. I love that answer. Okay, that was it. You made it through. Oh, cool.


Next question is from Lance Zach for people working out in the mornings Is it better to eat breakfast before or after the workout? This is a really popular question Yeah, you know, I don't I work out every morning. I worked out this morning at you got you were got fasted though, right? Yeah 545 I was in the garage lifting weight So I work out between 545 or 630 is when I'll start my morning workout And I never eat before because if I did I'd have to wake up, you know I have to eat breakfast at 4 a.m. In order to work out at 545 and feel okay Cuz I don't like to eat to work out right after I eat, but here's the thing a lot of people forget If you work out first thing in the morning, it's not like you've had no food ever the food You had the day before you're still storing some of the energy. Yeah, especially if you had a big dinner Yeah, if I have a good dinner, I'm gonna be okay in the morning But there's a large. There's a really really big variance here between individuals You know, I've worked with some clients that if they don't eat a couple hours before they work out They feel terrible. So they had no matter what time they work out They have to have some food in their stomach, you know an hour and a half to two hours before they work out me personally I'm okay. I'm perfectly fine working. I'll work out fasted completely I'll not eat at all and work out at noon and be totally fine So it really does depend what makes you feel the best the only challenge with having to eat breakfast before you work out Sometimes it means that you would end up compromising your sleep because if you like me like for example If I work out at 6 then that means I wake up at 5 to get worried But if I want to eat breakfast that means I want to work out, you know, wake up at 4 30 or 4 15 I don't think that's a good trade. I think sleep is more important than you know Having the food before you work out Well, the truth is you're not getting any value from that breakfast unless it is a minimum of an hour before that We're right. So it doesn't matter like so why why have breakfast unless you can get it an hour more than an hour before It takes that long it takes that long for your body to digest it and then utilize it So it's not even if you ate, you know, 30 minutes before a workout. You're not utilizing that fuel yet That's still getting converted over into glucose.  They're just so used to have to having food before they do something It's like this conditioning is this programming that they've set their body up for where, you know I have to have food before I do anything rigorous But again, like there's variances and I'm sure there's people that don't do very well when they don't have food at a time But I'm just wonder I put that out there if you've never fasted before Maybe this is the type of person who should, you know, really introduce that well not only that it also matters like, okay To like what Sal was saying, right? So most people you're probably utilizing the fuel that you ate at dinner the night before but You know, if you do eat a very light dinner and you eat it at 6 o'clock or 7 o'clock There's a good chance that you've tapped into most of that so your your your fuel levels are lower So but then there's benefits of burning fat when you go to work out because of that So there's benefits for you not feeling but I could see like if you're somebody's just you don't have the energy You get lightheaded or you have if you're giving me that feedback as a client Then yeah, I'm gonna have you have probably have you do a liquid like I'll have you do a shake I would have you do because that your body will break that down digest that faster And so if you're giving me feedback as a client that man Adam I have to work out in the morning and I just your blood sugar drops, right? I'm yeah light headed or I just I can't get any energy to lift and maybe that's because you're eating a 400 calorie or a 300 calorie dinner at six or seven And so by the time five six clock rolls around you have tapped all that you have a glass of juice You know 30 minutes before that's what I used to do I had clients that I would train at 7 a.m. And they would you know So there was a couple of them that would say that like oh I get a little light headed and so I tell them Hey drink a glass of orange juice on the way here and that solved it right there It was really easy just you know an eight ounce glass of orange juice gave them what they needed to so that they weren't dizzy During the workout, but the huge individual variance here But I did I have found that the vast majority of people that I've worked with are perfectly fine All the challenges and difficulty that they find with the morning workout did not have to do with the fact that they Didn't need to have the fact that I had to do with the fact that it was an early morning workout Then they would eat everything moving. Yeah, it's like and then they'd eat and feel better But why because now you're working out an hour later So it's it's the morning part that usually causes the challenge


Hockey Day Minnesota is just four days away. It's a once-in-a-lifetime memorable experience. That is, except, of course, for some of the BSU players who have already gotten a taste of the outdoor action. Defenseman Tommy Muck played in Hockey Day Minnesota on Lake Bokegama when he was a junior at Eagan. And J. Dickman played in two hockey days for St. Paul, Joseph, including the inaugural event in 2007. They're preparing their teammates as to how to stay warm and also how much fun the event will be. Growing up playing high school hockey in Minnesota, just the buzz that goes around when it's Hockey Day weekend, it's gotten bigger and bigger as the years have gone on. And I'm just, you know, I know I'm excited I'm in Minnesota and so how can you not be excited? You look at that atmosphere when we had that and it was just crazy. They had a bunch of different rinks there. We were playing on one side while we were playing and, you know, it was just a blast for us. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.


What's going on guys got Kyle here with late in sports cards, and we are ripping this is 2022-2023 Panini prison basketball for box break number 58 pick your teams one second to organize the list here Got Alexander s with the Nets Austin s with the pistons Blake L has Grizzlies Brian B with the Spurs Jack Fung L is gonna have the Bulls Daniel B has Blazers Eric W. Pacers Gregory G has the Bucks Jeff T has Warriors Joe B with the Suns Justin C had Pelicans Kaizo a has heat Kenneth H. Nuggets Costa K is gonna have Raptors and Cavs Kurt D has Lakers and Celtics Minsu K Mavericks Patrick Z is gonna have Hawks and Wizards Patrick G has the T-Wolves Ray G has 76ers Ryan B with the Knicks Kings and Jazz Ryan G has the Hornets Sam a with the Thunder Sean M. Rockets Timothy M with the Clippers and Zach B has the magic Good luck guys. Let's get it going Break number 58. Oh Nice Greg Congrats on your first break man Gold booty and uh I can get you another one. I think you were in here as well. So you can get something else for you box one empty About to take off My Xbox sometimes sounds like it's about to take off. There's Yannis fearless We've got Quinton Grimes hyper Letell rookie Ocea body. Can you turn that down? The women's World Cups coming up Let's go. There is a fearless Lamello ball insert Silver Steve Nash for the Suns Coach Steve Christie and Nim heart Purple ice is the 149 Evan Mobley for the Cavs Our first auto is Alvin Shangoon for the Rockets Get some sleeves God Spencer Dinwiddy hyper Walker Kessler Ranger rookie for the Jazz Right. Come on. Let's see some big color There's a blue Evan Mobley now. It's a 199. There's another Yannis on the fireworks insert this time Got hyper Lou Will Dale and Terry rookie Vince Williams rookie Silver fireworks AD Prismatic Trey Young and this is Jay Will there on the rookie for the Thunder Jaylin Williams Chris Mullen. There's a red power. It's gonna be to 75 It is a rookie of Trevor Kiehl's going to the Knicks Trevor Kiehl's rookie to 75. That's 12 of 75 Silver Will Barton Bo champ and Hardy We sleep all just all silver I don't know if that's um We're different Red wave, I would assume him Jang and trade Murphy hyper There's chat home grand rookie. It's chat there for the Thunder There is a red rookie Kennedy Chandler Pulsar Bo John Bogdanovich Dermott's mcbuckets There's a purple rookie. Nice one here is Nicola Jovic to 99 87 a 99 nice hit for the heat Heat with the hit KD silver John Collins Sheen sharp base rookie for the Blazers Josh Giddy There's a red RJ Hampton for the magic We got points 400 points Those will be random to everybody at the end Trevor Kiehl's rookie Pulsar There's been the bucket Benedict's Matherin Pet it a few times if you didn't notice Look a wide screen. We got silver joe lmb tie tie pistol Pete Red wave Dennis Schroeder Silver Alec Burks for the pistons Jaylin Durran rookie for the pistons All right box two See some nice color. Let's see a gold again Some other gold. I've seen orange. I've seen mojo anti box two Got onyeka Okangu to 199 Otto is going to be a rookie Otto of Johnny Davis for the Wizards Some last spot mojo for the Wizards Nice Johnny there Hyper of Spurs Tony Parker Nicola Jovic base rookie Prismatic Zion on the silver Look the lottery been the bucket and a silver rookie Jaylin Durran for the pistons Blake Wesley Ames pick is in 61 61 There's a clay Thompson hyper for the Warriors Kenneth Lofton And rookie Walker Kessler Ranger There's a red wave Josh Giddy Pulsar rookie going to the Grizzlies Jake LaRavia Thanks Daniels and Hakima Dream Silver Fearless Jamerant Fireworks Brad Beal and a silver area 21 KG Chris Mullin Mojo Another mojo Come on now It's going to be for the pistons Ben Wallace the 25 Austin with the pistons It is going to be 13 of 25 big Ben Was the uh The trade that got us Grant Hill giving up big Ben Got Jaylin Durran luck of the lottery Silver Kenyan Martin that is a little bendy on that card Shaden Sharp base rookie is purple ice to 125 Will Barton Or 149 sorry for the Wizards Got Luca and Pulsar Pascal Siakam spicy pee There's a Chet rookie D'Ang Red wave Carl Malone hyper Trig Murphy There's been the bucket there's red to 75 gonna be red power It is Brandon Ingram going to the pelicans numbered to 75 Nice one there 44 75 Silver is debook Did the Sun's uh clinched last night? I read was the plane last night. There was a few nights ago. A few nights ago. Who did they play next? Oh That's gonna be pretty good sun should uh do it, but I never know anymore There's a Brad Biel for the Wizards silver Grayson Allen going to the Bucks There's a Jaylin Durran rookie Precious Achua is going to be red to 299 Raptors And we got a Papa Curry Otto going to the Hornets that is Del Curry It's hit there on the Del Curry uh throwback auto got Mike Conley hyper Christian Brown with Grady red hyper rose year Dirk and a silver ant man There's a palo base rookie and writes guys box three This is four box break number 58 closing out the case Good luck See another mojo. I mean, I think we've got five in this case already There's a Steph Curry nice hit there on the purple power to 125 or cracked ice We have a sensational signatures going to uh the jazz rookie of Johnny Juzang Yes, he doesn't have base uh clay Thompson hyper Peyton Watson and Bain We did have one gold breath. It was a uh It was a Jason Preston uh second year for the Clippers Yeah, that was in the last break Hopefully we get one in this one Silver widescreen Yanis Silver is Devonte Graham Jeremy Sohan rookie I think we can see some more color out of here though. It's a nice case color wise so far Here is red waves Shea Gilgis Fireworks Tatum and Trey Murphy hyper Jaylin Williams Dylan Brooks Fearless Chuck We've got a Josh Giddy hyper some giddy in these boxes guys and Daniels agent Griffin prismatic silver Jaylin green LeBron fireworks and silver Tim Duncan American Albert and Shingoon That's what they call Tim Duncan the thing. We've got a purple looks like jazz It is going to be Malik Beasley for the jazz number to 99 Silver is Austin Reeves Scott Pippen Junior Malik Beasley's uh Yeah purple cracked ice going to be Steve Nash nice one there to 149 Coach Steve There's a hyper campaign for the suns Like coach even big mouth Patrick Ewing Brewing I lost the track of that show a little bit but first few seasons were funny Red to 199 Jay Crowder. Yeah, actually absurd Oh, we got a mojo auto now this time It is going to be trailblazers on the sensational signatures little glove Gary Peyton the second the mitten As Forrest says As Sam says for us says The 25 nice Gary Michael Jordan pulsar rookie Kiehl's Yeah, Wayne Gretzky Michael Jordan and Michael Scott Forrest Sam That game a telephone at that point Oh Orange wave Come on be a rookie Orange wave is not a rookie. It is Ben Simmons number to 60 going to the Nets Ben Simmons 33 of 60 Got a check luck of the lottery Silver is Montrez Harrell Paolo rookie Premier League Forrest is out Gonna watch out every Saturday. I forget. That's why I don't work Saturdays Too much of savage right away Monta Morris Fearless jaw and silver buddy Kenzie is in the building. Oh That means one of one Paolo right now There's rookie Josh. Oh, sorry Wendell Moore red wave different rookie There's Bojan pulsar There's a Walker Kessler ranger Dennis Rodman Pull a Ben Simmons car without without someone commenting challenge impossible Pretty much. What's up, Anthony? Ben Simmons do get roasted man Prismatic there's silver Gary Trent Ben Simmons, there's a few other guys that there's a comment every time Last box break number 58 guys Next up we got a tube 10 box. There's a canner's optic and then a four box of enix We are sold out. We have plenty of breaks fill in tonight. Kenzie will be starting about five o'clock here once we get out of here So you can check the uh break schedule and the featured page on Website to check those out laden sports cards.com as it says right back there Mine doesn't like all over the stream. Yeah, true. Mine doesn't say it uh Doesn't have room and it cuts it off Got red waves any avidia Silvercade Oshae rookie kindle brown and area 21 Kg that was his uh, that was his show on tnt or whatever it was He had his own sports show 299 we've got a red garrison matthews for the rockets Our auto is going to be a rookie auto for the raptors christian caloco Nice hit for the raptors there on the rookie auto uh dia batae rookie hyper Lofton and kj kelvin johnson Nicola yokich fearless. We've got a kawaii Leonard pulsar Ladelle Ooh, there's a blue rookie. It's gonna be blake westley to 199 Nice one for the spurs on the blue rookie got clinkapela hyper terry and shack But where's terry? That video's goaded So good Silver fearless james harden. I laugh every time. Oh, yeah Silver rookie going to spurs again malachi brandem Somehow the noises he makes and like the visuals just always get me It's actually an insane video the guy's laughter is the best. Oh, yeah We have purple the 149 it's going to be lou will Going to the hawk spot silver kelly ubre bow champ and a hearty base rookie silver prismatic derosin base pismatic green and silver rookie keegan murray For the kings there. That's ryan b joshman knot rookie red wave isca coral jimmy harden fireworks. We've got the admiral pulsar for the spurs shading sharp base rookie There's chet base rookie red wave chuck barkley Levine fireworks and pulsar rookie or hyper rookie is musa di abate tai tai and herb jones I have a red power. Come on It's going to be red power of rui hachimura Go into the wizards Second round rui the current laker 31 of 75 Curry fearless second round rui silver cp3 It's doctrine. How's the pitching man? That's insane joshua What? That's crazy silver jamal murray That's like a ace.  I don't know the a's might actually be like more like 20 They've been bad Yeah, but they also have to go against the bad pitcher too. You know what I mean Purple ice rookie. We got chet home grand nice one there Thunder spot that's sam With the chet to 149.  We got uh signatures there wants a scone o anderson He also has been great this year I mean his higher elevation mexico city is at uh, maybe the ball flies a little more. That's probably what it is There's a hyper uh dame lillard Duran rookie and bend the bucket on the back higher elevation than quarters All right guys that will do it for uh prison basketball hobby four big four box break number 58 Give me one second here. We'll get a a Recap going then we got a random for this uh 400 points Okay, we're gonna do the points first never mind do it. We're doing the points first All right guys gonna roll dice here. See how many times you go on the random We are going seven times six and one We got the hawks down to the wizards going seven times. Good luck one two three four five six And seven hornets taking home the 400 points Timberwolves down at the bottom. All right guys, let me do a quick hit recap then we'll get moving on to football got two uh Two 10 box casers of contenders optic Got a red to 2.99 matthews Crowder Achua rj. Hampton to 199 blake wesley o kong wu mobley to 149 steven ash curry Barton mobley, uh and then Purple and 99 lou will malik beasley and rookie nicola.  We have been Simmons the 60 We have a mojo to 25 been wallace for the pistons Autos are toscano anderson colloco juzang del curry johnny davis shingoon We have a mojo, uh auto gary payton the second sensational sigs and chet to close us out Purple ice to 149 Nice hit there sam All right guys that will do it for four box break number 58. We will get contenders optic going right away


Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi ta'ala wa barakatuh. This is Faraz Rabani, Executive Director and Senior Instructor at Seekers' Guidance and a friend of the MCC community. There's many, a few that I've known for many years and love dearly. Ramadan Mubarak to one and all. Over the next four weeks, we'll be looking at some of the Suras that we recite commonly. And we'll touch upon some of their meanings and significance. And I wanted to begin today by looking at Surat Al-Fatiha. And everyone would maybe feel that, well, I know Surat Al-Fatiha, but let's look at some points that the scholars mentioned regarding this Noble Surah. So let's begin. Al-hamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Before we begin the recitation of the Qur'an, we recite the Ta'awuth, the Seeking of Refuge. And this Seeking of Refuge is tremendously significant, right? We say, a'awuthu billahi minash shaitanir rajim. And a'awuthu billah. I seek refuge in Allah, right? Literally, I am a refugee who has fled from harm and sought refuge, shelter, with Allah SWT, right? The refugee leaves a place of harm and finds refuge, protection, care, shelter in a place of peace and serenity and goodness. So a'awuthu billahi minash shaitanir rajim. When we recite this, when we open the recitation, this is very significant, right? And one of the things that I have found most beneficial in my personal devotion, in my prayer, in reciting Qur'an, in dhikr, in dua is a very simple concept, but it is profound, which is that meanings come before words. So you should mean what you say, then say it. Mean what you say, then say it. So sometimes we think about reflecting on the Qur'an, that I say something, then I engage in an analysis after it. So I say a'awuthu billahi minash shaitanir rajim. So I say the Arabic, then if I'm feeling up to it, I'll sort of mentally translate it. I might think a little about it, but then I feel insecure that I pause for so long. No. Whether it's Qur'an or dhikr, when we say a'awuthu billahi minash shaitanir rajim, before we start recitation, pause for a moment, right? Mean it, then say it. That's the most important of lessons. Mean it, then say it. Just consider love, right? If you have an old friend named Ahsan, you say, Ahsan, I love you by the way. Then I think about it. So you know what? I meant that, right? It would be very strange because you should mean it first, then say it. So that's, so a'awuthu billahi minash shaitanir rajim. I seek refuge in Allah, right?  And this has a lesson in life that the shaitan is one of our enemies in life. What is the way to deal with one's enemies in life? Harm in life, one's fears in life? It is? By finding refuge in Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. So that's the first lesson. Then we say, Bismillahir rahmanir raheem. Bismillahir rahmanir raheem is an amazing gift that Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, has given us. Bismillahir rahmanir raheem and we say, by the name of Allah, merciful and compassionate. Entire treatises have been written on this and I have ones floating around somewhere. This is not actually my, this is my basement, my library sort of dispersed all over, but I have no less than a dozen full-length treatises on the meanings of the Bismillah, right? This is just one of them in 460 pages. There's five different commentaries on the meanings of Bismillahir rahmanir raheem. That's just five of over a dozen treatises that I have. I have not tried to gather them. When we say Bismillahir rahmanir raheem by the name of Allah, merciful and compassionate. One thing is that that's not a full statement. The full statement is something implicit, right? Bismillahir rahmanir raheem. I begin, I recite, I eat, I drink, you know, whatever you're doing. That is the key to Bismillahir rahmanir raheem. So one of the the adab of the, when you say Bismillahir rahmanir raheem, you have in mind what you're about to do in the context of Quran. Bismillahir rahmanir raheem by the name of Allah, merciful and compassionate. I recite. I am reciting the Quran. So keep that in mind. Then by the name of Allah, this by the name meaning relying upon Allah with Allah and seeking Allah. So the Ba here much has been said about it, but practically there are three meanings of the Ba.  Do I begin this action with Allah meaning in consciousness of Allah, seeking consciousness of Allah and for Allah, for the sake of Allah. And we should be people of meaning.  And then so that's how we open the Fatiha. Then we say Bismillah by the name of Allah and then we say Allah. Who is Allah? The one alone free of need of any other who all are in absolute need of the encompassing the merciful. Ar-Rahman is the encompassing the merciful.  He said a particularly merciful in his sustaining all things. Ar-Rahman ar-Raheem. So you say Alhamdulillahi Rabbi, all praise is Allah's, the Lord of the worlds. All praise is Allah's, the Lord of the worlds. Alhamdulillahi Rabbi Al-Alami. All praise and the all it's either praise itself belongs to Allah. It's categorical or it's encompassing every praise is Allah's or Allah's praise for himself. All praise or praise itself is deserved by Allah and belongs to Allah. He is Lord of the worlds. Now Rabb is not just Lord, right? Rabb has at least half a dozen main meanings. When we say Rabb, right? Rabb is from the expressions of mercy. It means the carer, the cherisher, the loving, the merciful, the nourisher, right? Because Rabb is from Thedbia, is the one who takes care of something that is theirs from its beginning to its end. Taking it towards its good, right? And we would do well to translate it as the caring Lord, right? Or something like that. Rabb Al-Alami, the Lord of all worlds. Ar-Rahman ar-Raheem, the encompassing, the merciful, the particularly merciful. And this is repeated for emphasis because we don't sufficiently realize the mercy of Allah, right? And as we recite the Fatiha, Sayyida Aisha was asked, how was the recitation of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam?  His recitation was steady. He would make each word clear and distinct and unrushed. He would pause at the end of each verse, right? Ar-Rahman ar-Raheem, Maliki yawmideen, the master of the day of reckoning. He is the most merciful, but we are accountable, right? We are accountable. We think of the greatness of that day and how we'll attain his mercy on that day, Maliki yawmideen. Iyaka na'put, it is you alone we are devoted to. It is, and Iyaka na'put is recognition, submission, worship, devotion, seeking. It is you alone that we rely upon. And this is the statement of complete commitment, but complete freedom. It is you alone that is our ultimate objective. We have no other world. And if that ultimate objective is in place, then what is the problem? And it's you alone we rely upon, right? Who's on your side? The Lord of the Worlds. It's what is there to stress about. Ar-Rahman ar-Raheem, Maliki yawmideen, Iyaka na'put, it is you alone we are devoted to. But Iyaka na'stein, it is you alone that we rely upon. So that is the opening of the first half of the Fatiha, which is directed towards Allah. Iyaka na'put Iyaka na'put, Iyaka na' trusts, guides us to the path that is straight. It guides us, right? Even the ha comes from deep within, guides us. And what is guidance? Sheikhil Islam, Kamal, or even Kamal Basha, one of the greatest of the Ottoman scholars there. Hidayah is to show another the way gently and with care. Ehdina guide us gently with care to the path that is straight. Why does a believer ask to be guided to the path that is straight? Because we're needy. We want to draw closer to Allah. This expresses the yearning of the soul for Allah SWT. Ehdina as-Sirat al-Mustarqib. The path that is straight, that is upright, that is the path of the Prophet, SAW. Sirat al-Hedina and Anthali, the path of those you have blessed before us, that requires seeking knowledge, that requires having exemplars, both exemplars from the past that we look to the example of the Prophet, SAW. And the past prophets before him as we go through the Qur'an, for example. But also to connect with those who connected with the way of the Prophet, SAW, of the companions and the prophetic household and the righteous to connect ourselves and our families to those past examples. But also to connect to the living examples, both the exemplars and good company. Sirat al-Hedina and Anthali, the path of those you have blessed because we are not alone in our journey to Allah. There are people ahead of us on that journey that have traversed before and we are a faith community. We have exemplars and we have good company. Sirat al-Hedina and Anthali. Ghayr al-Maghdoob, not the path of those that are under your wrath while Allah lead, nor those who are astray. And when we make, recite the Fatiha and we feel need, we feel gratitude. Because this is an encompassing dua. It's an encompassing dua and our Lord who tells us, He is al-Rahman al-Rahim, has told us in the Qur'an, wo du'oon ni astajib lakum, call upon me, I will answer you. Beloved, Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, tells us, wo du'oon laa wa du'oon muklimu nabil ijadah, call upon Allah with complete certitude in His answer. So the Fatiha is not to be rushed, it's not to be rushed. Live its meanings, right? To be spiritually alive is to bring the life, the meanings of the Qur'an we touched upon when you say, I'm a refugee to Allah. Bismillah, with these three meanings in it, by Allah, with Allah, for Allah. And you have those when you recite the Fatiha, but that is a key to goodness in life. And then the meanings of the Fatiha, recite it, unrushed. Mean what you recite, then say it. May our restation of the Qur'an be a declaration of love because Allah's messenger, Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, tells us that Allah has chosen servants amongst His creation. And the people of Qur'an are the people of Allah. And His most chosen, may Allah make us and you, our families and your families, our communities and your communities of the people of Qur'an, and may Allah manifest for us relief through our return to Him, but by His mercy and generosity. You have a blessed month of Ramadan and may we be united with our communities in the best of ways. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.


Hey, fair warning. If you don't want to see someone puke, well, you wouldn't have clicked on this video.  On we go. This is Dylan Bundy. He's pitching in the Bronx. It's 100 degrees hot as hell. He's wearing red. His face is red. And this one's brought to you by DraftKings. And when you download the DraftKings sportsbook, use promo code JOMBOY when you do. So he's in the second inning. It's early on. He's facing Gio Arcella, who smokes that pitch to the outfield for a home run. And now he's hot. And he's also kind of frustrated. And then Andrew Hart gets a single the next batter. So now he's in a little whirlwind just looking around like, I want to get me out of here. And now not only is his face sweating, but his hat starts to sweat as well. He doesn't want to be anywhere near there. But he does get Brett Gardner to ground out. So that's good news. But the sweat just gets worse and worse. And now his hat, his hat is dripping like crazy. And he steps up. He looks into the box. He sees DJ staring right back at him. No way. I don't want to do this at all. And now he pukes a little bit. And then he pukes a little bit more. And then DJ's like, okay, I guess we're not going to do this. And then he pukes a whole bunch more. And DJ's like, oh man, okay, cool. That's gross. That's disgusting. Then the trainer comes out and he says, hey, hey Dylan, what's the problem? Is it is it that mound of puke right in front of you? Is that what we're dealing with right here? And he's like, yeah, yeah, puked on KD. He's kind of into it. And he's like, whoa, I came for baseball, but I like of the puke. And that means that he's not going to get more than five and a half strikeouts, which was the over under on draft Kings for the line today. If you downloaded draft Kings, if you used my promo code john boy when you did and place the bet on the Dylan Bundy over five and a half strikeouts, you kind of got God, you have to understand when it's hot in the Bronx and a pitcher might puke from heat exhaustion. So that's on you. But to everyone that took Dylan Bundy on draft Kings and took the under, job well done.


Severino made his first rehab start through two innings, allowed a hit, struck out three, 22 pitches over that span. He's currently on the IL, but will be eligible to be activated on September 12th. So that's a good first rehab start for Sebe. We thought we might see him for up to 40 pitches. He throws just 22. What's realistic? If he's eligible to come back in 10 days, would you want him getting more rehab starts? Well, he's not coming back in 10 days unless he pitches out of the bullpen. Unless he goes, what, three innings? Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. How about make him kind of an opener? Would you want him to throw those innings at the major league level, or does it make more sense to have him do it in the minor league? Well, I think it makes more sense to do it in the minor league level until he at least gets his pitch count up to maybe 65 to 75 pitches. I mean, you would like to see him go five, and then all of a sudden, if you're not, if you're bringing him up early, what are you doing? You're exposing a bullpen. Their bullpen is very good, but you don't want those middle guys, the ones that have to give you two or three innings, you want to limit those guys. Right. You're set up, guys, and now you have homes back. Hopefully you get Chapman back here soon. So that's fine. You're late innings, guys. But your middle guys, that's what you're going to worry about. If you bring up Severino, yes, okay. First couple innings, two, three innings is fine, but after that, I mean, that's a little struggle.


Yesterday, the Yankees acquired Tim LaCastro from Arizona and tonight, he'll be in uniform and potentially make his Yankees debut. He talked earlier on the field, it's our quote of the day, brought to you by Toyota. As the guy that grew up in upstate New York, Yankees fan, is this a dream come true for you? Absolutely. I mean, I just got the chills when you said that. I mean, my family's going to be here, my fiance's going to be here. I can't wait for tonight. It's going to be awesome. What was their reaction when you told them you had been traded to the Yankees? They were more excited than me because they were having to stay up to 1-2 in the morning to watch games, so now they can actually watch games on East Coast time, so that's a good thing. What was it like for you to step into that clubhouse, put the pinstripes on? It's something you literally dream about as a kid and find the came of reality and I can't wait to get started with this team. I'm very excited. Did you have any inkling of this coming? Players sometimes know when they're on the block, when they might be traded, etc. Did this catch you completely off guard? Did you have some idea? Completely off guard, had no idea whatsoever. I woke up at 9.45 in the morning to 200 text messages and 20 missed calls and next thing you know I'm on a red-eyed in New York last night, so I mean I'm very excited and ready to get going. So you found out 9.45. I found out 9.45 when I woke up, correct. What was the most memorable part of your first tour of duty with the Yankees? Well I never made an appearance as a Yankee, but I would say the initial getting traded there, how happy my family was, my cousins, I mean my cousins so rooted for the Yankees when they played against the Diamondbacks, so now we can have one team on the roof floor. How do you think you'll fit into this team? I'm trying to do whatever it takes to win and help this team win. That's the number one goal here. I mean as a fan growing up the standard was to win and that's still the standard and I want to help that this team win. How many people you have here tonight, would you guess in total? There's going to be, tonight I got my parents, my fiancee, my aunt, tomorrow and the next night we could get in the 50 plus, so. There's an organization here, this is a group that has been able to find players from other organizations and find different things that have increased their offensive profile. Yeah. Have you had any discussions with the hitting coaches here about just different things to try or things that they would want to work with you on? Yeah we've talked briefly, but after this I had a few coaches say come meet with me so we're going to discuss that more, but I'm ready to get going and whatever I can help this team I'm ready to go. Have they talked to you about how they plan on using it? A little bit. I told them, any role you need me, if you want me to come off the bench, pinch run, pinch hit, start a game, I'll be ready. I've done those roles my whole career and I'll continue to do that now. You've been growing up as a Yankee fan, do you have any favorite memories of games you went to? Who are your guys? I remember I was here running Raul Abanyas, hit the home run in the playoffs, he pinched it for A-Rod, tied the game off that he won it and I think it was the 12th or 13th, that was probably the coolest and most memorable moment of the recent time. Where were you sitting? I was sitting down on the third baseline going nuts. I remember me and my buddies who drove down from college in Ithaca and it was a great experience.