alternative use. bitcoin has value because people say it has value and are willing to use it as a medium for value. >> it is scarcity value, but it's created scarcity value. i'm wondering whether the forces that created it can -- >> this bitcoin trust was tweeted about yesterday. >> that's the perfect place to leave it evan, mike, thank you both that does it for "closing bell." have a great weekend, everyone "fast money" starts right now. "fast money" starts now with breaking news. a crazy day on wall street and in washington, d.c former national security adviser michael flynn pled guilty to lying to the fbi that sent stocks tumbling. then senate majority leader mitch mcconnell announcing on the floor that republicans have the votes to pass their tax plan but some details are still being ironed out even as we go to air. all of this had investors running wild today, dow trading at a 400-point range, its widest

range of the year. at one point it was down 353 points and ultimately came back in a massive way, ending the day down just 30 as always we've got full team coverage for you and the latest details from d.c. with eamon javers in front of the white house and ylan mui in front of capitol hill where the senate vote is expected tonight eamon, let's kick it off with you. >> reporter: the most significant today with the news that flynn is in fact cooperating with the special counsel. that means it's expected he had some information of value to provide to the special counsel in exchange for these lower charges. here is exactly what we know about flynn's case as of tonight. flynn pled guilty today of lying to the fbi about his talks with the russian ambassador, this was after the election and before the inauguration prosecutors said flynn discussed russia with senior members of the transition team, including

jared kushner. the white house attorney says nothing about this guilty plea implicates anyone here other than mr. flynn himself the white house very much trying to minimize flynn's role here, pointing out that he only worked here for less than 30 days at the white house and suggesting, as you just heard from the statement, that the only person implicated here is flynn himself. so we have the statement here from ty cobb saying the false statements involved mirror the false statements to officials which resulted in his resignation in february of this year very much the white house strategy appears to be isolating mike flynn the question for the white house tonight is what does flynn know and what has he told the special counsel. >> eamon javers, thanks very much progress the tax bill is what led to that big rebound. ylan mui has that part of the story. >> reporter: brian, it looks like the vote on the senate tax bill is going to be 51-49, more than enough for republicans to get this out of the senate

they're going to have to do it without bob corker he just said that he is a no on the tax bill he said it was a tough vote and he's disappointed in the decision, that at the end of the day he couldn't cast aside his fiscal concerns. his no vote comes after susan collins of maine says she does support the bill she received insurances from republican leadership that they would work with her on some key issues like health care, a deduction for property taxes, and something for medical expenses as well so all of these concessions are going to require some tradeoffs. and one of them is the inclusion of the alternative minimum tax for both individuals and corporations i talked to senator james lankford of oklahoma who is one of the senators who got to yes today. he said that's part of the compromise in washington >> it was really a tradeoff to be able to get lower rates, to make sure we have the revenue. no one wants to be revenue

negative we want to be revenue neutral to compensate for bringing down the rates. >> reporter: right now we're waiting for republicans to finish up the formal debate on the bill that should be happening very shortly shortly. after that they'll move on to voting to eight to 15 or so amendments the final amendment will come from senate majority leader mitch mcconnell himself, that will be the final revised version of the tax bill. we're still anticipating a vote to want. >> thank you, ylan mui david seeberg, we know this market has been beholden to tax cuts did you believe or anybody at the colantine think this market was beholden to the market where the dow fell in minutes? >> you're absolutely right algos were triggered institutional traders,

institutional accounts, are blowing out of stocks. we didn't see that sort of momentum come in on the sell side it was triggering algos, it pushed stocks lower. we had positive headlines that talked about tax possibly coming through. and of course it reversed from that perspective i don't believe it to be any more than a blip i don't think people looked at it and intellectually thought it would derail this bull market narrative, earnings and global growth >> i don't know how you can say it won't derail at least the concept that within the republican party, if you saw a political run like the kind we saw today that people start to decide what the next domino to fall in washington would be, why that couldn't stall progress for a congress or a senate that's been unbelievably focused here, and give them credit, they're actually working on a bill that i hope is not going to sound like the bill we got right away. when susan collins comes on board and says she's expecting significant concessions, that's

encouraging. bob corker dropping out is also very significant he was at least the sign of fiscal restraint within the republican team. obviously the guy that was the biggest holdout. to say that things are in a great place herei think is to -- >> here's the problem you have, right? okay, we have this negative news on flynn and potentially something to do with the president today and positive news on tax reform what happens once they pass tax reform and the negative news comes out on the president that situation isn't over, that's going to drag on for a while. we know we have kind of this tax reform put sitting under the market but once that's passed, i would be afraid of what else is out there. you kind of have that hangover effect >> the confusion, guy adami, is that yesterday mccain said or at least indicated he would go yes, the market soared. today mcconnell, and like he should have done the arby's commercial, "we have the votes," when he came out of the floor. >> i'm not familiar with that. >> yes, you are, you know arby's

very well. you'll see it tonight. we still finished down despite the fact that tax reform literally looks to be in the bag. >> still finished down but, you know, the thing that stuck out to me today was, we were discussing it before, the vix, the volatility index on a day like today effectively closed unchanged, up a percent or so. this was a vix that at one point today was over 14, closed down 11 1/2 the market doesn't seem to care. you talk about these algos, it seemed to be programmed to any time the market is sold off in any meaningful way, to buy stocks hand over fist. financials never wavered today xlf closed in the green. all the reasons we're discussing is extraordinarily scary the market doesn't seem to care. i hear what bk is saying the fact that this flynn thing could be dragged on for months if not longer to me is actually pretty bullish >> it's bullish for volatility

because you will get those headlines that will hit in anything >> why would it be bullish >> because -- >> because the worst case is a president pence, as jeremy segal said on cbc. >> dragged out for weeks if not months if not a year or so the market will look past this think about this friday in front of a potential vote over the weekend, vix closes unchanged the complacency out there, whether justified or not, is alarming >> i look at the iwm which is totally seemingly the litmus test for whether taxes are -- the iwm went down 3% intraday on flynn news, not on tax news. we haven't had a lot of these, frankly, despite what you would think would be opportunities to go after the president, but there's only been a couple of moments when the market has taken at least whether the president is sitting there in a

position of vulnerability, today was one of those days, even if it was a millisecond, whatever you want to say. the stock market is not immune to this. and to say that suddenly -- look, whether taxes go through or not, what you said, guy, that this could be hanging over us for a long time, i think it's negative i think you've entered into a different phase of this investigation. >> i am not going to compare this to watergate by any means because it's not anywhere near that at all. however, we have nothing else comparable necessarily during the two-year watergate investigation, the dow fell 50%. that was a different time. it was the mid-'70s, we had a gas crisis, a lot of different -- >> i understand that but to suggest there's no risk to me is head in the sand. >> right i think there is i'm certainly -- we know there is because look at what the market did today, right? we were down 350 points on just the mention of it. >> the small caps in particular, those are the stocks that can be

manipulated if you want the moves. that's of course going to have the biggest impact >> the iwm is a massive instrument who is manipulating the small caps >> the constituents within there are absolutely the ones that these algos are going to go after. >> they can go after $50 million market caps. the iwm, the russell index is not something that's manipulating it's a sentiment reader, it's a momentum reader. it's not something that the algos are after because you're going after one small cap company. >> you're going after a section of small cap companies, specific small cap companies. there have been a group they're going after and blasting it's all computer generated. >> we'll continue this discussion, guys right now let's talk about what's going on in d.c we'll bring in axios co-founder mike allen, welcome to "fast money," welcome to the mosh pit. we learned a lot today we got a guilty plea from michael flynn. however, there are still more

questions than answers, are there not? what's the next step >> absolutely. and i completely agree with you gu guys this is a different phase. we have mueller stepping on trump's huge day of triumph. the final passage will come around 8:00 or 9:00 tonight. only one republican holdout, senator corker of tennessee, zero democrats that would be a huge moment, page turn in the trump presidency instead you're right about this dark cloud this signals tons of clues in these documents [ inaudible ] to say, he's taking a broad view of what he's up to [ inaudible ]. and today is [ inaudible ] basically [ inaudible ] lots of different things he could have had flynn meet guilty to the fact that he did it on

russia, on the most narrow part of his mandate is a huge sign to the white ouse >> mike, unfortunately we got kind of a bad connection with your phone but your points are well-taken thank you very much, mike allen. that vote tonight, 8:00 or 9:00 tonight, although i've heard it could go well past midnight. the point is there's a lot we don't know forget politics. what markets are not supposed to like is when we don't know something. >> correct >> we don't know what earnings are, what growth is. why would we have more risk premium? >> there's no question there's a black cloud from a news flow perspective. there may be negative headlines that will come out and the market will react to negative headlines. let's make the assumption, the worst case scenario, trump is out of office. how does that change the narrative? >> that would be a massive change whether you like trump -- >> the market would go up. >> i don't believe that.

i think whether you like trump or not, he has stood for a changing of the guard. and maybe, by the way, just say trump was to gallop out of town for whatever reasons, some would say he served his purpose, he didn't drain the swamp but he got the country thinking in a different way, and isn't that what a lot of people wanted to happen you can't tell me, if you remove trump from office, every time we've had a specter of this, there have been three days like this, today was an important day, it's mueller time, it's game on. >> everything tim said, it should be extraordinarily negative but i just look at the way things are trending today on a friday when historically this is a day with all the headlines that we got, despite the fact that it looks like the votes will go in favor of the republicans, this market should have been down 500 to 700 dow

appointments and it effectively closed unchanged i'm not saying it's right or wrong. >> the only thing i would say say is this, martha in missouri, you know, or david in dallas, they're going to not buy a car or go out to eat because they're watching these headlines, i don't think so >> or to arby's, possibly. >> we have the traders >> by the way, thanks for coming in, brian, it's great to have you. we didn't acknowledge you or greet you. we typically do that it was a busy show tonight >> that was wrong. >> he was forced to come in. >> that's not what you're supposed to say. >> we're on live >> you weren't forced to do anything >> i love being with you guys. >> teva pharma >> despite the fact of the trump headlines that could be a problem, the way that the small caps traded today are where you want to be because you know now, eight quite a range, at least today's low is your stop-out point

you know we get this vote tonight, monday morning you're going to get a little bit of a run in this. >> are you saying buy small caps >> yes >> especially the ones beaten down, benefiting from the fact that tax cuts could be propping them up. burlington is a name that's moved, on fundamentals, not just the prospect of tax consults >> i'm very comfortable in that short. small caps are priced at an enormous -- let them have the tax by me, have at it as my friend dan nathan would say. we've priced a lot of that in. i bought energy, opec's meeting caught a lot of people by surprise, they came out of that meeting in greater unanimity than people thought. halliburton, we've been buying this thing on a range trade, i like it. >> thank you, guys, very much. coming up, if today's wild swings have you worried, do not worry. we've got a way for you to buy protection for less than $5. plus one sweet trade is

turning sour chinese stocks having their worst week of the year one of our traders says now is the time to buy the dip. we'll explain. and later on, bitcoin futures are about to become a reality. and after a wild week for the crypto currency, our resident bitcoin expert, guy adami. >> something happened that totally validated the product. we'll tell what you that is when "fast money" returns

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welcome back to "fast money. a built of a buzzkill, china style. chinese stocks getting slammed today, sinking another percent the fxi, the biggest china stock etf, falling jd.com down 5%, tencent falling 7% keep in mind, investors in these stocks are still happy, alibaba has doubled this year. are you buying the dip, tim seymour? >> as an asset class this week relative to the s&p, a ratio i

like to look at, the em fell by almost 6% in six sessions and took out the entire out performance of the summer. this is not just a china story look at nvidia, mega cap names in u.s. tech again, high multiple names we saw in allocation. this is not an indictment of china, folks if anything, the consumption story in china has been validated by baba. all the numbers we've seen, people universally acknowledge that whether it's s.t.a.b. versus faang is just as interesting of a tech story. >> the bigger overarching picture that concerns me is they have a ton of debt, they're raising interest rates, they're taking that debt down. >> are we going to do this again? come on. >> they're doing it now. i didn't say they were going to blow up. i said they have a lot of debt and they're taking that debt down when you deleverage an economy, it slows down. so therefore stocks should go

down that to me is what concerns me about china. >> look, i mean, last night, epix was my final trade, that's a buy here, it's a fine setup. in my opinion, look, china has been very clear, they're trying to slow down speculation they're going to pull the reins in when they need your feel-to >> guy adami -- >> not going to have a state agency declaring a liquidity issue. >> it's not up to them >> using the analogy of the bang-in, would you say they're banging on china this week >> 100%, tim >> the only hit from that album was "say it isn't so." >> that also fits into this discussion by the way, voices from babylon, third album, didn't do well. still ahead, one bright spot in the market today, energy stocks could they lead this year's laggards into leaders? we'll explain. in the meantime, here's what else is coming up on "fast."

♪ mick, we'll do better than that we'll show you how to protect your portfolio for less than five bucks plus with stocks tanking, guess what traders bought today. bitcoin. and we'll tell you why that's so important, which "fast money" returns. another day at the office. why do you put up with it? believe it or not you actually like what you do. even love it. and today, you can do things you never could before.

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welcome back to "fast money. bitcoin soaring today as federal regulators approved the launch of bitcoin futures on the cboe and the cme. the cme following up by announcing its bitcoin futures contracts will be available on december 18th. bk, what do you make of the impending launch >> a watershed event in my view. i'm bullish on bitcoin, i'm

somewhat biased. an investor asked me, what keeps you up at night? that the u.s. would ban bitcoin at some point. with the nasdaq getting in the game, that takes that concern off the table. you'll see an awful lot of institutional money flowing into this sector. a watershed event. >> interesting what keeps me up at night is insomnia now you can short 'em, baby, not just a one-way street, guy, like the chinese stock market >> chicago mercantile exchange has made an all-time high today despite this huge selloff in the market, that's extraordinarily interesting. valuation is stretched but more things are trading and their numbers are going higher, volumes are increasing increased volatility is good for these changes. chicago mercantile exchange is a buy. >> it's no toys in the attic final trade. >> hail burton

>> twitter, a seller >> ibm >> i think "fast money" is too fast >> you're selling twitter. i'm buying ibm international business machines. i like their blockchain. >> i knew you were going to say some sort of a blockchain play >> yeah, why not >> if you look at ibm's last quarter, bk might be on to something. i think teva pharmaceuticals, take a look at that one, tech man. >> if you're going to say it, say it proud guys, thank you. >> i love it, you wouldn't miss you guys >> a lot of good ideas and good trades catch you back at 5:00 eastern on monday. i'll be blaack next monday at 5:00 "options action" starts after the break.

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action," special coverage of the wild day on wall street and in washington if you're just joining us, it was indeed a roller coaster day for stocks and your money. stocks getting slammed at 11:00 a.m. following an abc report that president trump had instructed michael flynn to make contact with russian officials over their involvement with isis in syria the vix at one point spiking a two or three month high. then a major reversal occurred on reports that senate republicans did indeed have the votes to pas