Here are some of the large options trades that caught our attention today: 1. FB – A trader closed a ratio call spread in January, sold 26K Jan 45calls at 5.60 to buy 40K Jan …
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1. GM – After the close the Treasury Secretary stated that the Govt has officially exited its stake from the bailout during the financial crisis. Prior to the stock closing at new all time highs, options …
Continue readingYesterday was the first roller coaster price action in the broader indices in quite some time. It was the largest intraday range for the index in several weeks, and the VIX hit its highest level …
Continue readingVIX spot is back near the low of 2013, touching the 12 level on Friday. The low of 2013 was 11.05 back in March, and the VIX has bounced higher from around 12 on numerous …
Continue readingThe S&P 500 continues to be one of the best performing major indices in the world. The index is now up more than 25% in 2013, a very impressive performance for an environment characterized by …
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As part of some new offerings we’ll be concentrating on potential portfolio hedges when we feel the market could be at inflection points. In August we showed a couple potential hedges using SPY options before …
Continue readingTraders are always looking for relative out/under-performance among instruments in the same asset classes. Some of the best traders I know like to buy strength and sell weakness until it looks to be too much …
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Traders were totally focused on macro instruments, with very large volumes in SPX and SPY options, and lower than normal volumes in single stock options. SPY – Volumes were about 75% higher than the 1 month …
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Macro-related instruments were much more active than single stocks given the increased correlation in the market on yesterday’s down day. VIX – Almost 3x the average 1 month volume. The most active options were actually October …
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Earlier today there was a trade in the IWM that caught my eye (I will discuss below), largely because the small cap ETF that mirrors the Russell 2000 index has shown very dramatic relative strength …
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