WhatsTrading.com Options Recap — 08/06/2012

Quiet day of trading characterized by very light volumes and rangebound action Monday. With no domestic economic news to guide the early trading, some of the focus was on stock news. Berkshire (BRK/B) ticked higher on the heels of its earnings release and Best Buy (BBY) rallied nearly 20 percent on reports a company founder is seeking to take the company private. Knight Capital (KCG) lost 21 percent and is reeling today on the heels of last week’s trading snafu on the NYSE. Yet, crude oil prices rose 74 cents to $92.14 per barrel and gold gained $6 to $1615.5 an ounce. Solid gains across the Eurozone amid falling bond yields in Spain and Italy helped sentiment as well. Spain’s IBEX paced the advance with a 4 percent gain. On Wall Street, trading has been rangebound throughout most of the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has traded in an 87-point range and is up 70 points. The NASDAQ added 29.

Overall volume totals are very light to start the week. Our data show only 3.9 million of spot volume so far, which is about 74 percent the expected. 10.6 million options contracts changed hands (5.7 million calls/4.9 million puts) and about 85 percent the recent daily average. CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) is ticking higher after losing 17.5 percent Thursday and Friday. VIX is up .26 to 15.90, but still at the lower end of its recent range. But trading in the VIX pit is active. 471,000 calls and 271,000 puts so far, including a massive Oct 19 – Nov 25 strangle buyer in morning action. KCG continues to see heavy trading in the wake of last week’s trading debacle. 254,000 contracts traded on Knight so far. Best Buy is seeing news-driven flow as well. 124,000 traded. HCA puts were active after shares fell on earnings. AMAT was the subject of a hefty premium seller in the Jan 12.5 calls. Some directional put flys (Aug 130 – 134 – 138 and Sep 125 – 130 – 135) were seen in the SPDR 500 Trust (SPY). Beyond that, and a handful of other ticker-specific stories, it’s been a relatively slow news day on the options front to start the week.

Notable Flow
NIHD – Bullish flow detected in NII Holdings with 9491 calls trading, or 3x the recent avg daily call volume in the name. Shares near $8.23 (1.43) with ATMIV lifting by 8.30 point and 52% of todays call premium trading offer side. (Trade-Alert) 14:01

HK – Bullish flow detected in Halcon Resources Corporation with 3179 calls trading, or 3x the recent avg daily call volume in the name. Shares near $7.325 (-0.045) with ATMIV lifting by 1.02 point and 81% of todays call premium trading offer side. (Trade-Alert) 12:41

CYOU – Bullish flow detected in Changyou com Limited with 2108 calls trading, or 7x the recent avg daily call volume in the name. Shares near $22.42 (3.05) with ATMIV lifting by 61.98 point and 59% of todays call premium trading offer side. (Trade-Alert) 12:21

High options volume is being seen in VIX, KCG, BBY, AIG, FLSR, PBR, CIM, AMAT, HCA, SIRI

Movers
Symbol Last Change %Change StdDevs
VRNG 3.85 +0.73 +23.4% 3.83
SMP 17.19 +3.12 +22.2% 9.90 Post-Earnings
KCG 3.18 -0.87 -21.5% 0.82
SOHU 41.25 +6.55 +18.9% 7.90 Post-Earnings
CYOU 22.88 +3.51 +18.1% 5.40 Post-Earnings
NIHD 8.00 +1.20 +17.6% 4.92 Pre-Earnings
PSTI 3.85 +0.54 +16.3% 2.91
ALC 10.86 -2.00 -15.6% 6.52
VPHM 22.89 +3.02 +15.2% 5.23
TESO 10.27 -1.79 -14.8% 5.38 Post-Earnings

Shakers (Implied volatility Movers)
Symbol IV[30d] IVChg IVChg% SkewAdjChg Last Change
HCBK 31.9% +9.3 +41.4% N/A $6.35 +0.09
IRDM 42.5% +11.7 +37.8% -2.1 $7.13 -0.37
CTSH 28.9% -16.4 -36.2% -13.3 $64.51 +6.65 Post-Earnings
VPHM 64.8% -29.8 -31.5% -27.9 $22.80 +2.93
IPG 47.7% -20.8 -30.4% -13.1 $10.15 -0.82
PEET 11.1% -4.8 -30.2% -4.8 $74.93 +0.23
MRX 59.7% +13.2 +28.4% +12.9 $33.07 -0.52
HBI 29.4% +6.2 +26.7% N/A $31.88 +0.21
TSN 31.8% -11.5 -26.5% -12.9 $14.21 -1.19 Post-Earnings
SOHU 47.7% -15.9 -25.0% -13.1 $41.25 +6.55 Post-Earnings

52-Week Highs
132 new highs: .VSTRP ACAS ALL AMG AMTG AOL ASPS AVA AWH AWR BANR BBCN BDN BRK/B BXP CAB CBE CBL CBS CBS/A CLNY CNO COT COV CP CRUS CSGS CTAS CTGX CVG DFS DK DKS DPS DTN EGHT EMB ENSG EXP FEIC FFCH FIVE FL FLS FNV FR FRME GE GEO GGP GIL HCC HDB HFC HIBB HNZ HRG HW ICLR IHS JAH JRN KALU KFT KNDI LYB MDSO MITT MLNX MMM MON MRC MTN NCR NCT NRGM NTE NVO NVS NWS NWSA OCN PAA PCY PEP PHB PM POL PSTI PSX PWR RPAI RPT RTH RWT SAIA SBS SEMG SKT SMBL SNI SNY SPG SPSC SRDX SSYS STC STE SVXY SWI SXC TGT TLP TMH TSO TU TWX UA USNA UTHR V VASC VMED VOD VRSN VYM WAL WIBC WLK WRI WWW XLP

52-week Lows
40 new lows: ABFS ACTV ALC AUDC AUO AVEO CHGS CPSL CTIC DEER DM DOG DXD EXPR GEVO GILT MCP MKTS NTLS ORCC PGNX PWAV RSW SDOW SDS SH SHZ SORL SPXS SPXU SYX TSN TWGP USMO UVXY VIIX VIXM VIXY VXX VXZ

Top Equity Blocks
3.45m CIM 2.15 -0.01 -0.5% 10:08:11 – Burst
2.30m NOK 2.45 +0.07 +2.9% 10:33:36 – Average Price Trade
2.21m EZU 28.36 +0.49 +1.8% 10:27:49 – Burst
1.74m IWF 64.81 +0.23 +0.4% 10:31:46 – Burst
1.51m DYNIQ 0.42 10:34:21
1.50m CIM 2.15 -0.01 -0.5% 10:24:21 – Burst
1.49m SHY 84.47 10:32:23 – Burst
1.40m EWJ 9.13 +0.12 +1.3% 11:28:26 – Tied to Options
1.20m VWO 41.01 +0.27 +0.7% 09:45:53 – Derivatively Priced
1.06m IWM 79.46 +0.92 +1.2% 12:36:04 – Average Price Trade

Tags: Earnings, featured, market update, Sentiment

Category: Market Update