WhatsTrading Options Recap — 09/21/2012

Stock market averages have traded in a narrow range on expiration Friday. With no domestic economic news to guide the action, some of the focus remains on Europe. Spain’s IBEX jumped 2 percent on reports a bailout plan will be unveiled on September 27. Bond yields in the debt-troubled country eased and most major European stock markets finished with gains. The euro is up .3 percent and just north of 1.3 on the buck. Crude oil edged 72 cents higher to $93.14 per barrel and gold gained $10 to $1780. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has trade in a slim 50-point range and is up 23 points. The NASDAQ added 13.5 points.

It is options expiration Friday and trading is active, with about 6.4 million calls and 4.8 million puts traded across the exchanges so far. Volume have picked up noticeably in September. Average daily volume so far this month is 18.2 million contracts and that represents a sharp improvement from the 13.6 million of average daily options volume seen in August. Yet, while volume is up, volatility hasn’t yet ticked meaningfully higher. VIX is down .17 to 13.90 midday Friday and the settlement value of 14.03 (from Wednesday) represents the lowest settlement value for the volatility index since June 2007! Now the important question facing options traders is whether or not the trend can last heading into the historically volatile month of October.

Notable Flow

UHS – Bullish flow detected in Universal Health Services with 2631 calls trading, or 6x the recent avg daily call volume in the name. Shares near $45.54 (0.23) with ATMIV lifting by 1.37 point and 91% of todays call premium trading offer side. (Trade-Alert) 13:01

ISIS – Bearish activity detected in Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc with 2196 puts trading, or 4x the recent avg daily put volume in the name. Shares near $14.01 (-1.4) with ATMIV lifting by 25.34 point and 64% of todays put premium trading offer side. Auto Content (Trade-Alert) 12:51

RFMD – Bullish flow detected in RF Micro Devices Inc with 2056 calls trading, or 3x the recent avg daily call volume in the name. Shares near $4.2 (0.07) with ATMIV lifting by 1.79 point and 94% of todays call premium trading offer side. (Trade-Alert) 12:41

High options volume is being seen in ORCL, EMC, XRT, RIMM, STX, KBH, JNJ, QCOR, ECA, MAS

Movers
Symbol Last Change %Change StdDevs
HALO 8.17 +1.76 +27.5% 18.02
KERX 2.94 +0.46 +18.5% 6.72
KBH 15.35 +2.24 +17.1% 6.46 Post-Earnings
BODY 10.20 +1.15 +12.7% 8.33
SNSS 5.69 +0.64 +12.6% 1.30
BTH 34.10 -4.80 -12.3% 5.49
INDL 21.58 +2.33 +12.1% 3.52
VVUS 20.93 -2.79 -11.8% 5.27
AXTI 3.41 +0.33 +10.7% 5.41
IQNT 9.31 -1.09 -10.5% 4.67

Shakers (Implied volatility Movers)
Symbol IV[30d] IVChg IVChg% SkewAdjChg Last Change
NCT 36.2% +11.3 +45.4% +11.0 $8.05 +0.00
TIBX 30.5% -17.3 -36.2% -16.7 $30.27 +0.40 Post-Earnings
ORCL 18.4% -8.4 -31.4% -7.8 $32.58 +0.32 Post-Earnings
THS 28.7% +6.8 +30.8% N/A $51.93 +0.05
CTAS 18.2% -7.4 -29.0% -7.7 $40.56 -0.63 Post-Earnings
DRI 19.2% -7.3 -27.4% -6.2 $56.97 +2.25 Post-Earnings
WIN 23.9% +4.8 +25.2% N/A $10.99 +0.10
ISIS 120.3% +24.0 +24.9% +17.4 $14.16 -1.25
ALXN 41.4% +7.1 +20.7% +7.1 $114.05 +0.32
KBH 51.2% -11.3 -18.1% -13.0 $15.33 +2.22 Post-Earnings

52-Week Highs
304 new highs: .GBP .HGX .MNX .NDX .XDB AAPL ABT ACAD ACCL ACGL ADC AFFY AG AGII AGP ALJ ALKS ALL ALXN AME AMTG AN ANSS AOS ARI ASGN ATAX ATU AUY AVD AZPN BANR BBH BCOR BDSI BGS BIOS BLX BOND BRK/B BRS BWS BZ CAB CAKE CALM CBEY CBOE CBS CBS/A CBST CCE CCI CCM CCOI CEB CECE CFN CFNL CHE CLGX CLNY CMCSA CMCSK CNO COST COV CPF CPTS CPWR CRAY CSGS CSOD CSU CVG CVI CYBX CYTX DAR DDM DENN DHI DIS DISCA DISCK DLPH DRI DSW DUSA DX DXCM EGHT EVER EXAM EXPE FAF FBHS FBT FCBC FELE FISV FL FLT FNF FNV FRGI FRME FSC FSS FUL FUN FVE GBCI GBLI GE GILD GOLD GOOG GPS GRA GRFS HAE HGR HII HLS HLSS HRS HSNI HTH IACI IBB IBN ICUI IHF INDB INFI INXN IPXL IRM ISCA ISIS ITB IWC IYH IYZ JAZZ JCOM KAMN KAR KBH KCAP KEY KFN KW LAMR LANC LBTYA LEN LII LINE LLY LNDC LPS LTD LXU LYG MACK MAIN MAS MBB MCO MDC MDT MFA MGAM MHK MHO MHP MMS MON MRC MRK MTB MTH MYL NCT NFP NGVC NKTR NMFC NRF NSM NTCT NVS NWS NWSA NX NYMT OCN OKE OMN OSIS OXM PAG PAYX PBNY PCEF PCL PCS PDFS PDLI PFE PG PHH PHM PKG PLL PNK PNRA POOL PPH PPHM PRXL QGEN QLD RAX RBC REM RGLD RGS RNF ROP RPM RRMS RSO RWT RYL SAAS SAP SEMG SGMO SHAW SHEN SHW SIGI SMBL SNSS SNTA SNY SPF SPNC SPSC SSI STC STE STEI STKL SYT T TDG TFX TGT THC TOL TQQQ TREX TRGP TRST TSO TUES TWC TWX TYL UBA UDOW UFCS UHS USPH UVV VAL VDC VHT VIAB VMED VOX VPFG VR VYM WAC WAL WDFC WES WFM WGO WHR WLK WMC WPI WPPGY XBI XHB XLV XNPT YTEC

52-week Lows
20 new lows: .VXEWZ BLDP CORT CVVT DECK DOG DUST DXD ENG GLL PGNX PSQ PULS QID REW SDOW SQQQ TECS UAMY ZSL

Top Equity Blocks
3.51m NOK 2.80 -0.05 -1.7% FINRA-ADF 11:44:04
3.50m NOK 2.76 -0.07 -2.5% FINRA-ADF 10:58:45 – Out of Sequence
1.99m NG 6.17 +0.09 +1.5% FINRA-ADF 12:32:33 – Burst
1.80m SPY 146.32 +0.38 +0.3% CHX (MIDWEST) 11:39:16 – Tied to Options
1.50m SPY 145.90 +0.38 +0.3% FINRA-ADF 13:08:40 – Average Price Trade
1.40m MAS 16.22 +0.01 +0.1% CHX (MIDWEST) 10:49:32 – Tied to Options
1.37m AXTI 3.13 +0.05 +1.6% FINRA-ADF 10:28:01 – Burst
1.30m AMZN 259.35 -1.46 -0.6% FINRA-ADF 10:36:08
1.12m VOO 67.34 +0.24 +0.4% FINRA-ADF 10:00:09 – Derivatively Priced
1.12m VOO 67.38 +0.24 +0.4% FINRA-ADF 10:44:15 – Average Price Trade

Tags: featured, market update, Sentiment

Category: Market Update