WhatsTrading.com Options Recap — 09/27/2012

Stock market averages held modest gains through midday, but then rallied in afternoon action after the Spanish government concluded a conference call related to the nation’s bailout. The underlying tone of trading early was modestly bullish after the Labor Department said Jobless Claims fell to 359K last week, from 385K the week before and much better than the 379K that was expected. However, a round of other data seemed to hold any rally attempts in check and the reports included Durable Goods plummeting 13.2 percent in August. A 5 percent decline was expected. Second Quarter GDP was estimated to be at 1.3 percent annualized, and .4 percent less than expected. Meanwhile, Pending Home Sales fell 2.6 percent last month. A .5 percent increase was expected. Yet, market averages were steady through midday and then moved to session highs after the Spaniards said, among other things, funding costs will remain below 2011 levels. The euro erased the day’s losses and is up .4 percent 1.2925 against the buck. Crude oil jumped $2.13 to $92.11 per barrel and gold rose $26.7, to seven-month highs of $2780.3. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 43.7 points. A 2.3 percent rally in Apple (AAPL) is powering the NASDAQ to 44-point gain.

With less than an hour to trade, CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) is down 1.92 to 14.89 and plummeting amid end-of-quarter position squaring. One business day remains for the third quarter and it’s likely that some are scrambling to adjust positions and in a mad dash to keep pace with the S&P 500’s 6.3 percent advance over the past three months. The largest options trade so far is a 56000-lot of Quarterly 145 puts on the SPDR 500 Trust (SPY), bought for 34 cents per contract. SPY is up $1.41 to $144.70 and the buyer needs the market to see another big pop Friday to make a profit on the position. Sept Quarterlys expire after tomorrow.

SPDR Financials (XLF) continues to see active trading in December puts. XLF is up 17 cents to $15.67 and volume is 103K puts/36K calls. Bank of America (BAC) October and November 10 calls are the two most actively traded equity options contacts. More than 60,000 traded in both. BAC is up 2.1 percent and the second best gainer in the Dow behind GE. RIM continues to see heavy trading ahead of this afternoon’s earnings report. 170K options traded on the Blackberry-maker today. Overall options volumes were light through midday, but then picked up this afternoon as players scrambled to take positions and try to keep pace with the market’s advance. 6.6 million calls and 5.4 million puts traded across the exchanges so far.

Notable Flow

OCN – Bullish flow detected in Ocwen Financial Corp with 6955 calls trading, or 3x the recent avg daily call volume in the name. Shares near $27.8 (0.36) with ATMIV lifting by 4.19 point and 55% of todays call premium trading offer side. (Trade-Alert) 14:21

CTRP – Bullish flow detected in Ctrip Com International Ltd with 3829 calls trading, or 2x the recent avg daily call volume in the name. Shares near $17.5199 (0.5199) with ATMIV lifting by 1.45 point and 73% of todays call premium trading offer side. (Trade-Alert) 13:01

DG – Bullish flow detected in Dollar General Corporation with 2421 calls trading, or 2x the recent avg daily call volume in the name. Shares near $51.625 (-1.235) with ATMIV lifting by 3.37 point and 81% of todays call premium trading offer side. Auto Content (Trade-Alert) 11:21

High options volume is being seen in RIMM, GE, NKE, PPHM, DAL, LLY, UAL, WAG, HLF, SWY

Movers
Symbol Last Change %Change StdDevs
ROYL 4.42 +1.17 +36.0% 4.66
KNDI 3.78 -0.77 -16.9% 4.15
LPHI 3.04 -0.62 -16.9% 0.78
AUDC 2.41 -0.48 -16.6% 3.22
UVXY 29.97 -5.40 -15.3% 1.75
TPX 30.64 +3.86 +14.4% 4.54
FSLR 23.67 +2.77 +13.3% 2.12
PRGS 21.45 +2.29 +12.0% 7.34
.BVZ 14.93 -1.88 -11.2% 1.77
.VIX 14.93 -1.88 -11.2% 1.77

Shakers (Implied volatility Movers)
Symbol IV[30d] IVChg IVChg% SkewAdjChg Last Change
NLY 12.1% -6.1 -33.5% -7.9 $16.87 +0.01
UBNT 95.7% +21.5 +29.0% +22.1 $11.50 -0.38
FMER 21.3% -8.1 -27.6% -3.0 $14.94 +0.13
APD 18.6% +4.0 +27.1% +nan $82.63 +0.09
DFS 20.6% -6.9 -25.0% -5.7 $39.47 +2.44 Post-Earnings
EDU 74.3% +13.7 +22.6% +16.0 $15.40 +0.84
DTG 5.0% -1.5 -22.5% -0.3 $86.90 +0.37
ACHN 76.8% -20.0 -20.7% -19.9 $10.30 +0.81
PCS 62.5% +10.2 +19.4% +8.9 $11.77 +0.52
ZIOP 68.6% +10.4 +17.8% +7.2 $5.68 +0.24

52-Week Highs
75 new highs: ACCL ACMP AN APP ARRY BANR BYI CAMP CCOI CFN CHDN CLMT CRY CSE CZZ DAR EHTH ENOC EPOC ESRX EVER EXAM EXH EXLS FNF GE GZT HNP ICUI IIJI ISBC JCOM LAD LNDC LQD LXU MDVN MHP NCMI NGG NKTR NPSP NTI NTSP OFIX OSIS PAC PDFS PKG PKY PNG POOL PRAA RDEN SBAC SNTS SPNC SPSC SQI SSS SYY TCBI THO TKC TRGP TSO TUES TYL UGI UHS VASC VCIT WMGI WST ZLC

52-week Lows
318 new lows: ADTN ASYS AVG BBRG BEBE BOOM BTH CRDC CWH DDMGQ IGOI MCF PGNX PNSN QCOR RNDY STXS THQI

Top Equity Blocks
4.72m T 38.20 +0.12 +0.3% FINRA-ADF 12:55:12 – Burst
4.01m VZ 45.87 +0.28 +0.6% FINRA-ADF 12:55:01 – Burst
2.07m SIRI 2.55 +0.05 +2.0% FINRA-ADF 13:06:37
2.01m MU 5.92 -0.02 -0.3% FINRA-ADF 14:21:03
1.67m SPY 143.27 +0.47 +0.3% FINRA-ADF 10:42:57 – Average Price Trade
1.60m GLD 170.97 +1.14 +0.7% CHX (MIDWEST) 10:01:24 – Tied to Options
1.24m CIM 2.73 +0.02 +0.7% FINRA-ADF 13:13:58 – Average Price Trade
1.15m STT 41.77 +0.30 +0.7% FINRA-ADF 11:59:00 – Burst
1.00m SPY 143.27 +1.54 +1.1% FINRA-ADF 14:53:31 – Average Price Trade
1.00m SPY 143.27 +0.52 +0.4% FINRA-ADF 11:40:15 – Average Price Trade

Tags: market update, Sentiment

Category: Market Update