All Indexes
What’s With VIX?!?
Odd action in VIX, as it moves up .52 to 13.29 and sesson highs, even as the S&P 500 gains 11.06 points and also moves to its best levels of the day of 1,661.49. Relatively active trading is happening in the index market, with about 619K calls and 511K puts traded SPX, VIX and other [...]
WhatsTrading.com Options Recap — 05/13/2013
Stock market averages are modestly lower, but volume is light and action has been rangebound thus far. The only significant stat of the day showed Retail Sales up .1 percent in April and better than the .3 percent decline that was expected. But, trading was sluggish across the Eurozone. Crude oil lost 50 cents to [...]
Big Print in CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) Before the Weekend
CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) is up .05 to 13.18 and a substantial four-way spread trades on the index. 73,000 June 18 – 25 call spreads traded on VIX at 70 cents and 75000 Aug 18 – 24 call spreads for about $1.12. The August spread was bought-to-open. The activity in June probably covers a position [...]
WhatsTrading.com Options Recap — 04/26/2013
Sorry for getting this out late. I was CBOE for a good part of the day, which was a slow one. Market averages were basically flat on mixed earnings news. VIX is at 13.61 and basically unchanged for a second day. Quiet day all around and probably some wait-and-see ahead of another flood earnings next [...]
WhatsTrading.com Options Recap — 04/25/2013
Stocks opened higher on jobless claims data and extended the gains through afternoon trading Thursday. Filings for jobless benefits fell to 339,000 last week, from 355,000 and much better than the 351,000 that was expected. Meanwhile, the earnings news was mixed. While Exxon (XOM) and 3M (MMM) dropped and weighed on the Dow in early [...]
WhatsTrading.com Options Recap — 04/23/2013
Stock market averages are holding solid gains heading into the final thirty minutes of trading. Earnings news helped lift sentiment as a variety of names, like ARM Holdings (ARMH), NetFlix (NFLX), Delta (DAL), and Regions Financial (RF), moved higher on the heels of their respective reports. Separately, a report on New Home Sales showed improvement [...]
European S&P 100 Index (.XEO) $700.71 +0.81%
European Style OEX (.XEO) is up 5.32 points to 700.42 and it looks ike 15 cents is being collected on the 670-675 put spread in the Weeklys that expire 4/26, 1670X. Seems opening and probably on the view the S&P 100 won’t drop below 675 (-3.6%) next week.
WhatsTrading.com Options Recap — 04/19/2013
Market averages are finishing a volatile week in mixed fashion. A big post-earnings drop in IBM is weighing on the price-weighted Dow Jones Industrial Average. Since IBM trades for almost $200 per share, it has a large influence on the Dow. Consequently, the industrial average is down 14 points. Beyond that, market breadth is mostly [...]
CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) April Settlement (SRO) @ 15.46
Official VIX settlement print this morning is 15.46, the highest print since December 2012. 77% of the 4.19million April contracts that expired were were calls and 91% expired out of the money. Early vix option volume very light with just 70K contracts trading in the first 40mins, about half the pace of yesterday’s flow.
WhatsTrading.com Options Recap — 04/12/2013
Stock market averages are lower, but the losses are modest given the very poor economic data and the bloodletting in the commodities markets today. I’m hearing traders were literally puking on the floor at the futures exchange in Chicago today after gold skidded more than $66 to less than $1,500 – lowest levels since mid-2011. [...]
