Reserach In Motion (RIM) adds 65 cents to $43.49 and options action is brisk Wednesday morning. About 22,000 calls and 7960 puts traded in the first hour. Overall sentiment seems a lot more bullish than the day before. October 47.5 calls are the most actives, with 8000 traded and 61 percent trading at the ask. October 50 calls are also trading predominantly at the ask. Bernstein cut its price target on RIM yesterday to $40, citing incresing competition in the corporate segment. Also, Reuters reports yesterday that Research In Motion will allow the Indian government limited access to its user email correspondence, “increasing speculation that Research In Motion will allow other governments to have access to online correspondence.” Shares fell 6 percent Tuesday and 25.5 percent during the month of August. Today’s call buyers might believe much of the bad news is now baked in the cake and RIM will rally from now through mid-October. Implied volatility in RIMM is up 2 percent to 58, compared to a 52-week high and low of about 60 and 29.

Monster Worldwide, the online job posting site, is down 30c to $10.30 a new 52-week low and option volume is 23x the daily average driven by in the September $10 puts in which block of 9,800 (total 11,000 contracts) have traded against prior open interest of just 964 in the strike. This is appears to be an opening sale and would consistent with a theme that developed yesterday as we saw put selling in names such as WAG, SVU, SWY, HSY as the stocks sank lower. The difference here is that Monster would be considered a very economically sensitive company whereas the others are viewed as defensive for a slowing economy. Today’s action is not a positive response to the news that MWW has finalized a deal to acquire HotJobs and entered an agreement with Yahoo.

A note to Premium subscribers: You have access to additional updates using Flow Monitor. These are automatically generated alerts based on trading activity and are triggered when call or put volume reaches a specific threshold. Here are some examples from today. These will not appear on the web site and are only available using Flow Monitor:

Bearish activity detected in Newell Rubbermaid Inc with 4039 puts trading, or 39x the recent avg daily put volume in the name.

Bullish flow detected in Canadian Solar Inc with 5753 calls trading, or 4x the recent avg daily call volume in the name.

Bullish flow detected in Red Hat Inc with 3162 calls trading, or 5x the recent avg daily call volume in the name.

To see all of the auto content from today, in Flow Monitor, enter the symbol @all. Then, enter menu option 1. To get more, enter +.

CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) is up 1.40 to 25.99 and running to session highs after data released at 10:00 ET showed the Philli Fed manufacturing index falling to -7.7 in August, down from 5.1 in July and much worse than the 7.5 that economists had predicted. A separate report the List of Leading Indicators up .1 percent in July, and half as much as expected. VIX is rallying on the poor numbers and one player initiates a bullish Sep 25 – 32.5 – 42.5 call fly on the volatility index, paying $1.90, 6500X. The spread was tied to VIX futures on a 15 delta, according to a source on the floor.

After a 20.7 percent rally last week, VIX is down 10.3 percent this week heading into tomorrow’s VIX expiration. The top options trades in the volatility index today are part of a massive spread, in which an investor paid 10 cents to buy Sep 24 puts and sell Aug 25 puts, 50000X so far. Since VIX options expire tomorrow and today is the last day to trade the August puts and calls, this strategist is likely rolling out a bearish position an additional month and down one strike price.

Intrepid Potash (IPI) is up $1.49 to $25.45 and rallying along with its peer, Potash (POT), after BHP Billiton made a $39 billion takeover offer for POT. The deal, which Potash has rejected, would be the largest of the year. The news sparked a flurry of activity in Potash, Mosaic (MOS), and Intrepid Potash. While there appears to be two-way action in MOS and POT, the flow in IPI seems to be leaning on the bullish side. Sep 25 puts are the most actives, with 3054 and 100 percent traded on the bid. Meanwhile, buyers seem to be dominating the action in IPI Aug 26, Sep 27 and Sep 28 calls. Implied volatility is up 9.5 percent to 46.5.

ExxonMobile sees Big Prints Tuesday morning. One strategist sold August 60 calls at 73 cents to buy the bullish October 52.5 put – 62.5 call risk reversal, at 73 cents, 10000X on PHLX. Therefore, they came out even on this three-way spread and might be rolling out of August, into October, and or looking for shares to hold below $60 through the end of this week’s expiration, and then rally from that point forward.

The top two options trades so far today are in Citi (C) after a strategist sold 22,429 Jan2012 puts at the 4 line to buy 23,000 Jan12 calls at the 7.5 strike. They collected a 61-cent credit (as if one-to-one) on this bullish risk-reversal and are possibly willing to buy the stock at $4 through the 2012 expiration. The trade was tied to 1.3 million shares at $4.09. Implied volatility in Citi is down 2.5 percent to 34.5 today, compared to a 52-week high and low of 82 and 32.75. Shares are up fractionally today on news Citi has agreed to pay $75 million to settle regulatory charges with the SEC.

Genzyme (GENZ) is up $2.25 to $70.25 after the Wall Street Journal reported late yesterday that Sanofi (SNY) is “increasingly likely” to take a formal buyout offer to Genzyme’s board. Then, CNBC reported this morning that SNY is likely to send a “bear hug” letter to Genzyme in the next 72 hours. Active trading continues in GENZ options. One player bought 5000 January 75 calls at $2.35 and sold 2,500 Aug 75 calls at 45 cents, possibly rolling a position and looking for an offer substantially greater than $75 per share. However, today’s top trades also include an August 67.5 – Jan 65 put spread, apparently bought at $2.10, 4000X, which might be a hedge should any deal talk fall apart after the August expiration. Lazard downgraded GENZ shares to Hold from Buy this morning. Implied volatility is down 25 percent to 30.