Monday’s Options Alerts

Stocks
were strong from the start, but a final-hour sell-off has them closing off their
highs. Either way, this was was solid day as the previous bounces have all
been one-day wonders. At the
close, the Dow
(
$INDU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained 316.34 points or 4.19% and now trading above
its 20-day average. The S&P
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained 31.40 points or
3.90%. Finally, the Nasdaq
(
$COMPX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) jumped 47.11 points or 4.04%. After
being down for the last six weeks, the averages finally closed in the green.

For
the week, the Dow gained 367 points or 4.21%. The S&P gained 32 points or
3.98%. The Nasdaq gained 71 points or 6.23%. There wasn’t a sector in the
green, not even gold. Notable winners were semiconductors
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up
8.38%, airliners
(
$XAL..X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up 6.67%, and Internets
(
$DOT.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up
6.11%.

Stocks ignored today’s data, on the economic front. September retail sales dropped 1.2% or slightly
more than the 1% drop economists were expecting. But excluding auto sales,
retails sales rose by an expected 0.1%. Also the preliminary Michigan
consumer sentiment index fell to a 9-year low of 80.4 from last month’s reading
of 86.2. This was much lower than the anticipated reading of 85.7. Today’s
action was indeed positive, but we’ve come a long way in only two days. In case

the rally continues, volatility is sure to drop. Be prepared to look for
ratio spread opportunities then.

Abnormal Options Volume With Price Movement
—
Abnormal options volume (calls and puts) with stock price movement

Stocks With Biggest Spikes in Implied
Volatility — Stocks with biggest increases or decreases in implied
volatility compared to previous day