Friday’s Options Alerts

  • March 14, 2002
  • TradingMarkets Editors

The markets ended mixed. Dow
(
INDU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) stocks ended higher while the S&P
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and
tech stocks once again ended in the red. Blue chippers ended modestly higher
thanks in part to Eastman Kodak
(
EK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Caterpillar
(
CAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), and Coca-Cola
(
KO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). Following
yesterday’s cautious comments on the semis, both PCs and electronics
manufacturing services dragged techs down following after analyst’s negative
outlook on IT spending. For more information on today’s action, please refer to
the market
recap.

The VIX
(
$VIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) opened near
in the lower half of its range and closed in the upper third of the range. This
shift in intraday sentiment suggests that fear is beginning to creep back up. No CVR signals were triggered today.
The VXN
(
$VXN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) opened near the top third of its range and closed near
the lows of the day. This shift in intraday sentiment suggests that fear is
decreasing. No CVR signals were triggered by the VXN either. Overall volatility
still remains in a tight range. 

Points of Significance:

Invision Technologies dropped a little
over 4% on below average volume. The company announced today that they signed a
letter of intent with Coorstek
(
CRTK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) as a contract manufacturing partner
to support the expansion of production capacity of its CTX explosives detection
systems. The shares are in a strong uptrend and are pulling back from recent
highs. There is heavy activity in the April 50 and 60 calls.

ViroPharma Inc
(
VPHM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) dropped 18%
on 10 times average volume. The shares tumbled today due to comments made by an
analyst at Fulcrum Global Partners in which he expects the FDA to reject
ViroPharma’s cold drug Picovir. On the weekly chart, the shares are breaking
down from a descending triangle.

Implied volatility on the Consumer
Staples SPDRs are at a new low. Look for possible long call opportunities.

Volatility
Index		 Close Net
Change		 Signals/Direction %
Above/Below 10 Day Moving Average		 Significance
VIX 22.02 UP
0.05		 NONE 0
% Above		 Not
at Extreme
VXN 42.33 DOWN
0.93		 NONE 0
% Below		 Not
at Extreme

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

Name Symbol Net
% Change		 Volume Avg.
Volume
Viropharma  VPHM –
18.28		 6850 1525
CSG
Systems Int’l		 CSGS –
14.97		 1540 291
Lands
End		 LE –
14.07		 1865 133
Shire
Pharmaceuticals		 SHPGY +
9.52		 3298 1061
Protein
Design Labs		 PDLI –
4.69		 7411 2624
InVision
Technologies		 INVN –
4.45		 9878 3881

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

Spike Up

Name Symbol IV Previous
IV		 High
IV		 Low
IV
Viropharma VPHM 151.5 121.2 120.9 64.3
TRW
Inc.		 TRW 23.7 19.9 49.1 22.7
Felcor
Lodging		 FCH 26.8 22.9 59.4 20.2
CSG
Systems		 CSGS 65.1 55.7 76.6 50.8
Smartforce SMTF 94.9 83.4 122 71.9
Spanish
Broadcasting		 SBSA 57.8 51.2 96.3 49.6

Spike Down

Name Symbol IV Previous
IV		 High
IV		 Low
IV
Consumer
Staple SPDR		 XLP 9.1 15.7 40.9 12.6
Daimler
Benz		 DCX 26.9 34.9 55.3 33.3
Energizer
Holdings		 ENR 27.6 33.3 42.1 28.4
XCEL
Energy		 XEL 17.9 23 31.8 23
AXA  AXA 35.8 41.5 63.1 37.5
Cali
Realty		 CLI 23.4 27 28.2 17.8

Please use stops on every trade!