Market’s Pop Leaves Options Players Nonplussed
As
options players start out the trading week this Monday morning, most
are breathing at least a small sigh of relief. A
slight upward pop in the market means last week’s protracted plunge is being put
on hold, at least temporarily. Consequently,
that terrifying barrier “NASDAQ 2000†remains (for now) at arm’s length. (please
note the quotation marks!) tends to be short-lived these days, and wizened
traders are selling premium with this in mind. Call sellers hold their recent
habitual lead, but put sellers are out in force today as well.
Not to say that
options traders are jumping for joy: order “flow†can more aptly be
described as a trickle, registering a 1.9 on our scale of 1.0 to 10.0.
Our 30-day moving average has shifted down to a 2.0,
thus today’s volume can be dubbed “moderate."
Volatility has
come in a bit, as one would expect on an upward move.
Lack of paper has considerably circumscribed the directional swings in
vol. over the past few weeks. We would have expected greater numbers on the
upside in volatility as the market has dipped downward.
We see some
unusual movement in a few names this morning, and thus, we will be tracking them
closely as the day unfolds. These names
are
(
ATML |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
(
USB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and
(
PSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).
As an aside, a
few latecomers to our column have inquired about our “numbers," i.e.,
what constitutes light, moderate and heavy order flow?
Also, what do our ratios mean, when we say, for example, that calls
outnumber puts 2:1? I shall provide a
cursory review for your edification, after the “numbers section†in one of
the days to follow.
Here are
today’s numbers…
Pre-open
order volume remained light this morning, but stands in line with our moving
average, as discussed above. Overall,
call sellers led buyers 3:2, while put sellers beat out buyers at 3:2. In first-hour
activity,
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) call sellers outnumber buyers 2:1, while put sellers led
buyers 2:1.
(
NT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
call sellers led buyers 2:1.
(
CIEN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
call buyers showed up leading sellers 5:3. [MSFT|MSFT]
call sellers now dominated buyers 7:4. [JNPR|JNPR]
call sellers led buyers 5:2.
First-hour
order volume remained light this morning, but stands in line with our moving
average, as discussed above. Overall,
call sellers led buyers 3:2, while put sellers beat out buyers at 3:2. In first-hour
activity, [INTC|INTC]
call sellers outnumber buyers 3:1. [JDSU|JDSU]
call sellers outnumber buyers 9:1, while put buyers led sellers 7:2.
[AMAT|AMAT]
call sellers crushed buyers 13:1, while put buyers led sellers 4:1. GE call
sellers outnumber buyers 2:1.
(
CIEN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
call buyers showed up leading sellers 5:3. MSFT call sellers now dominated
buyers 5:2. [USB|USB]
call buyers showed up leading sellers 8:1.
ATML call sellers led buyers 10:1.
Keep
writing me those questions! I’ll
get back to each and every one of you.