Clear Sailing?
suspended (additionally, the opinion that the 5:00 p.m.deadline for certifying the
vote in Florida may be likely), we now see firming in the market and a first
attack on option premium levels. The decision tree I spoke of yesterday
now has one less branch, and we possibly take a lunge towards closure of this
very unsettling matter. Action in the last 90 minutes of the trading day
yesterday favored the strategy of bull vertical spreads, suggested here in the
morning. The question this morning is whether this sentiment will last.
Let’s look at this morning’s action…Options
players should look for continued high volatility in the options technology
sector today. Pre-open activity in the overall market showed 60%
of the put
orders tilted towards buying, while call buying and selling were split evenly.Â
No surprises in terms of our
pre-bell leaders in terms of volume: CSCO,
SUNW, After the first hour of trading in the
overall market, call selling increased to 3:2 ratio over buying. Put sells and
buys have evened out at 1:1. Our volume leaders look similar, except that JNPR
has entered the top five, displacing MSFT. JNPR has a 4:1 call sell ratio over
buys. INTC put buys lead sells 4:1.  In SUNW, call buying and selling
have evened out, as have put buys and sells.
The customer order flow
seemed to show the bulls coming into the ring, with call buying and put selling
dominating order flow. We cannot stress enough how messy and reactive this
period is, with politics whipping the market around by the tail.Â
things calm down, we do not suggest shorting volatility.