Friday’s Options Alerts
Stocks
continued their decline today on the negative jobs data as well as President
Bush’s speech to the United Nations in which he called for action to remove
Saddam Hussein from power. At the
close, the Dow
(
$INDU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) dropped 201.76 points or 2.35%. The S&P
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) dropped
22.55 points or 2.47% and finally,
the Nasdaq
(
$COMPX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell 35.77 points or 2.71%.
Gold
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up
4.29% and defense
(
$DFX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up 0.13% were in only sectors in the green
today. The top losers were mostly concentrated in techs: semiconductors
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 6.05%, airlines
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) down 3.53%,
and Internets
(
$DOT.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) down 3.34%.
Economic
data continued to show weakness in the job market. First-time claims jumped by
17,000 to 426,000. The four-week moving average rose to a three-month high as it
increased 8,750 to 409,500. The inability for the averages to hold gains
yesterday was a bearish sign. The major indices do appear to be tracing out head
and shoulders patterns.
Volatility jumped today as the VIX
(
$VIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gapped up, opened near
its lows and closed near the highs of the day. This shift in intraday sentiment
shows a rise in fear. Once again no CVRs were triggered today. The VXN
(
$VXN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gapped
up, opened
near its lows and closed near near the highs of the day. This shift
in intraday sentiment also shows a rise in fear. Today’s action
didn’t trigger anymore CVRs.
Points of Significance:
| Volatility Index |
Close | Net Change |
Signals/Direction | % Above/Below 10 Day Moving Average |
Significance |
| VIX | 40.72 |
UP 3.49 |
NONE |
4.04% Above |
Not At Extreme |
| VXN | 56.44 |
UP 2.44 |
NONE |
0.003 % Above |
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 |
| Pharmaceutical Res. |
PRX |
– 12.14 |
1764 |
207 |
| UST Inc. |
UST |
– 10.60 |
1122 |
115 |
| Georgia Pacific |
GP |
– 8.93 |
2338 |
256 |
| Limited |
LTD |
– 7.79 |
1044 |
120 |
| Maytag |
MYG |
– 7.20 |
2338 |
256 |
| McDonalds |
MCD |
– 4.82 |
18079 |
1574 |
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 |
| Leggett & Platt |
LEG |
33.1 |
25.2 |
35.6 |
18.2 |
| North Fork Bancorp |
NFB |
33.1 |
26.6 |
34.1 |
16.7 |
| Progress Energy |
PGN |
32.8 |
26.9 |
33.8 |
14.5 |
| Southern Co |
SO |
35.1 |
30 |
34.2 |
18.9 |
| Telik |
TELK |
77.6 |
66.7 |
87.8 |
66.3 |
| Merck |
MRK |
43.4 |
37.1 |
47.5 |
21.2 |
Spike Down
| Name | Symbol | IV | Previous IV |
High IV |
Low IV |
| American Italian Pasta |
PLB |
37.2 |
46.8 |
50.3 |
32.8 |
| XL Capital |
XL |
42.3 |
50.7 |
67.6 |
25.6 |
| Western Resources |
WR |
43.6 |
51.9 |
56.6 |
23.5 |
| Titan Corp. |
TTN |
101.5 |
119.2 |
126.9 |
46.8 |
| DQE Inc. |
DQE |
30 |
34 |
38.5 |
26.2 |
| Unilab |
ULAB |
62.9 |
71.2 |
76.5 |
29.1 |
Please use stops on every trade!