Monday’s Options Alerts
Stocks pulled
back for the second consecutive session over the increased likelihood of a war
with Iraq. The averages started
lower and traded sideways for almost the entire session. Volume was also
on the light side ahead of Veterans Day on Monday.
The Dow has now seen its
fifth straight week of gains while the S&P and Nasdaq slipped a little this
week. At the
close, the Dow
(
$INDU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained dropped 49.25 points or 0.57%. Losses in
McDonalds and Disney weighed on the Dow as the restaurant giant announced that
they will not meet their fiscal 2002 targets and that they will close 175
restaurants. Meanwhile, media giant, Disney fell victim to a downgrade after
reporting fourth quarter results in line with estimates.
After a five-week run which saw the index gain more than 22% from its Oct. 10 low, the Dow could
be headed to test is 20-day moving average. The S&P
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell
7.91 points or 0.87% and the Nasdaq
(
$COMPX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell 17.46 points or 1.26%.
Best-performing sectors were drugs
(
$DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up 1.08% and hit a two-month
high, oil
(
$OIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
up 0.57%, and insurance
(
$IUX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 0.28%.
Among the many losing
sectors today, the biggest included healthcare providers
(
$RXH.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) down
9.75%, natural gas
(
$XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) down 4.10%, software
(
$GSO.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), and
biotechs
(
$BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) down 2.87%.
The VIX
(
$VIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) opened near its highs and closed near the
lows of the day. This shift in intraday sentiment still shows a drop in
fear. No CVRs were triggered today. The VXN
(
$VXN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) opened near its highs and closed near in the lower half of
its range. The Vixen didn’t trigger any CVRs either.
Points of Significance:
| Volatility Index |
Close | Net Change |
Signals/Direction | % Above/Below 10 Day Moving Average |
Significance |
| VIX | 33.56 | DOWN 1.72 | NONE | 4.25% Below | Not At Extreme |
| VXN | 52.01 | DOWN 1.89 | NONE |
3.85% 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 |
| Research In Motion | RIMM |
+ 28.02 | 4943 | 580 |
| Syncor International |
SCOR |
– 18.95 | 7370 | 334 |
| HCA Inc. | HCA |
– 11.05 | 11458 | 3593 |
| H&R Block |
HRB |
– 9.19 | 11679 | 3479 |
| Unitedhealth | UNH |
– 8.62 | 11789 | 3417 |
| Wells Fargo | WFC |
– 3.70 | 17122 | 4929 |
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 |
|
Unitedhealth
|
UNH |
49.1 | 32.4 | 48.9 | 26.5 |
| HCA Inc. | HCA |
58.7 | 42.3 | 45.1 | 21.0 |
| Davita | DVA |
49.1 | 37 | 63.7 | 32.3 |
| Caremax | CMX |
58.5 | 47 | 67 | 40.2 |
| Syncor International |
SCOR |
123.6 | 101.8 | 56.7 | 31.6 |
| Triad Hospitals | TRI |
56.7 | 46.7 | 50.6 | 31.9 |
Spike Down
| Name | Symbol | IV | Previous IV |
High IV |
Low IV |
|
Univision
|
UVN |
62.7 | 76.7 | 86.8 | 40.0 |
| Prologis Trust | PLD |
24.3 | 27.9 | 30.3 | 22.2 |
Please use stops on every trade!