Space Odyssey
The options market is bearing witness to a schizophrenic morning — as it has this
week. Normally, our first-hour data constitutes a rather smooth extension from its pre-open
counterpart — not so today. Order volume has jumped from a moderate pre-bell level to a
slightly heavier first-hour level and consequently volatility has spiked upwards.
(registering a 27 on our scale of 1-100). Whereas call selling was once again the name of
the game pre-bell, especially in the techs, first hour paper saw buyers matching. My
question is, can we expect more of this in weeks to come? What a great ride we can have.
Our spreading strategy can be augmented with straight strategies, if it were to be the
case.
Pre-open order volume was light today. In the overall market, call sellers led buyers
at 2:1, and put buyers are on a par with sellers at 1:1. No big surprises in the top
five order volume leaders today:
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
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PowerRating),
(
JDSU |
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Chart |
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PowerRating),
(
SUNW |
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PowerRating),
(
INTC |
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PowerRating) and
(
JNPR |
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PowerRating). In CSCO, pre-bell
call sellers were out in force, leading buyers 3:1. JDSU call sellers made their presence
felt as well, leading buyers 4:1. INTC call sellers outnumbered buyers 2:1, while put
sellers led buyers 3:2.
(
MSFT |
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PowerRating) call sellers were out big-time, pounding buyers 6:1.
(
NT |
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PowerRating) call
sellers outgunned buyers 7:1.
After the first hour of trading, order volume has picked up. In the overall market,
call buys and sells were even at 1:1, and put buys and sells followed suit, at 1:1. Top
volume leaders were: CSCO, JNPR,
(
JDSU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), MSFT, and INTC. Call sellers led buyers in MSFT,
(
LU |
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PowerRating)
and
(
CPQ |
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PowerRating) at approximately 3:1. Call buyers trumped sellers in
(
BRCM |
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PowerRating),
(
AMCC |
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PowerRating) and JDSU at nearly
2:1. MSFT put buyers swamped sellers
(
AMAT |
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PowerRating) call sellers lead buyers almost 6:1, while put
sellers predominate over put buyers.
(
YHOO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) put buyers lead sellers 3:1.
Our verticals are hanging in, with profit levels better than this time yesterday,
although last night showed our best results to date, we’ve been planning to hold to
expiry. Many of you have written in — I hope I have been able to
answer your specific question: