Thursday’s Options Alerts
After being in very
oversold conditions for some time, the major averages finally put in a bounce
today. Both General Electric
(
GE |
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News |
PowerRating) and International Paper’s
(
IP |
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PowerRating)
reaffirmation of their third quarter results helped sparked a buying mood.
At the
close, the Dow
(
$INDU |
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PowerRating) almost erased Monday’s losses as it gained 158.69 points or 2.06%. The S&P
(
$SPX.X |
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PowerRating) found
some last-ditch support yesterday at its 78.6% retracement and gained
20.34 points or 2.48%, erasing all of yesterday’s losses.
The Nasdaq
(
$COMPX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) continued its outperformance today as it
gained 39.91points or 3.39%.
Positive comments from Dutch chip maker ASML
(
ASML |
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PowerRating)
helped the semiconductors
(
$SOX.X |
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News |
PowerRating) to a 7% gain. Other top-performing
sectors included biotechs
(
$BTK.X |
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News |
PowerRating) up 6.03%, networking
(
$GIP.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
up 4.86%, and oil service
(
$OSX.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up 4.83%. Gold issues
(
$XAU.X |
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News |
PowerRating)
was the worst performing sector today as it lost 4.13% in what could be a failed
ascending triangle. The only piece
of economic data out today was the August existing home sales report. Existing
home sales for August fell 1.7% to a 2.28 million rate, which was less than
expectations for a 5.40 million rate.
Volatility sold off today after a month-long rise. The VIX
(
$VIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gapped
down, opened near
its highs and closed slightly underneath its midpoint. This shift in intraday sentiment
shows a drop in fear. No CVRs were triggered today. The VXN
(
$VXN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) opened
near its midpoint and closed near near the lows of the day. This shift
in intraday sentiment also shows a drop in fear. Once again, the
vixen didn’t trigger any signals.
Points of Significance:
| Volatility Index |
Close | Net Change |
Signals/Direction | % Above/Below 10 Day Moving Average |
Significance |
| VIX | 42.41 | DOWN 2.97 | NONE |
0.005% Below | Not At Extreme |
| VXN | 56.69 | DOWN 2.71 | NONE |
3.52% Below | 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 |
| Veritas | VRTS |
+ 17.27 | 15224 | 5375 |
| Mircochip Technology |
MCHP |
+ 14.03 | 4914 | 1464 |
| Xilinx | XLNX |
+ 9.58 | 8679 | 4324 |
| Cheesecake Factory |
CAKE |
+ 8.54 | 922 | 140 |
| Autozone | AZO |
+ 8.51 | 7122 | 1048 |
| Texas Instrument |
TXN |
+ 8.27 | 29629 | 7044 |
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 |
| Cendant | CD |
79.8 | 66.6 | 86 | 33.5 |
| Alliant Energy | LNT |
39.8 | 34.4 | 38.8 | 17.2 |
| Pinnacle West Capital | PNW |
58 | 50.6 | 56.8 | 15.2 |
| Accenture | ACN |
78.6 | 69.9 | 66.3 | 46.4 |
| Weyerhauser | WY |
57.1 | 51 | 50 | 27.8 |
| Stanley Works | SWK |
45 | 41 | 41.4 | 27.2 |
Spike Down
| Name | Symbol | IV | Previous IV |
High IV |
Low IV |
| Tyco International | TYC |
75.4 | 96.3 | 150.9 | 51.5 |
| Autozone | AZO |
39.7 | 47.7 | 49.6 | 28.6 |
| OSI Pharmaceuticals | OSIP |
88 | 104.2 | 107.7 | 50.1 |
| Unilab | ULAB |
54.1 | 62.9 | 76.5 | 29.1 |
| Gap Inc. | GPS |
58.7 | 67.9 | 82.6 | 45.4 |
| Merck | MRK |
41.3 | 47.7 | 47.5 | 21.7 |
Please use stops on every trade!