Thursday’s Options Alerts
On this first anniversary of the tragic events of September 11th, stocks reversed early
morning gains and dipped slightly in the red. Volume was obviously
light due to the delayed opening and many traders taking the day off. No major
corporate news was announced either.
The only piece of news of the day was the Fed’s Beige book’s suggestion that growth has “slowed in recent
weeks.” Despite the markets’ opening sharply higher, the two-day winning streak
ended as the averages turned lower at the close.
The Dow
(
$INDU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) lost 21.44 points or 0.24%. The S&P
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell
just 0.13 points or 0.01% and finally,
the Nasdaq
(
$COMPX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell 4.64 points or 0.35%. Telecoms
(
$XTC.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
up 1.98%, gold
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up 1.31%, and semiconductors
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up
1.17%.
The VIX
(
$VIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) opened near
its high and closed just above its midpoint. This shift in intraday sentiment
shows another drop in fear. Once again no CVR signals were triggered today. The VXN
(
$VXN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 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
triggered a CVR 1 sell signal.
Points of Significance:
| Volatility Index |
Close | Net Change |
Signals/Direction | % Above/Below 10 Day Moving Average |
Significance |
| VIX | 37.23 | UP 0.27 | NONE | 3.79% Below |
Not At Extreme |
| VXN | 54 | UP 0.93 | CVR I SELL |
3.48 % 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 |
| Tyco International | TYC |
+ 11.94 | 77048 | 29078 |
| Multimedia Gaming | MGAM |
– 5.89 | 604 | 111 |
| Capital One Financial | COF |
+ 5.26 | 8322 | 4120 |
| Honeywell | HON |
– 5.56 | 9221 | 1168 |
| Circuit City CarMax | KMX |
– 4.26 | 1849 | 493 |
| Hotels.com | ROOM |
– 4.72 | 2994 | 778 |
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 |
| Amsouth Bancorp | ASO |
31.7 | 25.9 | 29.7 | 19.3 |
| Men’s Wearhouse | MW |
52.7 | 46 | 47.8 | 34.8 |
| Honeywell | HON |
51.2 | 45.4 | 53.7 | 33.1 |
| Multimedia Games | MGAM |
95.3 | 84.7 | 100.8 | 54.3 |
| Mandalay Resort | MBG |
41.8 | 37.5 | 64.9 | 32.3 |
| Sierra Health Services | SIE |
86.1 | 77.3 | 78.6 | 58.8 |
Spike Down
| Name | Symbol | IV | Previous IV |
High IV |
Low IV |
| Allied Capital | ALD |
51.6 | 64.8 | 84.2 | 27.2 |
| Tyco International | TYC |
71.7 | 80.1 | 150.9 | 49.5 |
| Nokia Corp. | NOK |
58.1 | 63 | 74.7 | 49.6 |
| Emulex | ELX |
75.5 | 81.6 | 101.9 | 74 |
| Unilab | ULAB |
71 | 76.5 | 76.5 | 29.1 |
| Yellow Corp. | YELL |
45.8 | 49.3 | 52.8 | 41 |
Please use stops on every trade!