Thursday’s Options Alerts…

  • November 7, 2001
  • TradingMarkets Editors

Stocks ended mixed today after the yesterday’s rate
cut from the Fed. The Dow
(
$INDU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and S&P 500
(
$SPX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) dipped
slightly lower today while the Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) headed slightly higher. Today the VIX
(
$VIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
gapped up on the open, headed lower, then inched its way back up to close in its
lower-half of its range. This intraday shift in sentiment suggests that fear is
returning to the markets after the recent run-up. CVR
II and CVR
VI sell signals were triggered today. The VXN
(
$VXN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) opened and
closed in the top third of its range today. However it did manage to trade
sharply lower before reversing course. This intraday shift in sentiment also suggests that
fear is returning. The VXN triggered a CVR
V today.

Points of Significance:

Manugistics Group
(
MANU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) hit a new two-month
high on double its average trading volume today. Options volume were heavy as it
traded over 21 times its average daily contract volume. Epiphany
(
EPNY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
broke resistance on double its average trading volume today. Options volume was
heavy as it traded nearly four times its average contract volume. TIBCO Software
(
TIBX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) broke out on double its average volume today. Options volume was
heavy as it traded nearly 11 times it average contract volume. AON Corporation
gapped down and broke its 200-day moving average today on almost five times its
average trading volume. AON, the world’s number two insurance broker, announced
that its third quarter profits fell 48%, as it paid out over $53 million in
benefits. AON’s implied volatility is at a new high. Visible Genetics
(
VGIN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is pulling back from lows today on triple its average daily trading volume.
Visible’s third quarter results will be announced tomorrow. Its implied
volatility is approaching the high end of the scale. Manulife Financial
(
MFC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
broke its 50- and 200-day moving averages today. Its implied volatility is at a
new high. Dynegy
(
DYN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell after they announced that they were in
merger talks with Enron. Dynegy’s implied volatility is sitting at a new high.

Volatility
Index		 Close Net
Change		 Signals/Direction %
Above/Below 10 Day Moving Average		 Significance
VIX 30.47 UP 0.62 CVR
II,VI		 5.81 % Under Not At Extreme
VXN 57.20 DOWN 0.11 CVR
V		 1.09 %
Under		 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
Manugistics
Group		 MANU + 16.42 4628 218
Silicon
Storage Tech.		 SSTI +
11.16		 2198 869
Epiphany EPNY +
10.62		 686 178
Aon
Corporation		 AOC –
10.48		 7652 683
TIBCO Software TIBX + 10.20 1270 226
Kos
Pharmaceuticals		 KOSP +
8.80		 595 117

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
Advanced PCS ADVP 74.9 54.2 75.6 40.1
Visible Genetics VGIN 104 83.5 106 58.6
Manulife Financial
Corporation		 MFC 43 34.6 40 21.4
Dynegy DYN 80.3 66.3 65.7 46.9
Expedia, Inc. EXPE 75.7 64.4 100.2 49.7
Aon Corporation AOC 39.9 34.9 35.9 23

Spike Down

Name Symbol IV Previous
IV		 High
IV		 Low
IV
Ohio Casualty OCAS 51.9 66.6 72 43.2
ServiceMaster SVM 23.8 29.7 37.7 21.5
Union
Planters		 UPC 24.2 29.7 33.4 17
Pharmaceutical
Product Development		 PPDI 67.7 81.8 80.4 51
Charter One Financial CF 24.8 29.9 36.4 22.2
Cali Realty CLI 18.8 22.1 27.6 18.8

Please use stops on every trade!