Thursday’s Options Alerts
The major market averages finished slightly higher
after a hard-fought session. With yesterday’s profit warning from Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
and one today from American Express
(
AXP |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating), the Dow
(
$INDU |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) spent the
majority of the day in negative territory. The VIX
(
$VIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) opened near
the top third of its range and closed in the lower third. This intraday shift in sentiment
suggests that fear is heading back down. A CVR
I buy signal was triggered today. The VXN
(
$VXN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) opened near its high
and closed right on the lows of the day. This intraday shift in sentiment is also telling us that fear is
falling. The VXN did not trigger any CVR signals.
Points of Significance:
Identix
(
IDNX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) jumped over 20% higher on over
six times its average trading volume today as the company announced the beta
launch of its BioLogon authentication software for the Windows Pocket PC
operating system. The stock has almost doubled since its debut last October.
InVision Technologies
(
INVN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) tacked on another 20% today as it announced
that it has received orders from the Federal Aviation Administration for its
explosive detection systems. Shaw Group
(
SGR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell 8% today on
over seven times its average trading volume. The company, which makes pipes for
power plants, responded to concerns about its sagging stock price by saying that
its backlog contains no projects from Calpine
(
CPN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) or Enron
(
ENE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and
that it remains comfortable with analysts’ estimates for 2002 and 2003. Shaw’s
options traded over seven times their average volume. There is heavy activity in
the December and January 20 puts. Shaw’s implied volatility is also at a new
high. Mirant
(
MIR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) continued to fall sharply for the third consecutive day
on over seven times its average trading volume. The company announced that was
is not aware of any developments that would explain the drop its share price.
Mirant’s implied volatility skyrocketed today, thus making its options expensive.
| Volatility Index |
Close | Net Change |
Signals/Direction | % Above/Below 10 Day Moving Average |
Significance |
| VIX | 25.52 | DOWN 0.17 | CVR I BUY |
0.002 % Below | Not At Extreme |
| VXN | 48.09 | DOWN 2.64 |
NONE | 2.26 % 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 |
| Identix | IDNX | + 20.68 | 1577 | 382 |
| Visionics | VSNX | + 20.62 | 1980 | 653 |
| InVision Technologies | JAKK | + 15.61 | 7653 | 3246 |
| Fluor | FLR | – 8.95 | 459 | 103 |
| Shaw Group | SGR | – 8.24 | 8027 | 1062 |
| Great Atlantic | GAP | – 8.09 | 276 | 137 |
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 |
| Mirant | MIR | 99.5 | 67 | 68.3 | 48.9 |
| Shaw Group | SGR | 86.7 | 68.8 | 82.1 | 53.2 |
| Utilicorp United | UCU | 41.9 | 33.8 | 34.1 | 31.8 |
| Sylvan Learning Systems | SLVN | 55.1 | 45.4 | 70.4 | 41.3 |
| Kinder Morgan Inc. | KMI | 37.2 | 30.7 | 40.7 | 30 |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | 50.4 | 42.2 | 49.9 | 25.3 |
Spike Down
| Name | Symbol | IV | Previous IV |
High IV |
Low IV |
| Allied Capital | ALD | 18.9 | 29.5 | 30 | 26.5 |
| Dal-Tile Int’l |
DTL | 21.9 | 30.4 | 32.3 | 30.3 |
| Charter One Financial |
CF | 25.9 | 34.3 | 36.4 | 22.2 |
| Moody’s Corporation |
MCO | 25.8 | 33.7 | 31.1 | 25.7 |
| Ameren Corporation |
AEE | 18.5 | 22.5 | 26.7 | 18.2 |
| Northeast Utilities |
NU | 26 | 31 | 28.6 | 24.3 |
Please use stops on every trade!