Thursday's Options Alerts

Not much has changed...quite literally. The VIX was unchanged on the session, and so is our opinion on trading the market action, and not just an indicator. Heavier volume pushed the ETFs into higher territories, with two of the three (the SPYs and QQQs) finishing off in unclaimed lands last trampled upon late last year.

There continues to be a lot of "hoopla" over the nose dive in the VIX readings. CNBC and everyone's "Aunt Cletus" are all over this enigma. While this action keeps them on the sidelines nay saying the market action, the options trader has been given more of a reason to participate. Risk to reward has been skewed in favor of trading the market action with some exceptional value, courtesy of the "implieds". Straddles, strangles, gamma trading your favorite product, and possibly outright option positions, in the context of a well defined stop loss methodology, continue to rule the day.

Volatility levels as measured by the VIX and the VXN are still triggering CVR signals against decidedly strong action in the ETFs. Proceed with caution, but continue to respect price and volume as your first guide to making trade decisions.

Points of Significance:

Abnormal Options Volume -- This list includes both percentage movers that are normally associated with an increase in options activity, as well as stocks that have unusually high activity and / or technical situations, reflecting increased speculation of a potential price move.

Stocks With Spikes in Implied Volatility -- Stocks with Increases and Decreases in implied volatility compared to previous day. Candidates are then screened qualitatively. These lists represent those issues that carry a blend of liquidity and/or technical setups that might deserve further notice. 

Spike Up

None Today.

Spike Down

Please use stops on every trade!