Monday, December 9, 2019
Even heavily traded options on stocks can show unusual activity, especially after earnings. For example, there was a lot of options activity in Twitter (TWTR), where the shares got hammered this week after a technical bug hurt ad revenue for the quarter. However, a majority of the options traded were calls, suggesting that investors may […]
Both 2018 and 2019 have been characterized by periods of choppy markets and higher volatility. It’s been quite the change of pace from 2017, where it seemed like we would never experience market volatility ever again. Of course, nearly everything in the financial markets moves in cycles. Low periods of volatility will inevitably be followed […]
MGM Resorts (MGM), the major casino operator, is seeing some unusual options volume ahead of its October 30th earnings. MGM normally trades about 11,000 options per day, but that number recently spiked to over 36,000. A big player looks to have rolled forward 4,500 calls which make money if MGM shares moves higher during earnings […]
Although the stock market has had its share of ups and downs over the last couple of months, the price of gold has been surprisingly stable. In August, the gold futures reached $1,500 an ounce. Fast forward to mid-October, and futures are still right around that $1,500 level. Why have gold prices remained elevated despite […]
The iShares MSCI South Africa ETF (EZA) doesn’t normally have a lot of options traded on it. However, a 1,500-lot of puts recently traded, which is 10 times the normal daily volume of options (all in one trade). This trade makes money if EZA drops below $50, and the stock was trading around $50.50 at […]
With all the headlines about tariffs and interest rates these days, it makes sense to see a lot of trading activity going on in related sectors. That is, interest rates directly impact the financial sector; tariffs are a big deal for the basic materials and industrial sectors, etc. One sector we haven’t heard as much […]
An unusually large amount of calls were bought in WisdomTree Investments (WETF), nearly 5 times the average daily volume. It looks like someone believes the stock could be going higher by January and is buying lots of calls at the 6 strike. WETF is an ETF provider, so the commission battle between online brokers could […]
In a world of ultra-low interest rates, it seems every investor is searching for yield. Of course, that should come as no surprise when 10-year notes are yielding something like 1.6%. A yield like that is certainly not going to fund most people’s retirement! Given the yield of government bonds, it’s also no wonder that […]
Invesco (IVZ) is an asset management company which typically doesn’t have a lot of options trade on the stock. However, just recently double the amount of regular volume traded in IVZ options, with 100% of the activity occurring in calls. It looks like a trader may be rolling up some April calls which will make […]
After a couple weeks of calm markets, stocks and bonds saw an increase in volatility this week. There are couple of major market-moving issues which certainly are being closely watched by investors. The most obvious headline item is the potential impeachment of the President by the House. Considering that the Senate will never vote to […]
