General Options Blog

Thursday Market Recap – 7/30/15

After a morning pull back, the market clawed back and found itself at session highs when the closing bell rang.  This remains a resilient market,  I still see so many expecting it to come crumbling down.  Yet each dip is met with buyers, which is something that has worked for over six years.

Despite the early weakness and late day strength, stocks were basically flat.  All things considered it was a decent digestion day of recent market action.

S&P 500 futures stopped at resistance, a level it couldn't break overnight.  Perhaps the 3rd time will be the charm?

The inverted head and shoulders this week should continue to resolve itself tomorrow with a move up to the neck line.

This is how it started on Monday:

and here we are today:

The VIX is back to the key 12 level.  It's been a tremendous smack down, one we've seen far too often the last 6+ years.  This zone has been an area of concern, however I think this time around the break under 12 will come, and may stay below that level for quite some time.  That would imply further upside for stocks despite garlic breath of the market, GDP, rate rampage, China, or whatever excuse comes out.

One stock that I think will lead, and certainly the market needs this stock to lead if it wants to push significantly higher

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Wednesday Option Action Recap

It was another riveting session as stocks rallied to close near the highs of the day.  In it's wake many stock options came to life, while others were sadly put to bed.  There is nothing more emotional in this stock option world than an option giving up it's life for the good of a terrible trade.

YELP

YELP's 25% collapse put many call options to rest today.  It is the risk of buying and holding stock options into an earnings report.  Sometimes they go ballistic, see $GOOGL $.10 to $102.96 move, and other times they simply open the next morning without a bid.  You couldn't pay your worst enemy .01 to take these worthless YELP options off your hands this morning.  From the $30 to $40 strikes the losses ranged from 99.53% to 97.35%.  But for all intents and purposes they were a complete loss for whoever bought them.  But on the other side of the trade, the sellers of those CALL options took the money and ran.

It wasn't all tears in YELP-ville today, as those YELP put buyers were YELPing their way to 1,000% gains.  YELP's price dropped further than even the option market was prepared for as PUT weekly strikes were capped at $25.  YELP was in the $23's at some points today.  YELP it up PUT buyers.  Congratulations:

$CYT

There were other big moves today.  One stock in particular $CYT soared 27%.  It's options were exponentially more excited, putting in an over 8,000% gain on the $65 strike.

$GMCR

Positive analyst commentary led to a rally for $GMCR.  A stock JB has been an owner of options in recently.  $GMCR options went OFF THE CHAIN, today up over 300%+:

These $74 calls from two days ago at $.25 went over $2.50 this morning.

$GMCR WEEKLY CHAIN

Now lets get into that fantastic option action:

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