Stats of the Week

• VIX Cash Range: 13.29 - 17.95
• S&P Cash Range: 2114.72 - 2169.60
• SPX 30-Day Implied Volatility: 14
• SPX 10-Day Realized Volatility:  8
• SPX 30-Day Realized Volatility:  13
• SPX Risk Premium (30-Day Implied - Realized): 1
• Market Risk Premium (VIX Cash - SPX 30-day Implied Volatility): 2.12
• S&P Skew Index
• 10/10/2015  123.84
• 10/11/2015  119.79
• 10/12/2015  122.34
• 10/13/2015  123.32
• 10/14/2016  121.86

That's So Unusual

The week in unusual activity

DPZ Put Spreads Trade into Earnings: On the day 4,000 DPZ Dec 140/130 put spreads traded for 1.75 to 1.80 a spread. 

Heavy VIPS Put Trading: This appears to be a hedge in VIPS as the trader is willing to bet the stock is not going to drop below 11.

Heavy IAG March Call Trading: Today over 30,000 IAG March 4 calls were purchased for .40 and .45 a contract

THC Calls Trade on Possible Takeover Rumors: 1000 THC Nov 22 calls went up on the ARCA on a price variation tag.   

Size Jan 2018 BX Call Buyers: 7000 BX Jan 2018 25 calls went up on the ISE through auto ex.

ITM JCI Strangle Traders: 2839 JCI Nov 41 calls and 38 puts went up in 2 blocks on the AMEX marked auto ex. 

Ratio Put Spread Lights Up TIF: Tiffany and Co (trading $73.41 with an IV30 of 25.62 and an HV10 of 18.35) saw a bear 1x2 spread trade today.  

Aggressive Call Sweeps in NBR: Nabors Industries Ltd (NBR) trading $12.93 with an IV30 of 55.74 (up 4.34%) and an HV10 of 56.8% saw ATM call buying today.  

Size Call Spreads in KMI: Kinder Morgan Inc (trading $20.87 with an IV30 of 37.65 and an HV10 of 34.83) is seeing bullish call action today.

Calls Trade in XLV- Just OTM Calls Trade in Nov: Paper traded 511 XLV Nov 73 calls at .56.

Puts Trade in UNG- Possible Short Put Close: Paper traded 9217 UNG Jan 2017 7 puts for .16.

Calls trade in KR- Possible Call Trading Cage Match at the 30 Strike: Paper traded 3052 KR Nov 30 calls for .65.

 

 

Strategy 101: Brought to you by TradeKing

Originally posted on April 14, 2016, Options Playbook Radio 103: Buying an Out-of-the-Money Put in VZ discusses:

• Reviewing strategies. What strategies work best and when?
• Looking at the long call, which is on page 40 of The Options Playbook, or on OptionsPlaybook.com
• What happened since GPS announced sales?
• What is going on with YHOO?
• Setting up a paper trade in VZ
• What is notable right now in VZ
• Looking at buying an out-of-the-money put in VZ
• The setup, the cost, the delta, and IV
• Under what circumstances would you buy an out-of-the-money option?

If you want to hear it for yourself, you can download it now. Oh, and did you know you can submit questions to Brian Overby (aka the Options Guy) through Facebook? It's true!