Your Inside Source for Options Information

May 7, 2018


April Options Volume & Market Share

OCC Cleared Contract Volume Up 27%
 

On May 1, OCC announced overall exchange-listed options volume volume reached 398,481,297 contracts in April, up 29 percent from April 2017. Equity options volume reached a total of 356,177,370 contracts, a 32 percent increase from April 2017. This includes cleared ETF options volume of 164,495,446 contracts last month, a 27 percent increase over April 2017 volume of 129,366,338 contracts. Index options volume was up five percent with 42,303,927 contracts in April.

The options market share for April was (source: OCC):

Exchange Equity Index/Other Exchange Total
  Volume Market Share Volume Market Share Volume Market Share
AMEX 27,976,125 7.85% 0 0.00% 27,976,125 7.02%
ARCA 35,046,491 9.84% 0 0.00% 35,046,491 8.80%
BATS 36,576,757 10.27% 0 0.00% 36,576,757 9.18%
BOX 8,528,306 2.39% 0 0.00% 8,528,306 2.14%
C2 12,875,987 3.62% 215,761 0.51% 13,091,748 3.29%
CBOE 58,844,852 16.52% 41,723,002 98.63% 100,567,854 25.24%
EDGX 8,069,063 2.27% 0 0.00% 8,069,063 2.02%
GEM 15,868,845 4.46% 12,025 0.03% 15,880,870 3.99%
ISE 28,732,187 8.07% 76,658 0.18% 28,808,845 7.23%
MCRY 533,889 0.15% 0 0.00% 533,889 0.13%
MIAX 15,707,143 4.41% 0 0.00% 15,707,143 3.94%
MPRL 14,750,698 4.14% 0 0.00% 14,750,698 3.70%
NOBO 1,693,961 0.48% 0 0.00% 1,693,961 0.43%
NSDQ 38,213,340 10.73% 0 0.00% 38,213,340 9.59%
PHLX 52,759,726 14.81% 276,481 0.65% 53,036,207 13.31%
OCC Totals 356,177,370 100.00% 42,303,927 100.00% 398,481,297 100.00%

 


Upcoming Economic Reports

A preview of what may move the market this week

TIME (ET) REPORT PERIOD FORECAST PREVIOUS
MONDAY, MAY 7
3:00 PM Consumer credit March -- $11 bln
TUESDAY, MAY 8
6 an NFIB small business index April -- 104.7
10:00 AM Job openings March -- 6.1 mln
WEDNESDAY, MAY 9
8:30 AM Producer price index April 0.30% 0.30%
10:00 AM Wholesale inventories March -- 1.00%
THURSDAY, MAY 10
8.30 am Weekly jobless claims 5-May 221,000 211,000
8L30 am Consumer price index April 0.30% -0.10%
8:30 AM Core CPI April 0.20% 0.20%
2:00 PM Federal budget April -- $182bln
FRIDAY, MAY 11
8:30 AM Import price index April -- 0.00%
10:00 AM Consumer sentiment May 98.8 98.8

 


Options Insider Radio Network 

Episodes you may have missed from Options Insider Radio last week

Options Insider Radio Interviews: Catching Up With the Options Flowmaster

Posted May 4th, 2018

In this episode, Mark is live at the 2018 Options Industry Conference where he caught up with the Flowmaster himself, Henry Schwartz from Trade Alert.

They discuss:

  • State of the options industry
  • Concentration of liquidity
  • The optics of tight quotes versus thin liquidity
  • Unintended consequences of auctions
  • Volume data; where will the year end?
  • Single stocks taking volume back from ETFs
  • The controversy regarding VIX settlement
  • What is coming next from Trade Alert?
  • And more...

Best of Option Block: Jedi vs. Sith vs. Earnings

Posted May 4th, 2018

Originally Posted January 24th, 2017

Trading Block: The Trump Effect: President Donald Trump is set to unleash a cascade of stock-market anxiety - The day of reckoning for the Wall Street is here. McDonalds (MCD) earnings today. Friday close - $122.26; ATM Straddle - $3.52, approx. 3%; Open down $.75, Traded as low as $2.44; No more love for all-day breakfast.

Odd Block: Calls and puts trade in Morgan Stanley (MS), calls trade in Home Depot Inc. (HD) and calls trade in Lending Club Corp (LC)

Mail Block: Questions, Comments, Polls, and more

Options #QuestionOfTheWeek

Earnings Season awakens! How do you play earnings using options? Are you an Earnings #Jedi or #Sith?

  • 41% - Dark Side (Short Premium)
  • 26% - Light Side (Long Premium)
  • 25% - No Side - Avoid earnings
  • 08% - Other (Reply/DM w/ideas)

Options #QuestionOfTheWeek - Lots of earnings on the horizon. Which company will outperform their earnings straddle by the largest margin?

  • Alphabet - $GOOGL
  • Microsoft - $MSFT
  • Intel - $INTC
  • Starbucks - $SBUX

Listener questions and comments

  • Comment from Steve Place - CREE it is always CREE
  • Question from Chris - Is there a way to subscribe to your posts as they go up on the website so you can get notified via email or mobile phone? Thanks, Chris
  • Question from Fundconcept - Do you think activist investors opportunities will rise considering their experience with mkt volatility?

Around the Block/Earnings Highlights this Week:

  • Tuesday - Alibaba Group, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, 3M, Kimberly-Clark
  • Wednesday - Boeing, Abbott Labs, eBay, Qualcomm, AT&T
  • Thursday - Alphabet, PayPal, E-Trade, Microsoft, Southwest, Caterpillar, Intel
  • Friday - Honeywell

 

Options Insider Radio Interviews: Talking Liquidity, Volatility and Options with NASDAQ

Posted May 3rd, 2018

In this episode, Mark is live at the 2018 Options Industry Conference where he caught up with Kevin Kennedy, Senior Vice President of U.S. Derivatives at NASDAQ.

They discuss:

  • The trading floor at the PHLX
  • The old floor versus the new floor
  • What has been the 2018 trend for options so far?
  • What a difference a year makes!
  • What does Kevin anticipate for growth for the rest of the year?
  • The trends in liquidity, and how to correct them
  • How can we reverse the trend of people leaving the liquidity business?
  • Thoughts on additional options exchanges
  • Executing complex orders
  • What are they doing in the volatility space?
  • What's NASDAQ doing with crypto?
  • And more...

 

Options Insider Radio Interviews: Talking Options Content with TD Ameritrade

Posted May 3rd, 2018

In this episode, Mark is at the Options Industry Conference, where he caught up with JJ Kinahan, Chief Market Strategist and Managing Director at TD Ameritrade.

They discuss:

  • How has the integration with Scottrade gone?
  • Focusing on options education with the new clients
  • The evolution of options broker
  • How options educational content is evolving
  • How is the reception for TD Ameritrade's new content?
  • How does TD Ameritrade build and foster a community?
  • And more...

 

Options Playbook Radio 207: Hot Topics from the World of Options

Posted May 3rd, 2018

Mark and Brian are on location at the Options Industry Conference, the annual event that brings everyone in the options industry together. They discuss:

Specifically:

  • Launching new products to meet retail investor needs
  • Liquidity concerns
  • Exchanges fragmenting liquidity through extra strikes and expirations
  • What about price improvement?
  • Unlimited quoting
  • What did they learn at this year's event?

Do you have a question that you want answered on a future episode? Send them to Brian at theoptionsguy@invest.ally.com, or to the Options Insider at questions@theoptionsinsider.com.

 

Option Block 712: AAPL, SNAP, TSLA Earnings Options Breakdown

Posted May 1st, 2018

Trading Block: Earnings!

  • Monday - McDonalds
  • Tuesday - Apple, Snap Inc.
  • Wednesday - Tesla
  • Thursday - Activision/Blizzard, WWE
  • Friday - CBOE

Odd Block: Jan 2020 50 "catastrophe" puts in Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA). Closing/rolling paper in ILG Inc. (ILG). Buying a put stupid in PowerShares DB US Dollar Index (UUP). Crazy put-paoolza in Sea Foods Co (DF)

Strategy Block: Uncle Mike Tosaw discusses ways in which to look at covered calls in a channeling market.

Around the Block/Economic Reports:

  • Apr 30: Personal Income, Chicago PMI
  • May 1: Construction Spending
  • May 2: FOMC Meeting
  • May 3: Jobless Claims, International Trade, Factory Orders
  • May 4: Unemployment

 

This Week in Futures Options 100: The Volatile, and Controversial, World of Ags

Posted April 30th, 2018

Today's special guest is Jared Caplan, Head of Commodities Trading, Akuna Capital.

Topics this week include:

  • Corn
  • Soybeans

Futures Options Feedback: In which the listeners take over.

  • Question from T Mal - Jared, What is your opinion on the current speculative interest in corn/beans? It seems large right now. What is your opinion on the extremely large open interest? Corn open interest in particular is very large.
  • Question from Adam Coker - Can you explain the nature of options liquidity for the Ags. They seem to have a unique trading structure that's focused around the planting and harvesting cycle. Are those the months that generally have the most volume and volatility?


Volatility Views 303: Harvesting Volatility with ETFs

Posted April 30th, 2018

Volatility Viewpoint: Today we are joined by Jonathan Molchan, Portfolio Manager, Horizons ETF Management.

He discusses:

  • What does Horizons ETF Management do?
  • Horizons ETF products
  • Why are there so few options-oriented ETFs?

Volatility Review: A look back at the week from a volatility perspective.

  • VIX Cash - 16.50
  • VVIX - 95
  • VIX Options - ADV: 943k, VIX call/put: 2.6/1, Total 7.06m (5.11m Calls, 1.96m Puts)
  • VXX - 42.32
  • Earnings Volatility - AMZN, MSFT, INTC & GOOGL

Volatility Voicemail: Options question of the week.

We dig up many strange options positions at the Options Insider. Some seem credible while others are just head scratching. Which of the following open options positions do you think has the best chance of actually becoming a winner?

  • 32% - 49K TSLA Jan 2019 50 P
  • 32% - 197K VXX Jan 2019 10 P
  • 25% - 65K GLD Jan 2019 200 C
  • 11% - 146K SPY Dec 2019 150P

Listener questions and comments:

  • Question from Illir -So VXX Jan 10 puts are worth about .03. But VXX2 (or VXXB -not sure which) Jan 10 puts with exact same strike and days to expiration are worth 2.60 (a 1 lot just traded this morning)? Am I missing something?
  • Comment from LLLC1 - I think the world just woke up to a new risk for vol products - "issuer panic risk." We all knew it was in the prospectus but now we've seen it materialize. I wonder how this will affect risk premiums in these products going forward.
  • Question from Bortega - Why are there no options on VXAPL? Will there ever be options listed on this product?

Crystal Ball: Wild prognosticating found here.

Last week:

  • Mark L. -16.35
  • Mark S. - 14.25
  • Mike Thompson - 15.85

This week:

  • Mark L. - 16.05
  • Mark S. - 14.25
  • Jonathan Molchan: 15.25

 


Where to Find Options Insider Radio?

Do you know all the ways you can access Options Insider Radio

          


Options Insider Radio Network Live Recordings

Do you want to be a part of the fun?

This is when you can access the LIVE shows this week:

Monday:

Option Block LIVE at 3pm Central


Thursday:

Option Block LIVE at 3pm Central


Friday:

Volatility Views LIVE at 12pm Central

This Week in Futures Options LIVE at 1:30 Central. As always, you can join in the fun at http://mixlr.com/options-insider/


Stats from Last Week

  • VIX Cash Range: 10.91 - 18.66

  • S&P Cash Range: 2594.62 - 2862.92

  • SPX 30-Day Implied Volatility: 12.07

  • SPX 10-Day Realized Volatility: 12.82

  • SPX 30-Day Realized Volatility:  19.26

  • SPX Risk Premium (30-Day Implied - Realized): -7.19

  • Market Risk Premium (VIX Cash - SPX 30-day Implied Volatility): 2.70


 

Strategy 101: Brought to you by Ally Invest

Options Playbook Radio 181: AMZN Skip Strike Butterfly into Earnings

Posted October 26th, 2017

This is probably the biggest week of earnings reporting, when the most valuable stocks report. There are things to take into account because of earnings:

  • Remember that implied volatilities rise around earnings
  • Why a skip strike butterfly?
  • Setting up the trade to pay for itself
  • Where is AMZN trading right now?
  • What is the long straddle aka the expected move
  • Using the long straddle to select strikes
  • Earnings-related risks
  • What is the expected move?
  • Setting up the trade
  • What is the upside? Downside?
  • Nuances of options pricing
  • Remember time premium

Do you have questions that you would like answered on the show? Send them to Brian at theoptionsguy@invest.ally.com.


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