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Options
Bulls Clean Up with Consumer Giant: Options Recap

Bulls Clean Up with Consumer Giant: Options Recap

Someone's cleaning up as consumer staples defy the market selloff. Just look at Procter & Gamble (PG), whose brands include Tide laundry detergent, Bounty paper towels and Dawn dish-washing liquid. It's one of the best-performing members of the Dow Jones...

Bears Won’t Say Good-Bye to Energy Space: Options Recap

Bears Won’t Say Good-Bye to Energy Space: Options Recap

Someone's bracing for more bad news in one of the market's weakest sectors. Energy stocks, on average, have lost twice as much value as the broader S&P 500 over the last month. A combination of rising crude-oil inventories, bearish chart patterns and weakening...

Long-Term Bulls Are Active Today: Options Recap

Long-Term Bulls Are Active Today: Options Recap

Cell phones and natural gas. Those are some big trades in the options market today. Let's start with Sprint (S), which saw the purchase of 20,000 May 7 calls for $0.50 and the sale of 40,000 May 8 calls for $0.21. It's a little complicated, so here's a breakdown of...

Basics of Hedging, Part 3: Buying Vs. Selling Options

Basics of Hedging, Part 3: Buying Vs. Selling Options

We recently outlined protective puts and covered calls as common hedging techniques. This brings us to the important question of selling options versus buying options. To understand the these two basic kinds of transactions, traders need to recognize the difference...

Get the Real Story on Volatility

Get the Real Story on Volatility

Most clients know the VIX measures the cost of options on the S&P 500. Are you aware that TradeStation's award-winning platform can go miles deeper by analyzing all the stocks in the market? Capitalize on our implied-volatility data to determine whether the...

Guess Who’s Shopping in the Retail Space

Guess Who’s Shopping in the Retail Space

Bears are shopping for downside in the retail space after a rough start to the month. A block of 40,000 December 47 puts was purchased this morning in SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) for $1.08. It was one of the largest transactions in the entire market. Puts can make...

Master Options in Chicago This Month!

Master Options in Chicago This Month!

Are you getting everything you should out of the stock market? If you don't trade options, the answer is probably "no." Everyone has excuses: "Options are too complicated." "They have confusing Greek letters." "They have time decay and may expire worthless." We've...

Bulls Want a Gusher from South American Oil Giant

Bulls Want a Gusher from South American Oil Giant

Brazil's ripping this week, and today's biggest options trade is following the trend. Check out the bullish call spread this morning in oil giant Petrobras (PBR), the country's largest company by market cap: A block of 130,000 October 16 calls was bought for $0.28....

The Message Behind Yesterday’s Volatility Spike

The Message Behind Yesterday’s Volatility Spike

Yesterday was a reminder for traders who forgot what volatility feels like. The S&P 500 had its biggest drop since June 25, and Cboe's Volatility Index ($VIX.X) had its biggest spike over the same period. Even more impressive, TradeStation data showed 23.6 million...