Implied Volatility Mover
CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) is off .25 to 14.97 and trading in the VIX pit is active today because of the expiration. October options on the index expire today and the settlement value was 15.96 – quite a bit higher than the September expiration, when it was 14.03. Now, attention turns to November. A total of 478,000 options traded on the index and about 85 percent of the activity is in the November term. Nov 55 deep out-of-the-money calls are the most actives in VIX options today. 57,500 traded so far.

 

Volume Signals
IBM options volume is running 4X the (22-day) average, with 107,000 contracts traded and put volume accounting for 52 percent of the volume.

International Paper (IP) options volume is 6.5X, the average daily, with 91,000 contracts traded and call volume representing for 98 percent of the activity.

Clearwire (CLWR) options volume is running 4.5X the average daily, with 72,000 contracts traded and call volume accounting for 99 percent of the activity.

Increasing options activity is also being seen in Abbott Labs (ABT), NCR, and Dow Chemical (DOW).

 

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