The top ten most active stock option contracts today Tuesday September 22, 2009 were:
- E-Trade Financial (NASDAQ:ETFC) January 1 Put Options
- Citigroup (NYSE:C) October 5 Call Options
- E-Trade Financial January 2011 5 Call Options
- Citigroup October 4 Put Options
- Citigroup March 5 Call Options
- Citigroup January 2011 7.50 Put Options
- PowerShares QQQ (NASDAQ:QQQQ) October 42 Put Options
- E-Trade Financial January 2.50 Call Options
- S&P 500 SPDR ETF (NYSE:SPY) October 107 Put Options
- Genworth Financial (NYSE:GNW) January 5 Put Options
Today there was some different action with E-Trade and Genworth being among the most active stock options. I opened several Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) October 85 Straddle positions that I plan on closing on increased levels of implied volatility just before their scheduled earnings release Thursday.
The stock market futures are off of their lows, although it is still very early. As of now the DOW futures are down 8 points, S&P 500 Futures lower by 0.50 points, and the NASDAQ 100 futures are higher by 0.75 points.
I will look to get long crude oil if the inventories released at 10:30 AM (EST) Wednesday cause weakness, as I’m still convinced the dollar may head lower. If we open stronger I will look to sell covered calls and close some of the PUT options I sold on Harley Davidson (NYSE:HOG), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), and American International Group (NYSE:AIG). If we open weaker, I will look to buy back some of the call options I wrote on Palm (NASDAQ:PALM), and sell some of the October 30 strike call options on the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) I picked up for less than $80 a contract Tuesday. The scheduled release at 2:15 PM (EST) (FOMC announcement) could certainly be a market mover. Happy trading!
