US OPTIONS FOCUS/Index puts busy but no buy rush
CHICAGO, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Put volume in major U.S. stock index options increased as the market tumbled
Thursday, but traders said there was not a huge rush to buy them up for protection.
''I've been doing a lot of everything,'' said a trader in S&P 100 index (.OEX) options at the Chicago Board Options
Exchange. ''It looks like people are playing both sides of the market.''
He said that the sale of some January calls and the purchase of a couple different December put spreads were among his
biggest trades of the day.
458.07, off its 455.28 session low.
The bellwether Dow industrial average, which was down 163 points intraday, was off 108 points at about 7,871. The
broader S&P 500 index lost 13.14 to 956.65 and December S&P 500 futures were down 13.50 at 956.70 after hitting
and then falling through their first downside limit of 15 points.
By 1430 CST/2030 GMT, volume in OEX puts was more than 94,600 compared with call volume of about 66,900. In
the SPX, put volume led call volume by roughly 96,200 to 64,400.
''I don't think they're going to get killed any more in here,'' said Jay Shartsis, head of the options desk at R.F. Lafferty &
Co in New York. ''I think you've got a short-term bottom.
"There's fear in the market here," he said.
But he added that longer term, the market's recent action appears suggestive of a possible top.
''The big problem is the S&P 500 made a new high that was widely unconfirmed'' by other market measures, Shartsis
explained. ''Very few people are talking about it. It's a serious matter.''
The S&P 500 recorded an all-time closing high on December 5 at 983.79, but that was not matched by record closes in
other key market measures like the Dow industrials and the Nasdaq composite index (.IXIC).
Gregory Nie, a technical analyst at Everen Securities in Chicago, said the non-confirmation was important but not an
overriding factor right now.
''I'm not dismissing that out of hand but I think it's going to stay in the background for a little longer,'' he said.
''That's a point well taken but I'd rather look at the overall technical picture and say that the disappointment this week is
more along the lines of not putting all the pieces convincingly behind a classic year end rally,'' he said.
He added that the market has not created a ''litany of bearish indicators'' and any rally would likely be a slow up and
down type move.
Shartsis said one positive was the fact that December is historically a strong month for stocks.
''Maybe the next serious downleg is going to be in January,'' he said. |
