Option update for Wednesday February 5
No, I haven't dropped out of sight--I've been
battling the 'flu (and the TSE) for the last
few days. Fearless Fleming got his way; the
Board removed me from all committee member-
ships yesterday. I hope he's happy. I will
still fight management's misguided attempts
to automate derivatives and change our rules.
Did anyone read the front page ROB article
on Eric Kirzner's report? "Reforms Urged for
TSE". The report describes how the rules on
the TSE for equity trading favour the upstairs
pros at the expense of retail clients and
fundamental fairness. Does this sound familiar?
Check my posts from last Thurs/Fri. I'm not
beating my drum, I just find the irony a bit
much. What they are proposing for options
and futures is even worse than the equity rules.
More on this later.
Today's market action was like a BB in a boxcar.
If you didn't get rattled you weren't paying
attention. Some 165 Dow points from top to
bottom. There's something disconcerting about
seeing the S&P future being offered limit down,
-15.00 points. After the trading halt, it
reopened down 22 points before recovering some.
ABX had about a dollar range today. Hard to say
what the volatility is since almost *no* trading
took place in the options. Everyone appears to
be waiting for the 'deal' to come down. 32/31.
INCO also had over a dollar range, but again
very little play in options, save for one poor
soul who sold puts and bought calls just before
the stock sewered, then reversed at the bottom.
Been there, done that. 27/26.
BCE at least had some decent play--most people
dumped their calls taking profits, and driving
the call vol down 2 points. Doesn't sound like
much, but that's 10% of the premium. Mixed
action in puts, some arb from US market. 19/21.
Bye for now.
Porter |
