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To: re3 who wrote (77382)	11/30/1999 4:37:00 PM
From: pater tenebrarum	Respond to of 86076

Ike, the VIX specifically measures the implied volatilities of 8 different OEX options, the at-the-money call and put and the just-out-of-the-money call and put of both the front month and the subsequent month. now, OEX puts are just about the only puts that have seen some demand lately, which explains why the VIX has turned up. the put/call ratio referred to in the report is simply the total number of puts divided by the total number of calls traded. it is a measure of speculative activity or conversely fear when the market goes down. while the VIX is also a complacency measure, one must not forget that calls are included in it's calculation and the recent upspike was probably a bit of a mixture of rising call and put premiums. as to the demand for OEX puts, it doesn't mean much in view of the fact that most of the index option speculation nowadays takes place in the SPX options, which had very healthy call volumes of late. imo, it was both smart money and a few nervous fund managers buying the OEX puts... btw, another measure of options speculation, the number of outstanding 'open' call contracts has seen a vast increase in recent months. i think it's fair to say that we have never seen speculation on such a grand scale before. if i were to judge the market's prospects from options speculation alone, i would say we are in for a devastating crash...all that's missing is a breakdown in bond prices.