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To: Joseph G. who wrote (3959)	8/17/1998 2:25:00 PM
From: yard_man	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 86076

Someone else agrees with you. US OPTIONS/Vols stay aloft despite stock mkt rally CHICAGO, Aug 17 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index options stayed richly priced in hectic Monday morning business, despite a rally in underlying stock prices, as the battered market remained nervous, traders said. Lingering concerns over financial crises in Asia and Russia, as well as President Bill Clinton's grand jury testimony today, kept the market wary, they added. ''I don't think it will last through the week,'' Jerry Hegarty, an analyst with Thomson Financial Services and editor of Hegarty's Options Navigator, said of the stock market's rally. The Chicago Board Options Exchange volatility index (^VIX - news), which reflects implied volatility levels of the popular S&P 100 index (^OEX - news) options, was off 0.12 point at 32.80 at 1040 CDT/1540 GMT, maintaining its recent lofty levels above 30. Before the market's downturn last month, the VIX had been below 20 for some time. The underlying OEX was up 4.97 points at 527.74 after initially dipping to a low of 519.21 and then rallying to 528.88. Overnight news of Russia's de facto devaluation of the rouble triggered the opening selloff. -- POSSIBLE LOST DATA -- \000 The CBOE trader predicted that market makers would probably mark down implied volatilities once Clinton's testimony and address are over. Still, Hegarty said the stock market's actual price swings have been enough to sustain implied volatilities at the very high current levels. ''There's just so much volatility, the VIX is just going to stay up there,'' he remarked. Traders said the expiration of August options at the end of the week appeared to be having negligible effect on the underlying market. ''I don't think it (expiration) will have as much effect as it normally does,'' Hegarty said. ''What you're seeing now is the market just trading purely the way it wants to without a lot of influence from the expiration.'' The CBOE trader said the level of rollover activity to the back months from August was quite ordinary and that order-filling for even relatively large lots had been fairly easy due to a good two-way flow.