Morning Update
This morning October non-farm payrolls were released, coming in at 171,000. This was better than even the best estimate going into the report. However, the unemployment r…
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The Ripple Effect
Market commentary, volatility insights, and media appearances.
821 articles
Morning Update
Yesterday US equity trading resumed after a 2 day hiatus due to hurricane Sandy. Volume was a little light but overall trading appeared to be normal. This the ADP employm…
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With hurricane Sandy bearing down on the east coast traders are trying to figure out how energy markets will be affected. One trader was positioning himself to take advan…
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Morning Update
After selling off on Apple’s earnings miss in the overnight session, the S&P 500 futures are back to unchanged on a better than expected Q3 GDP report. The top line numbe…
Read full article →Apple Earnings Option Trade
After the close today Apple will release its much anticipated earnings. We are playing the announcement via the weekly options expiring tomorrow. Our trade it to buy the …
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Morning Update
This morning US equity futures are higher in pre-market trading after getting a boost from better than expected durable goods orders and jobless claims. Yesterday’s Fed m…
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This morning US equity futures are modestly higher after a sharp sell off yesterday on better than expected earnings from Visa and Facebook and a good PMI in China. Later…
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This morning US equity futures are lower by over 1%, following Europe down. The risk off sentiment is being driven by a downgrade of several regions of Spain by Moody’s, …
Read full article →Unusual Options Activity
On Friday we noticed unusual option activity in Johnson & Johnson. The biggest trade of the day was the sale of 22,500 Jan. 67.5 puts for $0.46 and simultaneous purchase …
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Low Volatility Portfolios
With today’s sell off in US equities accelerating we have been getting questions from about how we are managing downside risk. Our primary risk management tool is our pro…
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Today is the 25th anniversary of the 1987 market crash, a day when the S&P 500 fell over 20% and traders learned the importance of covering their tail risk. Today it is a…
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This morning the major data point released was jobless claims, which came in at 388K versus 365K consensus and 339K last week. US stock futures have since sold off, erasi…
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Overnight the biggest news story was that there was no Spanish downgrade; Moody’s reiterated their rating of Spain’s debt at Bbb3 with a negative outlook. This sent Spani…
Read full article →Unusual Options Activity
This afternoon we noticed unusual options activity in LyondellBasell Industries, an independent chemical company that coverts liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon feedstock int…
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Overnight sentiment in Europe was risk-on as a Financial Times article said Spain will imminently ask for a bailout. This has the Euro above $1.30 and the STOXX 50 up nea…
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This morning US stock futures are moderately higher ahead of the open, driven by an overnight rally in Greek bonds and positive US retails sales. Month over month retails…
Read full article →Unusual Options Activity
Yesterday we saw unusual call option activity in Anadarko Petroleum, an independent oil and gas company. The biggest trade of the day was the purchase of 2750 Nov. 80 cal…
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This morning US stock futures are pointing towards a higher open after better than expected jobless claims and import/export data. Europe sold off early in the overnight …
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Yesterday Alcoa kicked off earnings season with a mediocre report that showed declining cash flow and a bottom line loss despite better than expected EPS and revenue. The…
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This morning protests rocked the streets of Athens again as a result of Angela Merkel’s visit to Greece. This, along with growth forcast downgrades by the IMF yesterday, …
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Last night’s Asian trading session was dominated by risk-off sentiment as traders focused on China’s slowing economy and talks in Europe about the ESM, Greece, and Spain.…
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This morning the Non-farms payroll report showed the unemployment rate was 7.8% in September, which was well below expectations of 8.2%. This has the S&P 500 futures up p…
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This morning jobless claims data came in at 367K slightly beating consensus estimates and last week’s numbers were revised up again by 4,000. The S&P 500 futures did not …
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Morning Update
The old saying on Wall Street is that you can’t fight the Fed. So see whether this is still true we plotted the changes in gold (GLD), the S&P 500 (SPY), and the monetary…
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Last night rumors that a Spanish bailout would occur in the near future strengthened, tightening Spanish and Italian bond yields to bunds. Even after the rumors that Spai…
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Friday there was unusual options activity in DAL (Delta Airlines). One trader bought 20,000 March 11 calls for $0.50 with the stock at 9.10 at the time. This trade cost $…
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Yesterday Spain presented a budget that included spending cuts, no tax hikes, and an optimistic view of economic growth next year. This sent US stocks higher on the day w…
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The major news overnight was that the People's Bank of China injected 365 Yuan ($57.92 billion) into the economy this week in order to stimulate the economy. This booted …
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Yesterday’s sell off in US equities spilled over into the Asian and European sessions, sending the Nikkei down 2.03% and the DAX down 1.92%. There has been lots of attent…
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European equities traded slightly lower heading into the North American crossover with little newsflow to prompt market direction, as investors continue the wait-and-see …
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