Morning Update
This morning S&P futures are lower ahead of the market open. Sentiment in the European session as negative after the German IFO business climate index was reported at 101…
Read full article →Equity Armor Investments
The Ripple Effect
Market commentary, volatility insights, and media appearances.
821 articles
Morning Update
This morning stocks, gold, and crude oil are all higher with VIX futures lower. This risk appetite is being driven by a report in the Financial Times that EU authorities …
Read full article →Option Activity in GM
With GM backing off four month highs one option trader is getting bullish on GM but is using a time spread as a cautious way to play the upside. The trader bought 13,300 …
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This morning S&P 500 futures are pointing to a lower open as the Chinese September PMI was reported at 47.8, a level which points to economic weakness. The European compo…
Read full article →Unusual Options Activity
Yesterday there was unusual options activity in FXI and EWJ. 40,000 FXI Oct. 30.5 puts were sold for $0.09 and separately 20,000 EWJ Jan. 10 calls were bought for $0.13. …
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Yesterday's biggest options trades again involved the financial sector as we saw traders continue to buy Bank of America call options. The BAC Nov. 10 Calls traded 58,000…
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On Friday we saw options traders continue to gain long exposure to US financials and emerging markets, all of which are likely to appreciate as a result of QE3, but also …
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Yesterday 20,039 EEM September 41.5 calls were bought at the ask for $0.37 and 51,558 EEM Nov. 36 puts were bought at the ask for $0.35. VXEEM, the CBOE Emerging Markets …
Read full article →Unusual Options Activity
Yesterday we saw heavy put buying in TLT, the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF as 5,000 October 122 Puts traded on the ask for $2.52. This bearish activity fol…
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Early this morning the German Courts approved the ESM with the stipulation that German liability to the fund cannot increase without Bundestag approval. The news has sent…
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On Friday US stock indices rallied to close at the top of their weekly range. We saw lots of call buying, particularly in the financial sector, as traders bet on banks to…
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Risk assets were up across the board yesterday following Draghi’s announcement that the ECB would initiate an unlimited bond buying program. US equities were up 2%, Spani…
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In Europe: ECB president Mario Draghi announced that the European Union’s benchmark interest rate will remain unchanged at 0.75%. However, in order to provide easing the …
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The situation is Spain continues to deteriorate and it is beginning to look “like the beginning of the end” as the WSJ reports that Spanish banks have activated an emerge…
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While traders in the US were out of the office for the long weekend Europeans markets jumped higher on comments from ECB president Draghi that the central bank can buy go…
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From Bloomberg: "Euro-area unemployment rose to a record and inflation quickened more than economists forecast as rising energy costs threaten to deepen the economic slum…
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Morning Update
Consumer confidence in the Euro area plunged 3.1 to -24.6, the steepest decline in three years. Consumer confidence has only been lower than current levels three times in…
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Yesterday Mario Draghi published an op-ed in “Die Zeit” in which he discussed what is necessary to ensure the success of the Euro. He says that ”the euro area has not yet…
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The Australian Dollar / Japanese Yen currency pair traded down overnight after reports showed Australian housing prices significantly weakened and Japanese cut its assess…
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On the back of declining Chinese industrial profits Premier Wen Jiabo “urged for measures to boost exports, such as faster payment of export tax rebates, greater use of e…
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ECB officials said last night that ECB President Mario Draghi will likely wait to hear Germany’s Constitutional Court’s ruling on the EFSM before publicly unveiling his p…
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The August Eurozone PMI is pointing towards recession at 46.6, down from 46.5 in July, its seventh straight contraction. Contraction was reported in the manufacturing and…
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Yesterday Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras spoke to Germany’s Bild newspaper saying: "Let me be very explicit: we demand no additional money. We stand by our commitme…
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The latest news out of Athens is the same as it has been for months – Athens will again come up short on funding and require additional capital. Der Spiegel, a German new…
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Asian markets are lower this morning after concerns grew that China would not ease monetary policy despite slowing economic growth. The People’s Bank of China’s primary f…
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Buying Volatility
This morning is another slow news day with little data out of the Europe and the US, so we will take the opportunity to discuss our specialty: trading volatility. Yesterd…
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Light volumes and little economic news produced another tight trading range in European equities. Shares gained marginally on comments from China’s Premier said that easi…
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Volumes in Europe today have been particularly light due to the Assumption of Mary holiday. No major European economic news was released. In the US the July CPI was repor…
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This morning there is more troubling news out of Europe with Euro-area GDP showing that the region is indeed in a recession. The European economy as a whole shrank 0.2% i…
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Overnight trading in Europe and Asia has been light with European equities trading flat. The only major news driving trading this morning is a poor preliminary Japanese G…
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