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Is the Nightmare Over? Options Trader Sees Huge Rebound

Is the Nightmare Over? Options Trader Sees Huge Rebound

October was a painful month, but now a big options trader is looking for the entire selloff to reverse. Here's a breakdown of the massive call volume detected yesterday morning in the market-tracking SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY): A block of 75,000 December 288 calls was...

Indexes Rule the Roost Amid Volatility Surge: October at TradeStation

Indexes Rule the Roost Amid Volatility Surge: October at TradeStation

Clients returned to exchange-traded funds in October as volatility shifted attention to the broader indexes. Five of the 10 most active symbols on TradeStation last month were ETFs. That's a big difference compared with tranquil September, when there was only one....

Can Indexes Hold After Buyers Defend Key Levels?

Can Indexes Hold After Buyers Defend Key Levels?

Stocks fell yesterday, but it almost felt like a bullish day when you consider how much worse it could have been. The S&P 500, Nasdaq-100 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 2-3 percent about halfway through the morning. They probed some key levels for...

Clients Rush Back to ETFs as Volatility Pops

Clients Rush Back to ETFs as Volatility Pops

Clients are rushing back to exchange-traded funds this month as volatility mounts. Five of the 10 most heavily traded symbols with TradeStation in October are ETFs. That marks a sharp swing from September, when calm market conditions pushed attention toward...

A Key Trend Line May Be at Risk

A Key Trend Line May Be at Risk

Just how much damage has been done to the charts so far this month? The answer may be "quite a lot." As readers of Market Insights know, a trend line has run beneath the S&P 500 all year. It provided a nice entry in late June, but now it may have turned from...

Options 101: Going ‘In the Money’

Options 101: Going ‘In the Money’

One of the confusing things about options is, quite simply, all the options. Every underlier has dozens, if not hundreds or even thousands of related contracts. Where on earth to begin? There are many ways to approach this question, so today we'll consider options...

This Is Why Options Traders Need to Know Gamma

This Is Why Options Traders Need to Know Gamma

The ancient Greeks were pretty smart. They gave us the Olympics, philosophy and medicine. But my favorite invention of theirs right now is Gamma. In case you haven't been following our Greek of the Week series on Market Insights, gamma is one of the key variables...

Apple Rockets Up the Rankings: August at TradeStation

Apple Rockets Up the Rankings: August at TradeStation

August brought upsets to TradeStation's rankings as clients shifted attention to big technology companies. Major exchange-traded funds lost interest. Apple (AAPL), which didn't even make the Top 10 in June or July, was the busiest stock at TradeStation last month. The...

Greek of the Week: Gamma

Greek of the Week: Gamma

This is the second installment of a four-part series about options Greeks that will appear on Market Insights between now and Labor Day week. Last week, we looked at delta. Delta measures how much an option changes in price when the underlying stock or ETF fluctuates....