Well, despite a rather slow session yesterday, we have some very interesting developments in volatility land. This, from Jason Goepfert (who I hope doesn't mind that copied over his chart, please click thru). Options expert, and unofficial (though enthusiastic) VIX bikini spokesman Adam W ... ... Read more

If you're sitting here watching the screens each day you'd likely feel as if market volatility has picked up the past few weeks. I certainly do. Except it's not. The chart above shows 10 day HV for SPY over the past half year, and it has actually started dribbling again towards 15, which is a ... Read more

Ron Rowland sheds some more color on these new Macroshares (hat tip Abnormal ). I believe those statements are extremely misleading. There is no asterisk pointing to the disclosures. Here are just a few of the reasons why these securities will not track the S&P/Case-Shiller Com ... Read t ... Read more

So what's doing in VIX products these days? Upside buying in August says Jamie here. Big 3:1 on Friday where the customer sells 1 Aug 32.5 call vs. buying 3 August 45 calls. As Jamie points out, he'll need the VIX over 49 to make some coin on it. But of course we know not what he has on againt ... Read more

I can't think of a more touching tribute to MJ than this Alien Ant Farm cover of "Smooth Criminal". And in another fitting memorial, looks like we have some more Ultra's to play with soon. ProFunds Group, the world’s largest manager of short and leveraged funds1, announced today that ... Read more

While we were dozing amidst ever-declining volatility, turns out a little options buying has gone on under the surface. This from Bloomberg. Downside skew, which gauges the relative cost of buying insurance against a slide in stocks, is now higher than it was when the Standard & Poors ... Read more

OK, here's the scare. Expiration day is not a particularly volatile day in the expiration cycle. I ran numbers for my book and since I'd rather you buy it before picking apart my methodology, I'll just say that I show expiration day itself as pretty average in HV terms. When I ranked all 25 day ... Read more

Not sure I've ever seen a single trade get this much press. But Don Fishback finds this reference to The Most Important Options Transaction Ever. Can’t take it anymore. I’ve seen this too many times to not comment. Yesterday, a reporter for the Washington Post’s “ The Ticker ... Read ... Read more

So what doesn't move volatility? An low delta OTM call spread in a VIX product to name one thing. What actually does? Well, stuff like this, from OptionsMonster last Friday (free sub. required). If you've ever wondered where volatility goes to die, read on. Two recent trades made bear i ... R ... Read more

Jared at Condor Options provides a Volatility Tracker of all sorts of instruments each week. Yesterday, he noted this. This week’s report is a little late, but after the close Monday I see little reason to change any of the comments below. The Dow Jones Industrials closed down 187 points, ... Read more