On Monday July 19th markets were quite weak with ES futures near 4280. SpotGamma’s morning report highlighted the risks to this markets, but noted that 4240 in SPX was likely the low due to the way options were positioned. This call in our AM note was cited by Bloomberg Reporter Yakob Peterseil: Nice call in […]
Market Analysis
Short Puts, Death By One Cut.
Recent data from the OCC shows that small lot traders from the past week shorted puts in more size than they did buying calls. At SpotGamma we’ve covered this topic extensively, highlighting the embedded risk of this trade back in January of ’20 (following that posts the markets had a 4% decline). There are several […]
Playing Friday’s Move Lower in ES Futures
This is a guest post from professional trader David Blake. Friday saw a decent down day for a change and all being well we’ll see more like this in the weeks ahead. I wanted to share how useful again the spotgamma unicorn levels were to me on trades during Friday RTH allowing me to trade […]
The Unclenching Of Gamma May Unleash The Overbought Stock Market
The following post is courtesy of Michael Kramer of Mott Capital Management. Reach him on Twitter. Since the big June options expiration, US equity markets have run sharply higher. Starting on June 18, the S&P 500 has gained an unexpected 5%. The move higher has come despite many economic reports suggesting the economy may have […]
Implied Volatility Reading in the SPX & VIX
Brent Kochuba, Founder of SpotGamma, joins Imran Lakha of Options-Insights to talk about the current volatility readings in the SPX and VIX. This covers both realized and implied volatility which are shifting ahead of a large options expiration.
AMC & The $40 Strike
There is a ton of gamma expiring on Friday for AMC which is heavily tied to the $40 options strike. Here we discuss this dynamic with the stock trading lower at $37.
Trader Doug Pless: Use Real Time Options Flow To Confirm Your Thesis
Doug is a full time trader from the US focusing on futures and equities. Reached him on twitter! As we have discussed previously, many traders open bullish option positions early in the week with short-term options that expire at the end of week. As traders buy calls and sell puts, market makers take the opposite […]
Trader David Blake & ES “Unicorn Levels”
This post is courtesy of David Blake, a full time trader from the UK. He can be reached on Twitter. I always have loved the London open and that harks back to my forex trading days. ETH (extended trading hours) often has a simpler rhythm to it, keep an eye of what the European markets […]
SpotGamma Report for: 07/13/2021 AM
Daily Note: Futures are flat overnight holding 4377. We see little change in gamma levels, with 4350-4400 the main range into Fridays OPEX. With that our model forecasts a very small max move today of 76bps/33pts. 4384 shows as a very large Combo Strike which may be a decent “fair value”/pivot reference for today. As […]
S&P500 Is Less Volatile Into Expiration
In our daily subscriber reports we often talk about the “Options Expiration [OPEX] Cycle” and its influence on the S&P500. This cycle starts on the third Friday of each month, wherein its typical to have >20% of total S&P500 options* expiring. Our view is that options market maker hedging begins to concentrate around the strikes […]