Oil prices drove headlines this past week amidst flare-ups in the ongoing Iran conflict. WTI crude broke above $100 on September 15, and diesel fuel hit an all-time high of $6.31 per gallon. The mystery is that despite the price spike, the options market for oil remains unusually subdued. The CBOE Crude Oil Volatility Index […]
implied volatility
Celsius Insiders Are Buying the Dip — And Options Are Cheap Into the Catalyst
Three CELH insiders bought roughly $1.8 million of stock on the open market within six days in mid-September, one of them paying above the close. A look at why they bought when they did, and why the options market has not repriced for any of it into the November 5 print.
Trump Xi Summit and the Market Outlook
President Trump hosts Xi Jinping on September 24, days after the Fed’s first rate hike since 2023. Tariffs, rare earths, chip policy and Taiwan are all in play — and SpotGamma’s Compass shows cheap implied volatility across several China-sensitive names.
FOMC Preview: The Hike Is Priced. The Dots Aren’t.
A 25bp hike is overwhelmingly expected on September 16, which makes the dot plot the real surprise vector. A look at what the options market is pricing, where the big volatility hedges are showing up, why September VIX settles before the decision, and why Friday’s expiration may be the bigger structural event.
Gamma Guy: S&P 500 Realized Volatility Is the Lowest Since 2020
Brent Kochuba, founder of SpotGamma, joined tastylive Tuesday to explain why S&P 500 realized volatility sits at 2020 lows ahead of FOMC and a huge OPEX.
Hedging Against a Volatility Spike: VIX Calls vs. SPX Puts
A series of major market catalysts arrive next week: the FOMC rate decision, VIX Expiration, and September Triple Witching OPEX. Options positioning suggests that institutions are already paying up for event protection. Over the past two weeks, we have observed notable VIX hedging activity in our daily FlowPatrol reports. This included several particularly significant positions: […]
September OPEX Options Positioning: Why 7,600 Is the Line | The OPEX Effect
Brent Kochuba of SpotGamma joined Excess Returns Thursday on September OPEX options positioning, the 7,600 gamma line, oil-rate risk and cheap tech vol.
S&P 500 Negative Gamma Below 7,600 — Brent Kochuba on tastylive
Brent Kochuba, founder of SpotGamma, joined tastylive Thursday to map S&P 500 negative gamma below 7,600, a lifting vol surface and Oracle’s call skew.
Gamma Guy with tastylive: Options Positioning Pins the Index While Tech Names Make Moves
Brent Kochuba, founder of SpotGamma, broke down September OPEX positioning, 0DTE flows and cheap IWM hedges on tastylive Tuesday, September 8.
AI Infrastructure Runs Hot into September
August closed with robust corporate earnings, and nowhere was that clearer than in the AI trade stocks. Last week’s standout report came from Dell (DELL), which jumped 16% after beating estimates and raising guidance. Dell is a leading server provider for AI data center infrastructure. Its results echoed what Nvidia (NVDA) showed a week earlier: […]