Options Lunch With the New Exchange

by OptionsZone Experts | April 29, 2011 2:15 pm

Your intraday options trading[1] update.

Does the option world need another exchange? Shelly Brown and his team at the Miami International Securities Exchange think so and are preparing to file with regulators all the paper work needed to get the trading going.

Brown, senior VP, strategic planning with the Princeton, N.J-based exchange, told Options Lunch the Miami exchange (MISE for short?) will offer all new technology, quick-order action and huge bandwidth.

“We are starting from scratch and building options trading systems. (Current options exchanges) have legacy systems,” originally built for equity trading, said Brown. “We will be more flexible, provide more through-put and faster speeds.”

Brown is a veteran of the options trading world. He has been with the NASDAQ OMX, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange when NASDAQ swallowed it, and most recently was with PEAK 6 Investments, owner of the OptionsHouse brokerage.

There are now nine options exchanges in the U.S. Total options trading volume set a record in March with more than 417 million contracts changing hands. The overall leader was the Chicago Board Options Exchange which dominates index options with such products as the so-called “Fear Index,” the CBOE Volatility Index (CBOE: VIX[2]), and the S&P Index Options (CBOE: SPX[3]). The top exchange for equity options in March was the NASDAQ OMX PHLX which held nearly 24% of that market.

Brown says Miami International plans to file all the right forms with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the next three months. The goal is to begin trading in the second quarter of 2012, he said. According to reports, the Miami exchange has about 20 employees and a second office in Miami.

Good luck to the MISE team. But watch your tails, there are some big cats out there.

High Options Volume by Strike

Top trading strike is the Industrial SPDR (NYSE: XLF[4]) with the XLF Jun11 40 Call trading a little more than 101,000 contracts, up .04 to .43.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT[5]) selling off a little with the MSFT AprWk5 26 Call trading about 65,000 contracts. Its down .88 to .03. Time is ticking.

Citigroup (NYSE: C[6]) Jan12 7.5 Call trades about 52,000 contracts, unch at .02.

Also busy is iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE: IWM[7]) with several strikes including the IWM May 11 88 Put trading 43,525 contracts, down .38 to 2.23.

 

Major Stock Trading Volume Movers

Sunpower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWRB[8]) is up nearly 35% to 21.25 on stock volume of about 7.4 million. Big European oil firm Total SA announced it might buy as much as 60% of Sunpower. The Sunpower A shares are also busy and Total said it would also buy as much as 60% of those, according to reports.

Ancestry (NASDAQ: ACOM[9]) reported its earnings doubled and its stock jumped more than 31% to 42.14 on volume of nearly 5 million shares.  Subscriber base rose 33%.

Find more option analysis and trading ideas at Options Trading Strategies[10].

 

Stocks/Underlying – Big Daily Change in Option Volume

Sunpower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWRB[8]) trades 21,639 contracts, a 1000% rise as it is gobbled by Total SA.

The Global Solar Index (NYSE: TAN[11]) trades 1,826 options. Sunpower was about 3% of its weighting. TAN up 3.5% to 8.75.

Global X Silver Miners (NYSE: SIL[12]) trades 12,570 options as SIL rises .04 to 28.61.

 

Stocks – High Put/Call Ratio

Only triple digit Put/Call Ratio leader today is Childrens Place Retail (NASDAQ: PLCE[13]). Stock is down .63 to 53.29. Its P/C ratio reaches 124.11.

Emerging markets action is seen in the 36.75 P/C ratio of the iShares MSCI Hong Kong Index (NYSE: EWH[14]). The EWH is up .08 to 19.40

 

Stocks/Underlying – High Option Volume

SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: SPY[15]) trades more than 722,000 options as it rises .42 to 136.53. S&P 500 Index Options (CBOE: SPX[3]) trades 206,726 contracts and rises 3.77 to 1,364.25.

The iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV[16]) trades 319,541 options and again is up, today it’s .29 to 47.55.

The IWM trades 380,000 options and MSFT trades 328,526.

About 150,000 options on the CBOE Volatility Index (CBOE: VIX[2]) trade as it drops a tad to 14.58.

Burney Simpson is the managing editor of InvestorPlace options pages.

Endnotes:

  1. options trading: https://investorplace.com/options-trading/
  2. VIX: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=VIX
  3. SPX: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=SPX
  4. XLF: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=XLF
  5. MSFT: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=MSFT
  6. C: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=C
  7. IWM: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=IWM
  8. SPWRB: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=SPWRB
  9. ACOM: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=ACOM
  10. Options Trading Strategies: https://investorplace.com/category/options-trading/trading-strategies/
  11. TAN: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=TAN
  12. SIL: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=SIL
  13. PLCE: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=PLCE
  14. EWH: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=EWH
  15. SPY: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=SPY
  16. SLV: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=SLV

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2011/04/options-lunch-with-the-new-exchange-msft-iwm-vix-c-xlf/