Monday, October 24, 2016

Overnight bulls

The market opened higher after weekend merger news. This pushed the SPX up into the 2150 area, and put our 2150/2160 call spreads expiring Wednesday under pressure. I rolled them at the same strikes to Friday for an additional credit of $0.65. So, we have collected $4.35 in total on this spread.

Later in the day, I sold the same number of 2130/2120 put spread that expires on Friday for a credit of $1.35 to help offset any need to roll the calls further.

The 2190/2200 call spread expiring Friday that we traded in a half size position about a week ago is already nearly worthless, but because we only brought in a 50 cent credit, I will likely hold it through expiration.

As for the main trading indicators, the momentum line on the MarketForecast and the Stochastics are already high up in their ranges, so upside should be limited from here. With Visa down slightly after hours (even though it beat estimates), we should have the SPX under some pressure tomorrow.

Rather interestingly, the $TRIN traded higher today, especially on the open. So underneath the rally, traders were selling. Also, VXST rose today by about 6% from a level that has acted as support for the past month.

Near-term volatility rose today.