Options Trading News

Major equity indexes closed fractionally lower on the day, but the CBOE Volatility Index jumped again.

The S&P 500 was down 6.72 points to close at 1409.46. It jumped above 1423 at the open but then slid all day. Support and resistance remain unchanged at 1380 and 1428 respectively.

The Nasdaq 100 followed the same pattern. The NDX climbed above 2699 at the open but declined steadily for the rest of the day until it closed at 2671.51, down 6.04 points. Resistance at 2700 held up, while support is still 2600.

The Russell 2000 gave up a bit more than one point to close at 820.80. It surged at the open as well, getting up above 826, but did not close at its low of the day. Support is at 800 and resistance at 830.

The VIX was up 0.77 points, or 4.85 percent, to 16.64. Normally we would attribute at least part of that move to the fact that it was a Monday, when SPX options are repriced after the weekend time decay. But this was not necessarily the case because the December VIX futures gained 0.80 points to close at 16.35, while th January futures were up 0.55 points to 17.70.

More than 640,000 SPX options traded yesterday, led by 400,000 puts. The VIX options turned over 614,000 times, with calls outpacing puts by almost 3 to 1. The VVIX Index, which measures the implied volatility of the VIX options, was up 7 percent to 84.07 but remains near its lows.