Options Trading News

The major equity indexes were mixed at the end of Friday's session, but CBOE Volatility Index was lower again.

The S&P 500 finished the week at 1472.05, just 0.07 below Thursday's close but a few points higher over the week. Thursday's close was the SPX's highest since the last days of 2007. The index was lower for most of Friday's session but climbed into the green in the final minutes of trading. It is now up against resistance, while support remains at 1420.

The Nasdaq 100 was higher by 4 points to close at 2748.26. That was below the morning highs but it too spent much of the day in negative territory. Unlike the SPX, it closed at its highest since Oct. 17. It has resistance at 2785 and support at 2670.

The Russell 2000 was down less than 1 point at the end of the day. The small-cap index was positive just briefly in the morning and climbed back near unchanged toward the end of the session. It was just off Thursday's close, which was its highest ever. Resistance remains at 883 and support at 853.

The VIX ended the week at 13.36, down 0.13 points, or 1 percent. It was the index's lowest close since May 2007. It was higher for the first hour and remained so throughout most of the day but collapsed in the final minutes.  

The VIX futures were lower as well. Both the January and February futures were down 0.10 points to 14.10 and 16 respectively. This had the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) down 0.7 percent to 26.39, yet another new low.

More than 825,000 VIX options traded, 706,000 of which were calls. But the VVIX Index, which measures the implied volatility of the VIX options, was up only 1.3 percent to 78.52.