Daily Options Report

Thanks Astros. Way to give Oswalt away to the Phillies. Oh wait, you had to pay half his relatively reasonable salary to give him away...even better. At least it provided an excuse to see if Touch bothered to photoshop Alyssa into Astro's gear (they apparently did).

Anyway, unusual Friday in that VIX has outperformed VXX...and the VIX futures in general. You tend to see that when there's weekend nervousness, but you'd have to squint to find any undue fear of big news on tap.

I think we just...

Chart via TradeMonster. 

OK, I'm not Chart Guru, but GLD sure looks like it's morphed over to "sell the rallies" mode. And hey, we got ourselves a rally today. Options volatility in the 17 range, basically about average over the course of time, but the lowest levels since the May spike.

Looks like even Warren Buffett has felt the sting of some Tail Risk (feel free to insert Becky Quick jokes in the comments). This from Bloomberg.

A bullish stock market trade embraced by the smartest money is backfiring. And that has investors wondering if what Warren Buffett and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. know about derivatives is obsolete.

Goldman Sachs, the world’s most profitable securities firm, reported losses from derivatives last quarter after selling insurance that protected...

It's the best of times, it's the worst of times as the Mets owners try to make back their Madoff Money. This from the Journal.

SportsNet New York set a ratings record for its Mets broadcasts during this season's first half, averaging a 3.3 among its households, a 3% increase from last year and the highest rating since the network debuted in 2006. The announcement came during the same week that GQ Magazine ranked the Mets' SNY broadcast team—play-by-play man Gary Cohen and color analysts...

What if they threw an earning report and nobody showed up? At least in the options.

Visa often generates some interest and some gaps, but you need a fine tooth comb to find anything in this one. 30 Day IV sat at 3 month lows into the number and.....it looks correct as the stock sits near unch. this morning.

I virtually never buy options premium ahead of a number, but when I looked at this one yesterday I have to admit to getting tempted, the risks look minimal when you're not overbidding, I...