Simple Tech’s stock price and its stock option volumes have been very erratic over the last several months. Simple Tech’s stock price took a significant hit in the middle of September and also around the first of November, but since the middle of December it’s stock price been on the upswing.

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There’s been a lot of banter lately about health insurance and this article is NOT about health insurance, at least not the kind related to doctors, hospitals, Congress, etc.

Individual or Group?

We will examine whether it is better to insure stocks individually or as a group. In an article published several years ago, we explained how to insure a group stocks with index stock options: Portfolio Management: Stock Insurance.
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Fuel System’s (FSYS) stock option volume was up yesterday while its stock was down almost 10%.

If you’re looking to purchase a car or convert a car to operate on natural gas, then Fuel Systems is for you. Fuel Systems provides components for alternative energy in the transportation segment. Fuel Systems IMPCO subsidiary provides products in the industrial and power generation market segment and it’s BRC subsidiary provides products for the alternative fuels transportation market segment. Fuel Systems derives a large part of its revenues from selling its products in Italy. Italy provides a subsidy or support for natural gas through a reduced Value Added Tax [VAT].
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Nobel Drilling’s (NE) stock options volume is significantly up today and its stock price is down about 6%.

Noble Drilling is in the business of providing drilling services for the oil and gas industry. Noble has over 60 offshore drilling rigs including semi-submersibles, drillships, jackups and submersibles.

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Sun Microsystems (JAVA) stock options volume went into orbit yesterday and its stock price was up about 4%.

Sun Microsystems once-upon-a-time proclaimed itself as the “dot in dot-com,” but fell from grace with the dot-com implosion.

Sun is in the business of providing software, servers, storage, networking and desktop systems. The company is known for developing its line of high-powered workstations and for developing the Java programming language.

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Coinstar’s (CSTR) call option volume was significantly up on Friday and its stock price was down almost 9%.

If you’re looking to rent a DVD or get rid of all of your pocket change, then Coinstar is the company for you. Coinstar provides DVD rental kiosks and self-service coin counting machines.
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CommVault Systems (CVLT) call option volume was significantly high on Friday, while its stock price was down about 2%.

If you’re concerned about you’re company’s computer system crashing and want to make sure all of your important data is safe, then CommVault’s products may be just what you are looking for. CommVault Systems provides data and information management software applications on a global basis. CommVault provides software to aid in archiving, back-up and recovery of data. CommVault’s signature archive and back-up product is Simpana.
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Weatherford International’s stock options volume jumped off of the chart yesterday. Call option and put option volume was inordinately high for Weatherford. There didn’t appear to be any significantly related news for Weatherford yesterday. They announced that their next earnings report is scheduled for January 26, 2010, but such a far off event shouldn’t create a spike in stock options volume.
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Dana’s (DAN) call option volume popped up on the radar yesterday, apparently somebody thinks Dana’s upcoming earnings report scheduled for November 3 will be positive.

Dana specializes in design and manufacture of axles, drive shafts and other related components for vehicle manufactures. Dana’s automotive customers haven’t been faring to well the last couple of years and neither has Dana.
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Carpenter Technology’s (CRS) put option volume was significantly high on Friday of last week. Carpenter’s stock price was also down 6% on Friday.
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