PowerOptions WeBlog

Transocean Option Volume
Transocean’s (RIG) stock option volume was off-the-chart yesterday. Transocean is in the offshore oil and gas service business. Transocean operates deepwater rigs for drilling oil and gas wells.

Option symbols are going away…
That’s right, stock options symbols as we’ve known them are going away. Beginning on February 12, 2010 the current option symbols will be replaced with new stock option symbols. The change is nothing to be scared about — not nearly as scary as Dorothy’s lions and tigers and bears.

EMC Corporation’s (EMC) call option volume spiked yesterday and its stock price was unchanged.
If you’re looking for products to store and manage your data, then EMC may have just what you need. EMC offers information storage systems, networked attached storage systems, content addressed storage and direct attached storage systems. EMC also markets software [...]

MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR) stock options went haywire yesterday and its stock price was up about 2%.
MEMC is based in St. Peters Missouri and is in the business of silicon wafers. It’s wafers are used for all sorts of semiconductor devices, microprocessors, memory and solar cells.

Call option volume for Verigy (VRGY) was significantly up yesterday, and there does not appear to be any related news. Verigy announced on October 6 that it was providing its high speed memory system product to ISE Labs, good news, but good enough news to spark large call option volume? Also of note, [...]

Stock and option volume for Aetna (AET) and Cigna (CI) popped up on the radar yesterday. Aetna’s and Cigna’s stocks were both down around 1.5% yesterday, yet with a large amount of option activity. Not any significant news to go along with all of this activity either.
Cigna provides health care related products and [...]

Brokers are placing limitations on leveraged ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) sales and in some cases stopping them completely. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has also weighed in, reminding brokers this past June to use caution when selling leveraged ETFs. What is the big deal with leveraged ETFs and why are their defenders and critics [...]

In September 2008, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) instituted emergency rules to penalize short sellers who failed to deliver borrowed shares at settlement (naked short selling). These rules were set to expire on July 31, 2009, but on July 27, the SEC made them permanent. Why is this important?

Investors in stocks naturally like it when stocks are on the upswing, but don’t like it when stocks are sliding downward.
One way to cushion the downside is with an in-the-money covered call investing strategy. Generally, investors consider covered calls as limited return on the upside with a lot of exposure to the downside. [...]

Mountain View, California-based Google Corporation (GOOG), best known for its white page search engine and recently its Chrome web browser, announced on Tuesday (07-08-09) that it is working on a PC operating system called ChromeOS. Google is currently aiming the OS at the relatively new netbook segment that is served mostly by Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows [...]