EWJ (Japan) is trading $9.49 with IV30™ up 5.3%. <img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hMry1m7UF10/THvw0qfkBVI/AAAAAAAAEbc/8x16EyCu-04/s1600/ewj_summary.gif"> The ETF has traded over 20,000 options on total daily average option volume of just 5,466. The largest trade, accounting for 20,000 contracts was a Jan'11 9/10 strangle sale @ $0.56. The Stats Tab and Day's biggest trades snapshots are included (<a href="http://livevol.blogspot.com/2010/08/ewj.html">in the article</a>). The Options Tab (<a href="http://livevol.blogspot.com/2010/08/ewj.html">in the article</a>) illustrates that the calls and puts have huge OI. I see the puts with long OI and the calls with short. It looks like a Jan'11 9/10 risky went up on 8-11-2010 25,000x (buy puts/sell calls). The Skew Tab snap (<a href="http://livevol.blogspot.com/2010/08/ewj.html">in the article</a>) illustrates the vols by strike by month. Not a lot going on there; but the Charts Tab does have a lot. Finally, the Charts Tab (6 months) is below (<a href="http://livevol.blogspot.com/2010/08/ewj.html">in the article</a>). The top portion is the stock price, the bottom is the vol (IV30™ - red vs HV20™ - blue). The yellow shaded area at the very bottom is the IV30™ vs. the HV20™ vol difference. Note how the IV30™ trades well above the HV20™ consistently in this ETF. i.e. the vol is usually a sale. For a brief moment a back spread was a winner, then back to vol sales. Recently the divergence has opened up pretty wide to 24 vs 18. The strangle sale today sells ~21 vol on average. Japan is interesting, in that it plays a big role in the overall global economy. Lower vol there means higher markets (usually). Check out this blog from 5-18-2010:<b><a href="http://livevol.blogspot.com/2010/05/currency-option-trading-and-greek.html">The European Crisis Explained and Currency Option Trading. </b></a> Hmm... Bullish? Not really clear. If Japan rallies relative to the rest of the globe, does that imply a strengthening or weakening currency? If it's a weakening currency, ok... But if it's strengthening, that may imply bad news. This is trade analysis, not a recommendation. Details, trades, prices, vols, skews, charts here: http://livevol.blogspot.com/2010/08/ewj.html Legal Stuff: <a href="http://www.livevolpro.com/help/disclaimer_legal.html">http://www.livevolpro.com/help/disclaimer_legal.html</a>