Record Open Interest in CME Equity Products

Discussion in 'Trading' started by Ripley, Mar 16, 2006.

  1. Record Open Interest in CME Equity Products
    Fifth Consecutive Record-setting Day for Open Interest in the CME S&P 500 Options Contract

    Several new open interest records were set on Wednesday, March 15:

    CME Equity Product # of Positions
    CME S&P 500® options 1,266,523 positions
    CME E-mini® Russell 2000® options 44,505 positions
    CME E-mini NASDAQ-100® options 21,493 positions
    CME E-mini S&P 500 futures 1,778,581 positions
    CME E-mini S&P MidCap 400® futures 68,051 positions

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    Further evidence that we are headed a lot further up.
     
  2. Don't half the people holding those positions think the market is going down?
     
  3. Don't know what you mean easyrider. But, most likely those people who thought the market was going to go down should've been stopped out by now, or most likely bagholding to huge losses.

    Trend is UP, who in the right mind would be shorting now.
     
  4. the other half of zero sum
     
  5. I made on the short side today...
     
  6. Everyone who goes long a contract purchases it from someone who thinks the market is going down. I have a scale on my desk to remind me how closely the market is balanced because forgetting that fact can get you into a lot of trouble.
     
  7. thats why A FAST SHORT MIGHT WORKT RIGHT HERE. PUT TO CALL WAS THE LOWEST I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY 15 YEARS DOING THIS HANGING AROUNF .29
     
  8. It was not a fast sell it took quite a while...
     
  9. I did trade options a long time ago but it was to complex for me in the end...What do you make of the ratio at the moment?..

    Dell
     
  10. http://www.thestreet.com/p/rmoney/stevensmithblog/10274103.html
    Put/Call Skews Low

    By Steven Smith
    Senior Columnist
    3/16/2006 3:05 PM EST
    Click here for more stories by Steven Smith
    People are asking me about the low put/call reading. This morning's first post, which pointed out that "much of today's option volume will likely consist of expiration-related activity, such as liquidation and rolling to later months can greatly skew intraday readings," is turning out to be an understatement. At 1 p.m. EST, the overall put/call was 0.22, while p/c on equity products was down a minuscule 0.17.

    There is indeed price- and expiration-related activity, with the S&P 500 blasting through 1300, and other indices also slicing into higher strikes. It has pushed money calls that last week were written off as worthless into the money, forcing both longs and shorts to do something that's generating high call volume and producing the low put/call reading.
    But the real driver of the huge call volume is the Spyder (SPY:NYSE - commentary - research - Cramer's Take) going ex-dividend. We are definitely seeing some dividend plays. The total volume of March SPY calls, specifically the ITM $124 through $130 strikes, is approaching a whopping 2 million contracts. This is more than 10 times the current open interest in those six strikes.
     
    #10     Mar 16, 2006