Conspiracy Theory stuff

[Eliot Hosewater]

Quote from JSL_Capital:

Deep in the money calls behave pretty much like the underlying but require less margin so I'd think people who want the leverage on the long side would buy them rather than stocks.

It is indeed a little weird, as I think about it, beccause selling these are pretty much like going naked short on the underlying, unless of course, it is hedged.

You can go deep in the money for a lot less than $78000 per contract.

 

[xflat2186]

They were call spreads so technically is like buying the put spread but its no big deal. All of those trades were crossed bye one firm to itself to move them to different accounts

 

[Eliot Hosewater]

Quote from xflat2186:

They were call spreads so technically is like buying the put spread but its no big deal. All of those trades were crossed bye one firm to itself to move them to different accounts

you know this how? What were the other legs? Why in the world were they doing 700 strike?

 

[TorontoTrader2]

time to start buying airline puts ?

of course the SEC "cannot" solve this crime...we'll never know who bought them. SEC likely ordered to stand down.

 

[dalailama]

Rothschilde's, Warburg's etc must need a few more shekels for Xmas

 

[Maverick74]

Quote from Eliot Hosewater:

No, it is calls, which is why it's so weird. If you sold them you could make a ton of money if the S&P goes down even a bit, but who would buy them?

The next closest is 1300+ calls at 800.

My guess is the calls were bought long before when they were OTM and when the market rallied and they went ITM, they were held instead of sold. Nobody would sell those calls if they wanted to hide the transaction. Selling a strike that is very illiquid with no open interest is the EASIEST way to get noticed. If you want to hide, you need to pick the most liquid and most actively traded stock in the most actively traded index.

 

[Eliot Hosewater]

Quote from Maverick74:

My guess is the calls were bought long before when they were OTM and when the market rallied and they went ITM, they were held instead of sold. Nobody would sell those calls if they wanted to hide the transaction. Selling a strike that is very illiquid with no open interest is the EASIEST way to get noticed. If you want to hide, you need to pick the most liquid and most actively traded stock in the most actively traded index.

Last time the SPX was below 700 was about 10 years ago. I don't think they have LEAPS that far out.

 

[Maverick74]

Quote from Eliot Hosewater:

Last time the SPX was below 700 was about 10 years ago. I don't think they have LEAPS that far out.

SPX was at 770 about 5 years ago. Also, you can buy leaps 15 years out if you want. All you have to do is request a quote from the floor.

 

[insaneinvestor]

Quote from Eliot Hosewater:

I saw on a couple of "woowoo" conspiracy theory type websites mention of impending doom because of high volume of deep in the money Sep SPY 700 calls. They mention that, like before 9/11, someone is betting that the S&P 500 will be cut in half within a few weeks.

I went and checked and indeed the open interest on Sep SPY 700 calls is 61,730. Seems kind of odd. Can anyone explain this?

The SPY does not have a 700 call (that I see)

The SPX has the following on the PUT side:

660 = 36K
680 = 36K
700= 36K
720 = 67K

That looks like spreads to me.

I don't buy the doom and gloom. It rarely happens but it is fun to watch everyone run around thinking the sky is falling.

I think we are about to head back up.

 

[cstfx]

Quote from Avid_Consumer:

what do you chalk hillary's comment up to? more of the same liberal screeching or whatever

seemed like a politically risky thing to say, more of hedging of bets. she's not stupid

the former first lady has accused the current administration of benefiting from future terrorism

why?

She could be sending an implicit message to the anyone planning anything that if you do something before the election you will have to deal with 4 (or more) years of the war mongering attitude of the Rep's. Don't do anything and they may get an administration that may be more sympathetic to their concerns. At least that's what I thought.