As S&P 500 Retries 3,000, Option Sellers May Gird for Battle; Sterling option volatility spikes on Brexit deal news

Lead Stories

As S&P 500 Retries 3,000, Option Sellers May Gird for Battle
Joanna Ossinger – Bloomberg
The S&P 500 could struggle to climb above 3,000 amid a defense by those who have sold options with strikes at or above that level. Schaeffer’s Investment Research is watching the setup of bullish call options on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, with a focus particularly on that nearby round number. The stock benchmark briefly retook 3,000 on Tuesday before paring gains, and was up 1.1% to 2,998.07 as of 11:15 a.m. in New York.
/bloom.bg/33AvrWV

Sterling option volatility spikes on Brexit deal news
Ben St. Clair
The sterling market is braced for more volatility after banks were caught off guard on Friday when foreign exchange options trading surged as traders piled into upside bets on the UK currency. With notional volumes of sterling-US dollar options hitting $23.5 billion, Friday made for a “crazy” day of trading, says one London trader at an interdealer broker.
bit.ly/32mOhk4

Bank of America Reports Earnings on Wednesday. How to Play It With Stock Options.
Steven M. Sears – Barron’s
Bank of America is a great stock for the long-term—but it has been a difficult short-term trade heading into Wednesday’s earnings report. A month ago, we recommended buying Bank of America’s (ticker: BAC) October $30 calls that expire Oct. 25 to bullishly position for what was then the as of yet unscheduled release of the bank’s third-quarter earnings report.
bit.ly/35y7LV3

Inside Volatility Trading: October 15, 2019
Jermal Chandler – Cboe Blog
October is upon us. For those in the northern hemisphere it means fall is in full swing complete with football, falling leaves and chilly weather. It also means that in a number of countries around the globe All Hallows’ Eve – or Halloween – arrives at the end of the month. Some might say that U.S. markets began the month with a spooky move. On October 1, the first day of the fourth quarter, the S&P 500 lost 36.49 points, or 1.23% to close at 2940.25 after a survey of manufacturing purchasing managers showed a second month of shrinkage and the weakest result since June 2009.
bit.ly/31n0Af7

Exchanges and Clearing

Eurex expands its benchmark dividend derivatives with new MSCI dividend futures
Eurex
The derivatives exchange Eurex has expanded its cooperation with index provider MSCI Inc. by launching a new dividend product suite on 14 October. The three futures on MSCI’s new Dividend Point Indexes enable market participants to access and hedge dividend exposure in markets around the globe. Eurex offered so far index dividend futures on European index benchmarks as well as European and U.S. single names.
bit.ly/2IOZKB1

Fish & Richardson Prevails in Three PTAB Rulings for MIAX
Business Wire
Fish & Richardson has secured three significant victories for its client Miami International Holdings (MIH) on its petitions for Covered Business Method (CBM) review at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). The petitions challenged the validity of patents asserted by MIH’s competitors concerning securities trading. In each decision, the PTAB found that the challenged patents claimed ineligible subject matter, resulting in a finding that all challenged claims of all three patents were invalid — a sweeping victory for our client.
/bwnews.pr/2IQOu7y

Technology

CME Group to Offer Real-Time Market Data via Google Cloud Platform
CME Group (press release)
CME Group, one of the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplaces, today announced it will become the first derivatives marketplace to offer real-time futures and options market data on Google Cloud Platform (GCP), starting Nov. 17, 2019. The collaboration will allow market participants to access CME Group’s valuable market data through the cloud from anywhere in the world with an internet connection through Google Cloud’s global network.
bit.ly/2OKMP7f

Vivienne Court Trading Extends the use of Itiviti Technology to Support its Global Asian Derivatives Business
PR Newswire
Itiviti, a leading technology, and service provider to financial institutions worldwide, today announced that Vivienne Court Trading (VivCourt), an Australia-based, socially conscious investment firm has extended the use of Itiviti’s trading technology to support its growth. The firm trades across Asia and is expanding into China, EMEA and Brazil.
/prn.to/32oPHe4

***See Itiviti’s post on the news here.~MR

Events

OptionMetrics to Exhibit at Asia EQD 2019
Business Wire
OptionMetrics, an options database and analytics provider for international institutional investors and academic researchers, is exhibiting at Asia EQD 2019, October 16 – 17, 2019 in Hong Kong. OptionMetrics will showcase its IvyDB Asia database, with 500+ optionable securities (equities and indices) from all major Asian-Pacific exchanges (including Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and Australia) for most securities and used by over 300 institutions. The company will show how this, and its other historical options databases for U.S., Canada, Europe, and global indices, can be used in helping to construct investment strategies, assisting with empirical research, and assessing risk.
/bwnews.pr/31jdsmn