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Bearish Options Activity Seen In Gold – Capfeather Brokerage Group
Wednesday October 2, 2013 9:32 AM
Bearish activity has dominated the Comex gold options market in the last few trading days, says Thomas Philippides, broker of Capfeather Brokerage Group. He says that “meaningful order flow” in gold options came from market participants “selling calls in some manner rather mercilessly” in the November, December and most notably April contracts. Philippides adds that puts were bought by the same participants. He says that calls above the $1,450 strike “will be cheap because they really have no chance of performing on any up move.” An option on a futures contract is the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a specific quantity of a commodity or a futures contract at a specific price within a specific timeframe. Selling calls and buying puts are bearish plays, while buying calls and selling puts are bullish trades.
By Debbie Carlson of Kitco News; dcarlson@kitco.com
CFTC Will Not Produce Commitment Of Traders Data During Government Shutdown
Wednesday October 2, 2013 8:55 AM
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission will not produce its weekly Commitment of Traders report or other public reports while the U.S. government is shut down, the agency says on its Web site. The CFTC commitments of traders data is normally released on Friday afternoons. Because of the U.S. government shutdown, the CFTC is operating with a skeleton staff of 28 out of 680 employees, it says. The remaining employees “are necessary to address an imminent risk to the safety of human life or the protection of property,” the agency says.
By Debbie Carlson of Kitco News; dcarlson@kitco.com
ADP Shows Private-Sector Growth Smaller Than Expected