The Relevancy Of Option Trading In These Uncertain Times. Caterpillar And Exxon

Look at the volume of trading in Caterpillar Calls on a Friday morning on slightly "in-the-money" Calls options twelve minutes into the trading session.

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This options are $1.33 "in-the-money" and look at how wildly this stock traded on the previous day. Caterpillar has approximately 465 to 466 million shares outstanding. One would think that there would be thousands of shareholders engaged in "covered Call writing" strategies. Apparently not. The open interest number in these Calls is 17. Why? It's all become to much of crapshoot. That's the reality of our times. The good news is that some traders are still capitalizing on the realities of these crazy times. Case in point are Exxon options. How many more bombs are going to be dropped over the weekend? Look at these Exxon Call options on the opening this morning.

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Getting in on Thursday before the close knowing that friday mornings would cause this worry was one way to go.