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The McMillan Options Strategist Weekly
http://www.tigersharktrading.com/articles/27994/1/The-McMillan-Options-Strategist-Weekly/Page1.html
By Lawrence G. McMillan
Published on 04/18/2014
 

Lawrence G. McMillan reviews the options market in his weekly column for April 18.


The McMillan Options Strategist Weekly

The stock market abruptly ended its decline of a week ago and rallied all week. Wednesday's strongly higher opening turned into an overall bullish day, and as a result a number of indicators rolled over to buy signals or generated new buy signals as well.

$SPX is now right back in the middle of the old 1840-1880 trading range. In effect, we have now had a false upside breakout in early April and now have had a false downside breakout. This is extremely distressing to both the bulls and the bears.

Equity-only put-call ratios remain on sell signals, and they will continue to do so for a while. Market breadth has been influential. The breadth indicators are now both back on buy signals once again.

Volatility indices ($VIX, $VXO, and $VXST) collapsed heavily, although they did close above their lows. This produced a $VIX buy signal.

So, $SPX has turned from bearish to neutral, while market breadth and volatility have turned from bearish to bullish. Only the equity-only put-call ratios remain bearish. Overall, the evidence is slightly to the bullish side.

Lawrence G. McMillan is the author of two best selling books on options, including Options as a Strategic Investment, and also publishes several option trading newsletters.