| Last Updated Tue Aug 19 17:00:41 CDT 2008 |
| Rank |
Option Description |
Today's Volume in Contracts |
| 1 |
QQQIV SEP 48.00c |
225,076 |
| 2 |
LESVI OCT 45.00p |
78,008 |
| 3 |
NJWUE SEP 25.00p |
78,004 |
| 4 |
XLFIU SEP 21.00c |
60,480 |
| 5 |
QQQUU SEP 47.00p |
57,851 |
| 6 |
PMJIK SEP 55.00c |
57,048 |
| 7 |
IOWKZ NOV 78.00c |
57,025 |
| 8 |
XLFMT JAN 20.00p |
51,467 |
| 9 |
XLFIV SEP 22.00c |
51,150 |
| 10 |
DIWUR SEP 70.00p |
47,820 |
| View: 25 Most Active / Puts / Calls |
Source: iVolatility.com
The CBOE Volatility Index - VIX (PDF / 1.71MB)
VIX provides a snapshot of expected stock market volatility over the next 30 calendar days and is calculated real-time from index option premiums.
Collar Trade (PDF)
A collar trade consists of selling one out-of the-money (OTM) call and buying one at-the-money (ATM) put for each 100 shares of stock owned. The expiration month is the first one available that is at least one year away. As a result, the position consists of a covered call (long stock and short OTM call) to collect income and a long put for protection.
Click to view more White Papers and Research Articles

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Collaring the Cube: Protection Options for a NASDAQ 100 ETF Portfolio (PDF)
A study by Szado and Kazemi of the University of Massachusetts evaluated nine years of data on the Powershares QQQ exchange traded fund and found that a protective collar strategy using a six month put purchase and consecutive one month call writes provided far superior returns compared with buying and holding the NASDAQ-100 Index® ETF with about one-third of the index volatility. Over the 108 month study period, this collar strategy returned more than 150% cumulatively, while the cube portfolio lost over 12%.
You can also view the six page summary (PDF) of the paper which also provides a collar tutorial on the back pages. |