fyi - for options trading, the past few days I've been looking at (large-cap) individual stocks that:
(1) have great volatility, i.e. when they move, they "trend" in big chunks
(2) have tight (i.e. minimum) bid-ask spreads (i.e. great liquidity)
(3) faithfully follow the nominal cyclical model
the ones I have come up so far that satisfy the above requirements are:
XOM
AAPL
NEM
HAL
TOL
Currently checking out other oil stocks (as well as XLF etf, even though it does not quite move as much as the above ones), will keep you guys posted.