The ratio of puts traded to calls jumped substantially
Thursday morning - normally a sign of extreme bearishness that contrarians
see as a bullish signal. But hold it! The extraordinarily heavy put volume
was accounted for by an unusually large trade involving long-term puts on
the QQQ, or Nasdaq 100 Tracking Stock, that will expire 2005. An
institutional investor unwinding a put spread installed earlier this week
has sold more than 300,000 contracts of the January 2005 45 puts today,
skewing the sentiment indicator. Currently, the equity put/call ratio is
1.49 across five exchanges and 2.95 at the CBOE - the highest it has been in
years. (KT) 11:06 (Dow Jones)
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