Between taking issue with j0sh1ngU’s VIX babble and other wordly nonsense going on in my non-internet world, this Tuesday update has slipped into Wednesday (even on the West Coast!).

In any case, a look back at _yesterday’s_ action reveals a put/call ratio wholly unchanged from Monday.  Technically, it rose by 0.01, to 1.22, but that’s rather inconsequential.  This could be looked at as continued optimism…OR…as a potential warning sign that despite a break from selling, relative call volumes did not increase.

As the ratio stayed firmly in the ‘undecided’ area, it did not signal any new (contrarian) buys.

Individual Equity Action:

• QCOM, T volatilities flat heading into earnings.  Low volatility seems to be the name of the game this ‘earnings season’.  Especially in tech, with YHOO a notable exception…but that is probably due to the ever-present buyout rumors.  NFLX volatility is also slightly elevated ahead of their Q1 EPS report.
• Other buyout rumors:  FMC, SCHN, WPI

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On a personal note, bought some long GLD calls today, in the process managing to get bad fills thanks to the only real shortcoming of the thinkorswim platform:  conditional orders can only be if->then; I’d like to see an option for ‘while’ (if an instrument is above/below a certain price, the order is active, otherwise it’s on wait).  Or maybe somebody out there knows how to do this?

So these are now in addition to my STP puts, AAPL & RIMM put backspreads, and a FAZ call backspread (really would like to buy back the FAZ spread already, but the May 20. calls (120% gain to be ITM) are still trading at $0.50!).