Day Trading News

The bears are looking to capitalize on more downside for VMware, Inc. , the IT name that's lost more than 24% this year to trade at $71.21 . Just over 4,000 puts have traded today, which is three times the standard intraday volume, and more than twice the number of calls that have been exchanged.

However, the short-term options crowd has been upbeat toward Salesforce.com, inc.

Of the 20 equities seeing the heaviest options volume in recent sessions, three names of notable interest this afternoon are Facebook Inc , Netflix, Inc.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 31 points, or 0.2%, to 15,263.32 , as investors continue to fret over whether the Fed will reduce its economic stimulus measures.

Calls on Nokia Corporation are trading at more than three times the rate of puts in today's options pits.

Electric automaker Tesla Motors Inc continues to chug up the charts, tacking on 1.5% to hang out at $94.12 in early trading.

Separately, analysts at Wunderlich raised their price target on shares of US Ecology from $27.00 to $30.00 in a research note to investors on Tuesday, April 9th.

Of the 20 equities seeing the heaviest options volume in recent sessions, three names of notable interest this afternoon are Baidu.com, Inc.

What a difference a day makes. Wednesday proved to be a very tough day for dry-cargo shipping stocks.

"Despite the scary open, it was encouraging to see equities grow stronger through the end of the day," noted Schaeffer's Senior Equity Analyst Joe Bell, CMT.

Call activity is running hotter than usual on Facebook Inc today, with around 122,000 contracts crossing the tape so far -- a 31% mark-up from the norm, and almost triple the number of puts exchanged.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is poised to extend Wednesday's losses, with futures pointed lower ahead of the bell.

Weekly options were in focus on Apple Inc. yesterday, with the short-term contracts taking the top 10 most actively traded strikes.

American International Group Inc is trading roughly 0.9% higher today, extending its lead north of the $44 mark.

"It was a tale of two days, really," quipped Schaeffer's Senior Technical Strategist Ryan Detrick, CMT, of today's session, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average explored a range of nearly 300 points before settling with a 0.5% loss.

Dow Jones Reprints: This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit www.djreprints.com Gold's slump has saddled the second-largest U.S. college endowment with more than $300 million ... (more)

Options traders set their sights on Cisco Systems, Inc. calls on Monday. Roughly 78,000 call contracts crossed the tape during the course of the session, easily outnumbering the approximately 34,000 puts that changed hands.

Of the 20 equities seeing the heaviest options volume in recent sessions, three names of notable interest this afternoon are Groupon Inc , Bank of America Corp , and Microsoft Corporation .

The bears edged out the bulls yesterday in Chesapeake Energy Corporation's options pits, on the news that the company had chosen a new CEO .

"Guerrilla trading," as the colorful term suggests, refers to the technique employed by nimble traders who dart in and out of the financial jungle in short skirmishes that aim to generate quick profits while keeping risk to a minimum.