By Eli, Mia
Momentum sweepers bomb big tech again, a nice round of August buying in $Anaplan Inc(PLAN.US)$.
The overall short-term sentiment is pretty cooked, as it should be off the move higher in the indices the past couple of days.
Even with overall sentiment heated, there are still enough laggards out there where money easily can rotate into. Big tech and FAANG now in vogue as fire, energy catch their breath.
This is usually the perfect time to pay more attention to individual names and not be concerned about the indices but names a lot more difficult in this climate. Playing the S&P 500 off dips/fades remains the smoothest trade.
Institutional Hedgers net position in index futures vs SPY source: sentimentrader
Instituional Hedgers cutting VIX exposure source: sentimentrader
Institutional hedgers uncharacteristically putting on long exposure and trimming $CBOE Volatility S&P 500 Index(.VIX.US)$ exposure off a minor pullback.
Gamma Exposure vs SPY source: sentimentrader
Gamma Exposure continues to rise but still has a lot of room before we reach "ultimate stickiness".
As bullish & exuberant as it may seem out there, players have completely hit the breaks on shorting the VIX and there's still not much SPX put selling to get caught offsides.
Notable bettings toward broader market indices ETF on 4/5
Monday's option volume of 34.4m contracts was 11% below recent average levels, with calls leading puts 9 to 5.Index and Single stock products saw relatively heavy volume, while ETF flow was moderate.
Individuals breakdown by sectors (4/5 notable bets)
Mostactive sectors included Basic Materials, Technology and Utilities, while Health Care and Industrials were relatively light.Of the 3896 stocks with listed options, 2396 (61%) closed higher, and 1405 (36)% lower. Among the 500 most liquid single stocks, 30day implied volatility was higher for 341 and lower for 115. Unusual total option volume was observed in $Microsoft Corp(MSFT.US)$, $Gap Inc(GPS.US)$, $Cameco Corp(CCJ.US)$, $Alphabet Inc-CL A(GOOGL.US)$ and $Applied Materials Inc(AMAT.US)$.
Tech
Industrial
Consumer Cyclical
Financial
Communication Services
Healthcare
Energy
Real Estate
Basic materials
Consumer Defensive