Hey gang!

Investor fears may have temporarily been quelled as major indexes pulled upward today. Leading the way was the Russell 2000 (IWM), posting a nearly full percent gain. Nearly all of the SPY sector ETFs were up, with the Energy Sector ETF (XLE) out in front with a more than 3% gain. XLE is the lightest weighted sector in the S&P, but is up 32% year-to-date. So much for my doom and gloom from yesterday. Perhaps I should keep that up so markets continue to rise.

The other day I talked about taking a position on the VXX, which I did right before the bell. Interesting to note the inverse correlation between the volatility index (VIX) and the S&P Index (SPX) recently. These usually mirror each other, however recently the SPX has risen while the VIX hasn't necessarily fallen. This could be seen as a bearish divergence and a warning sign to investors. I know, I know, more doom and gloom. I feel gross. It's way more fun to be bullish.

Obligatory: these are not stock recommendations, this does not constitute financial advice - if you need that kind of advice contact your broker, I'm just analyzing unusual option data, (so if you don't see your favorite stonk, don't take it personally) please do you own DD, etc. etc. etc.

I pull my data from a premium Market Chameleon account. News I generally get from Finviz, but I also check Google. For economic reports, my go to is ForexFactory.

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*denotes started the day below $5/share

**included for popularity/narrative purposes

Notes: TICKER, DAY'S MOVEMENT, (AH MOVEMENT)

SB 6.12% ( 1.15%) No news that I could find. Dry bulk shipping continues to do well after the rate increase. SB also received a $6.50 price target from HC Wainwright on Monday. January puts seeing a lot of algo action.

APRN 44.59% ( 2.85%) APRN had a lot going on today. Announced $78 million in capital raises - $45 million offering, private placement for $30 million, and a $3 million private placement with the company's co-founder. The interesting thing to me is the warrants associated with the placements vary at exercise prices, with the minimum at $10/share. Also interesting the the co-founder just plunked down $3 million of his own money and then stepped down from the board of directors. Usually with a big gain like this, the call/put ratio skews heavily toward calls. Option traders are betting this gain doesn't last.

BBIG 2.52% (-0.86%) 907.6K calls vs 275K puts in the OI. 246.4K calls, 34.1K puts, and over 48 million shares traded today. Nearly 20 million less in volume than yesterday, but ended up positive. As of OI numbers this morning, 431.3K options expire on Friday. Unfortunately for the bulls, the majority of calls are pretty high in the option chain. There's 27.6K calls at $7.50 that could end up ITM, which could push things higher if the price action can hold.

ATER 2.65% (-2.58%) After opening to a 6% gain, kind of a muted day for ATER after the big drop yesterday. 183.8K calls vs 73.8K puts in the OI. 97.9K calls, 41.9K puts, and over 54 million shares traded today. 141.2K options expire Friday. Nearly 13K OI at the $10 strike, with not much under that level. If there is to be any sort of gamma pressure on the stock, it would come from those options ending up ITM.

ANY 26% (-3.4%) Announced that it launched the first batch of its 7,200 BTC miners. 206.1K calls vs 36.6K puts in the OI. 244.3K calls, 26.5K puts, and over 101 million shares traded today. 113,000 options expire Friday. There's nearly 12K OI at both the $7 and $8 call strikes, which could make things interesting if ITM. Over 18K OI at the $10 strike. IV from this morning suggests $6 calls were being sold yesterday...that's gotta hurt today.

DNN 10.56% ( /-0%) Traded at $1.72 in the early report. No news, Uranium go brrrrr until it don't.

TELL 13.83% ( /-0%) Traded at $3.53 in the early report. No news that I could find. 2.5x the average daily volume of shares traded for TELL today.

UEC 13.89% ( 2.95%) Traded at $3.49 in the early report. Uranium.

NAK 4.54% ( 1.3%) Traded at $0.44 in the early report. Recovered nicely after opening to a nearly 4% loss. NAK saw nearly 3x the average daily volume of shares traded today.

WTI 9.26% ( 1.13%) Traded at $3.48 in the early report. Oil prices rose over $2 after industry data showed a larger-than-expected drawdown in US crude inventories and on expectations demand will rise as vaccination roll-outs widen. WTI saw over 5x average volume of shares traded today.

AMPE 18.75% ( /-0%) Traded at $1.67 in the early report. Shortly after market open, AMPE peaked at 25%. Announced topline results from a phase 3 study of one of their drugs in adults with osteoarthritis of the knee. The trial went well, but almost more importantly, AMPE has a current cash runway of 12 months which "is expected to provide sufficient near-term liquidity to support existing business operations." The question is will this large gain hold tomorrow, or will there be some profit taking? 7.5x average share volume.

ENG 11.4% ( 1.86%) Traded at $2.14 in the early report. At one point was up over 22%. No news that I could find, but man, that energy sector is so hot right now. Nearly 3x average share volume.

PROG -5.32% ( 0.43%) Traded at $0.96 in the early report. Bit of a pullback after gaining yesterday from patent news.

WTRH 5.67% (-2.04%) I couldn't find any particular reason for the elevated option activity today. Nearly 4x the average share volume.

CTRM 15.22% (-0.75%) Traded at $2.56 in the early report. No news, but likely continuing to rise for the same reason as SB - dry bulk shipping rates increasing. Nearly 4x the average share volume.

SPPI 5.58% ( /-0%) Traded at $2.20 in the early report. No news that I could find. Barely was above its average share volume. Market sweeps went hard on the most active option.

ABUS -0.71% ( 0.24%) Traded at $4.21 in the early report. After opening to a 2% loss, ABUS scratched back to only a less-marginal loss. No news that I could find. Notable that ABUS traded 0.9x the average share volume - so less than usual.

BCLI 12.42% ( /-0%) Traded at $3.50 in the early report. No news that I could find. Someone did open 600 credit call spreads at the $4 and $5 strikes for October, which is bearish. Could just be taking advantage of elevate premium today. Traded nearly 4x its average share volume which is a miniscule 237K.

DTEA -15.15% ( 2.50%) Traded at $2.66 in the early report. Looking at their ER was interesting. The usual decrease in sales and profit attributable to COVID blah blah. Interesting that the founder and principal shareholder retired as Chair of the Board and his wife is taking over the position. He owns 46% of the outstanding shares. DTEA saw 7x the average share volume today.

NSPR 12.62% (-1.29%) NSPR traded at a small loss until about midway through the trading session where it rose to a 20% gain before kind of walking down a bit the rest of the way. No news. 14x the average share volume today.

SNCR -8.44% ( 0.46%) Couldn't find any reason for the decrease. Traded below its average share volume.

KRBP 3.19% ( /-0%) Traded at $3.55 in the early report. No news. Most active options continue to be previously reported March bear call spreads. Traded at 0.38x average share volume. The average volume is a tiny 329K, with a float of 3 million.

ICLK -0.8% ( /-0%) After opening to an 8% loss, ICLK had a short-live (like real short, 5 minutes) 8% gain before finishing down for the day. No news, traded right in line with the average share volume.

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After this week, I'm considering taking a bit of a step back with these reports. I got a lot of work going on and a girlfriend who deserves more attention. Also, low-key mental health reasons. I dunno. Nothing's concrete, just thinking it over for now. Anyways byeeeeee

boom