Have Option Gamma Trades Taken Control of the Market?

Posted On July 9, 2019 1:37 pm
By: Steve Smith

Back in my day as a market maker on the floor of the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE), the third Friday of the month was known as ‘gamma day.’ That was prior to 2005 when weekly options were introduced—to show my age I was on the CBOE from 1991-2002—and ever since ‘gamma day, it has been a weekly occurrence.

Actually, with some Index and ETFs like SPY having expiration three times a week (Monday, Wednesday Friday), Gamma scalping has become a full-time feature of the trading landscape and as this article from the Wall Street Journal, it may be warping price and volatility levels.

The nut of the piece is… Continue reading on StockNews.com

Tagged with: options trading

About author

Steve Smith

Steve Smith have been involved in all facets of the investment industry in a variety of roles ranging from speculator, educator, manager and advisor. This has taken him from the trading floors of Chicago to hedge funds on Wall Street to the world online. From 1987 to 1996, he served as a market maker at the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE) and Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). From 1997 to 2007, he was a Senior Columnist and Managing Editor for TheStreet.com, handling their Option Alert and Short Report newsletters. The Option Alert was awarded the MIN “best business newsletter” in 2006. From 2009 to 2013, Smith was a Senior Columnist and Managing Editor for Minyanville’s OptionSmith newsletter, as well as a Risk Manager Consultant for New Vernon Capital LLC. Smith acted as an advisor to build models and option strategies to reduce portfolio exposure and enhance returns for the four main funds. Since 2015, he has worked for Adam Mesh Trading Group. There, he has managed Options360 and Earning 360, been co-leader of Option Academy, and contributed to The Option Specialist website.