TRADING WEEK AUG 23RD-27TH

Options are wasting assets. When a trader has a long inventory of them they will suffer when there is little movement. They can't scalp against their position to compensate for the decay of the time value in their inventory. The second thing that can happen is that traders start bailing on their long inventory if they expect future movement to be weak. In addition other traders see an opportunity and take a short positions on options which further marks down the long inventories. While the intraday movement was slightly better than the day to day movement, last week was certainly not a scalper's paradise. The inventory, however, was not marked down. That is partly due to the slight decline in the market. It has more to due with lingering uncertainty. The two main actors in the volatility drama, trade wars and the FED, have added a third partner. That would be Iran, with their probable actions against Saudi oil fields. That is why a close to zero move in the SPY resulted in an 11.7% rise in the VIX. There are no major macro economic announcements this week. MU releases earnings after the close this Thursday, the 26th.