Koen Hoorelbeke

$SPX options price today's expiry at 46.40 points, 0.60%. It settles at the 21:00 CET close, so it holds the 19:00 Fed decision. Friday's 1.14% leaves about 0.69% a day for Thursday and Friday: tonight is cheapest. Smaller event or earlier? Full brief: link in bio.

Median IV rank across 524 names fell to 44.0 on Tuesday from 45.9, a second session running, almost all of it in names that have reported. $BA lost 31.0 points of rank the day it fell 10.7%: the event the options priced was over. Rank or price, which one reads the event?

$VIX closed Tuesday at 17.52, yet the one-day gauge rose 19.45% to 12.53, the only one of 14 vol board measures to rise. It now sits mid-range and still below every longer tenor, so the market bought back a little of Monday's drop, no more. Percent moves flatter a low base.

Yesterday's options flow (27 oct) markets: unclear mag7: bullish crypto: unclear biotech: unclear metals: accumulation energy: hedging rates: unclear risk-off: unclear semis: unclear financials: unclear Markets 27-Oct tape: USD 1.66bn confirmed-opening premium, 48.1% puts / 51.9% calls. The seven biggest $SPX lines all crossed within three seconds at mid, deep ITM, 2027 expiries. That is a structure, not a view. #options #SPX #FOMC Mag7 Mag7 tape, 27 Oct: USD 222.9m confirmed-opening premium, 87.8% in calls. TSLA Apr-27 390s bought for 11.5m, GOOGL Jan-27 360s bought six times into a static 15,299 OI, META Nov-26 697.5 put sold. Long horizon, not an earnings punt. #options #mag7 Crypto Crypto-equity flow 27 Oct: USD 15.8m confirmed opening, 59.7% calls. The biggest line, IBIT Sep-2027 35, printed as a call and a put at the same second and strike. Package, not a punt. IREN calls bought, CIFR calls sold. #options #bitcoin Biotech Biotech ETF options tape on 27 Oct: USD 0.89m confirmed opening premium, 100% puts, 19 retained rows. But 12 of them are slices of one XBI 30-Oct 152 put block against static OI. Too thin to call. #XBI #XLV Metals Metals tape 27 Oct: USD 43.7m confirmed opening premium, 70.5% puts. But the GLD deep ITM puts printed mid-market inside 15 seconds across six expiries, strikes 420 to 500. That is a roll, not a bet. The real position is a USD 3.7m GDX Jun-2028 70 call. #gold #GDX Energy Energy tape 27-Oct: USD 19.1m confirmed opening, 55.5% puts. The clean sided prints were bought ATM puts in XOP, XLE, XOM and CVX. The big USO long-dated call block went up mid-market, so no side read there. Protection, not conviction. #options #energy #oil Rates Day before the Fed and the rates ETF tape is close to empty: USD 2.0m confirmed-opening premium, two names, biggest print USD 0.54m in HYG 77.5 calls. Calls 57.6%, puts 42.4%, much of it mid-market. The absence is the observation. #options #rates #FOMC Risk-off Risk-off ETF tape on 27 Oct: five confirmed-opening trades, USD 0.12m total premium, biggest print USD 0.06m. XLP, XLV, XLU. Nothing here tells you how anyone is positioned in defensives. Filed as unclear. #options #ETFs Semis Semis, 27 Oct: USD 204.0m confirmed opening, 47.1% puts / 52.9% calls. SMH buys a 2029 ATM put, a 2029 tail put and Nov 525 puts against Nov 580 calls. TSM buys both sides of 04-Dec. #options #semis Financials Financials tape 27 Oct: USD 3.5m confirmed-opening premium, 62.8% in puts. Almost all of it is one Citigroup Dec-2028 110 put printed three times at mid within two seconds. Strip it and the flow is a coin flip. #Financials #FOMC

Up a fifth still the cheapest session - Options Brief - 28 October 2026 social.saxo/3jfxrhw via @saxobank The Federal Reserve decides this evening, and the option market prices today as the quietest of the three sessions left this week. One reading has stayed high while everything else drained.

Apple earnings where the options market puts the price of the report social.saxo/tv9cce2 via @saxobank Apple reports on 2 November 2026, and the 4 November options already carry the reaction. What a later expiry adds shows where the price of the report sits. A double calendar and a long straddle take opposite sides of that gap.

Market Quick Take - UK Autumn Budget in focus - 28 October 2026 social.saxo/ntt3xxe via @saxobank

$VIX closed Monday at 18.39 while VIX1D fell to 10.49, the bottom fifth of its range. SKEW held 150.97, above its 145.66 median: far downside costs more though the next session got cheap. Index puts were also bought outright Monday. Full brief: link in bio.

Implied correlation fell 7.00% on Monday to 13.95, from 15.00, our store's high. Dispersion rose 2.95% to 38.02. Single names agree: the Nasdaq 100 fund lost 15.1 IV rank points, T-Mobile US gained 10.7 into Wednesday, so premium sits with company events. One event or many?

Premium leaves a Fed week - Options Brief - 27 October 2026 social.saxo/zskkkwl via @saxobank One quiet session took almost a fifth out of the range the option market had priced for this week. The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and three of the index’s largest results are all still inside it.

Market Quick Take - Anthropic files IPO paperwork - 27 October 2026 social.saxo/2ilm48n via @saxobank

Amazon earnings between a typical report and Julys 15 jump social.saxo/czzmjk9 via @saxobank Five of Amazon's last eight reports moved the shares less than the options now price for 29 October 2026; the last one moved them twice as much. An iron condor and a long strangle show what each reading assumes.

UBS reports on Wednesday two ways to name your price while Bern decides social.saxo/ktk2g7p via @saxobank UBS reports third-quarter results on 28 October 2026 while Swiss lawmakers are still deciding how much capital the bank must hold. One investor wants to buy lower, another already owns the shares. How can each name a price and be paid to wait?

Twenty-one options markets where premium stood out on 23 October social.saxo/7kwhhha via @saxobank Home Depot and Lowe’s options both became much dearer against their own year last week, while Netflix and Sodexo cooled sharply. Twenty-one readings from the 23 October close, and what a volatility number still cannot tell you.

Paying for the index not the names - Options Brief - 26 October 2026 social.saxo/3jnmz92 via @saxobank Implied correlation closed at its highest since June while dispersion sat on its median. The option market has decided this week moves as one block, and it has four sessions to be proved right. $SPY

Microsoft earnings: is the options market leaning up or down? social.saxo/jz3kygt via @saxobank Microsoft shares fell after five of the last eight reports, yet the biggest move went up. Two mirror-image spreads show whether option prices lean either way ahead of the 28 October results. $MSFT

Market Quick Take - Big week ahead as FOMC ECB and BoJ all to meet - 26 October 2026 social.saxo/peggunl via @saxobank

On Thursday SKEW rose 2.03 to 152.39 while $SPX fell 1.21%: the tail was already dear and got dearer on a modest fall. This morning Friday's expiry prices 55.45 points; Thursday's quote was 59.60, and decay alone would leave about 42.1. Full brief: link in bio.

$SPX closed Thursday 3.99 points above the week's start, having used 3% of the 119.13 points, 1.56%, that options priced around last Friday's close. Thursday's 93.74-point fall gave back four sessions, so most of the range is unused. One session left: does it end where it began?