Option Skews - Relatively Heavy Call Activity on Goldman Sachs Group, Sears Holdings Corp, DryShips Inc, Rambus Inc

Here are the stocks that saw a bias toward call activity in the previous session. This filtered scan is based on the International Securities Exchange (ISE) buy-to-open data. It looks for stocks where the previous day's call volume on the ISE is at least twice as great as the put volume. It then sorts the stocks based on the call volume. Since this is buy-to-open data, this can be a good source for finding stocks where optimism is emerging. Of particular interest to me would be situations where we see call activity on stocks that are still in intermediate-term downtrends. This would be a potentially cautionary sign from the contrarian perspective.

Companies included in today's scan results: Citigroup Inc (C), Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Sears Holdings Corp (SHLD), Transocean (RIG), Target Corp. (TGT), The DirectTV Group Inc (DTV), Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM), Hartford Financial Services (HIG), H.J. Heinz (HNZ), YRC Worldwide Inc (YRCW), Microsoft Corp (MSFT), Ambac Financial Group (ABK), Human Genome Sciences (HGSI), Tenet Healthcare (THC), CIGNA Corp. (CI), Kraft Foods (KFT), DryShips Inc. (DRYS), Rambus Inc (RMBS), PSS World Medical (PSSI), Newell Rubbermaid (NWL), MBIA Inc (MBI), Motorola (MOT), Allstate (ALL), McDonald's (MCD).

Goldman Sachs Group, Sears Holdings Corp, DryShips Inc, and Rambus Inc are the charts that stood out to me -

• I last touched on Goldman Sachs as the stock was pulling back after earnings. A look to the weekly chart shows the shares are attempting to stabilize at a wide of area of congestion. The equity recently ticked to a short-term oversold condition so it is worth watching whether buyers start to step back in here.
• The weekly chart of Sears Holdings shows the stock is still battling resistance. As discussed last month, I am watching this because it seems like there are plenty of skeptics on the sidelines.
• The daily chart of DryShips shows a rejection at resistance. This breaks the pattern of higher lows discussed last month. At this stage, the best description of the action would be to call it a trading range. The equity is flirting with short-term oversold levels and nearing the lower end of that range.
• Rambus continues to be a difficult situation to get a handle on. My last look showed the stock rallying into resistance ahead of earnings. However, the updated daily chart shows the shares once again rolled over. They have now dropped back toward support and hit short-term oversold readings.

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