Option Skews - Relatively Heavy Put Activity on Amgen Inc, Oracle Corp, Visa Inc, Netflix Inc

Here are the stocks that saw a bias toward put 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 put volume on the ISE is at least twice as great as the call volume. It then sorts the stocks based on the put volume. Since this is buy-to-open data, this can be a good source for finding stocks where skepticism is emerging. Of particular interest to me would be situations where we see put activity on stocks that are still in intermediate-term uptrends. This would be a potentially encouraging sign from the contrarian perspective.

Companies included in today's scan results: SPDR Trust Series I (SPY), PowerShares QQQ Trust (QQQQ), DIAMONDS Trust Series I (DIA), Amgen Inc (AMGN), Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT), American International Group Inc (AIG), AvalonBay Communities (AVB), XTO Energy (XTO), Annaly Mortgage Management (NLY), AT&T Corp. (T), Oracle Corp. (ORCL), Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), Akamai Technologies (AKAM), Cliffs Natural Resources Inc (CLF), Visa Inc. (V), Netflix Inc (NFLX), Packaging Corporation of America (PKG), PNC Financial Services (PNC), Illinois Tool Works (ITW), VMware, Inc. (VMW), Boeing (BA), Pfizer (PFE), Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. (ACOR), Nordstrom (JWN), Xerox Corp. (XRX).

Amgen Inc, Oracle Corp, Visa Inc, and Netflix Inc are the charts that stood out to me -

• The last check of Amgen's chart showed the stock was oversold as it slid to the lower end of a near-term range. The updated daily chart shows the equity fell through support, which suggests an underlying deterioration in buying demand.
• I discussed Oracle at the beginning of June as the shares were trying to overtake resistance near 19. I left that post saying that a successful breakout would open up the potential for a run at resistance near 23. The weekly chart shows the action has so far followed fairly standard technical behavior. The breakout led to an immediate push to resistance and was followed by pullback toward the previous resistance, which is now viewed as support. The overall pattern is constructive but the area near 23 still looms as a hurdle that needs to be conquered.
• The weekly chart of Visa shows the uptrend mentioned in August is still alive. The equity is nearing an overbought condition but recent overbought readings have only been followed by pullbacks to the lower end of the uptrending channel.
• Shares of Netflix recently broke out and are now consolidating. The daily chart shows the rally as well as the support near 35 that was discussed earlier this year. The stock did just hit overbought readings but the former resistance near 50 should provide support on a pullback.

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