Crash-Obsessed Traders Splurge on Options at Two-Decade High
- Investors prefer single-stock protection over index insurance
- Cboe equity put-call ratio jumps in sign of growing angst
A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Photographer: Michael Nagle/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Seasoned investors, staring at a world clouded by war, inflation and economic uncertainty, are buying catastrophe insurance at a record clip.
Institutional traders paid $8.1 billion to initiate purchases of equity puts last week, the highest total premium in at least 22 years, Options Clearing Corp. data compiled by Sundial Capital Research show. Adjusted for market capitalization, demand for hedges matches levels from the 2008 financial crisis.