Look to the Options Market for Signs of Stock Market Trouble
- Goldman says dealers in ‘short gamma’ for first time this year
- The dynamic ‘leaves market free to move,’ Morgan Stanley says
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Deep within the underbelly of the options world lies a threat to the stock-market calm that’s prevailed all year.
While benchmark indexes just limped to one of their smallest weekly changes of 2023, intraday moves tell a different story. Up-and-down swings in the S&P 500 are the widest since June and double what they were last month. Twice in the past six sessions the index’s futures erased a 0.9% gain, the first time that’s happened since February.