Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Aqumin Announces New Version of AlphaVision™

June 22, 2010 - New York, NY

Aqumin LLC today announced the unveiling of AlphaVision™ 2.5 at the SIFMA Financial Services Technology Expo in New York. AlphaVision™ 2.5 provides the first ever Options Landscape. Traders can instantly compare multiple option classes for hundreds of underliers on one screen in real time.

“Instead of screening for just the top option movers, the AlphaVision™ Option Landscape can show multiple option movers and their subtle changes in Option Classes that would normally slip by screening tools. Instead of just having a few Equity names on a watch list, our users can follow 1000’s of individual strikes and multiple classes at once and easily see changes in implied volatility instantly.” said Andrew Giovinazzi, EVP for Business Development at Aqumin (former 15 year member at the PCX and CBOE).


Implied volatility skew for Apple and Google, showing real time data on each individual option. Height shows Real-Time Implied Volatility, with tall building representing higher values. Color indicates Open Interest, with green indicating higher values and red indicating lower values. Each row has calls on the left and puts on the right. Rows are ordered by term, with individual options ordered by strike.
Also announced today, Aqumin has added a new “View” Library which brings market professionals closer to the views they want to see with a single mouse “click”. Pre-configured market views allow users to see and interact with stock, option, ETF, bond and Index data in a 3D Market Landscape in real time – on one screen for interactive analysis.

Aqumin’s rapid innovation cycle, also includes the simultaneous release of their Enterprise Intelligence Server to complement AlphaVision™ 2.5. Aqumin’s Enterprise Intelligence Server provides the same 3D interactive landscapes for Business Intelligence, Surveillance, Regulatory, and Risk-management professionals. AlphaVision™ EI Server seamlessly integrates with Oracle, MS SQL Server, MS Analysis Server and OData.

“AlphaVision™ 2.5 is a tremendous advance to increase data transparency in today’s dynamic volatile market environment. Too often data important to decision making is hidden from view buried in our databases. AlphaVision™ 2.5 takes full advantage of current 3D hardware so you can see what you need to see quickly for timely research, and trading decisions. With our new Options Landscape – derivatives are now more transparent than ever. AlphaVision™ is an innovation whose time has come." said Michael Zeitlin, CEO, Aqumin

Aqumin specializes in the integration of large scale complex financial and other data into a single easy to interpret visual environment for financial professionals. AlphaVision™ integrates with data from Bloomberg, Hanweck, Activ Financial, LiveVol, RavenPack and other premier data providers.

To experience AlphaVision™ 2.5 e-mail Aqumin or visit Aqumin’s website to participate in early beta access. Aqumin anticipates AlphaVision™ 2.5 release in early summer 2010.

Aqumin LLC is a new financial services company specializing in the integration of large and diverse data sets into a seamless interpretive environment for individuals, professionals and enterprise organizations. With Aqumin technology, clients can See Everything and Miss Nothing ™. Aqumin is headquartered in Houston, Texas. For more information, go to www.aqumin.com.

Media Contact:
RoseAnn Byers
SVP / Director of Operations
Aqumin LLC
Tel: 713-781-2121
Email: roseann.byers@aqumin.com

Monday, June 14, 2010

ONE COSTLY MESS- News Sentiment and Option Volatility

This oil spill is like a vortex. Ruins everything it touches. Coastline, jobs and companies, you name it. Like the spill itself, it casts a dark shadow over the market. What the spill is doing is affecting market sentiment and not in a good way. We can now actually measure market sentiment (I use News Analytics from RavenPack) and create a number from it and combine that number with other market data.

APC 6-11 Sentiment Small w-legend

News Sentiment Scores are measurable and so are changes in Implied Volatility. The landscape above sets up that scenario.

What I am looking at is a pyramid of News Sentiment in an AlphaVision™ Landscape. The skinny tall red buildings are scoring news stories with the lowest News Sentiment Scores for each group. I have defined each group as the change in volatility over the last 3 days of the 2nd (July) expiration month for the At the Money options. The group on the lower left is the decile that had the biggest up move in Implied Volatility over the last 3 days (from yesterday's close). For bad news and volatile market action Anadarko Petroleum (APC) stands out.

This activity has pushed up implied volatility across the board in APC. The ATM July volatility exploded from the mid 70's to the 90's. This movement has pushed the volatility up in the Jan 2011 leaps well to mid 60's. The news that APC owns (but did not drill) 25% of the leaking well made this happen. Bad news can drive and sustain very high Implied Volatilities.

I can't help but think there is an opportunity in this mess but it will take a while for APC's liability exposure to sort itself out. The higher Implied Volatility levels on the Jan 2011 leaps interest me most for a longer term buy write with the expectation that APC's role in this problem diminishes (APC did not drill the well but owns 25% of it). The outer month Implied Volatility should come down to lower levels (the farther terms' volatilities are already starting to slide down as of today). There is still significant risk (and reward) here, but this could be an opportunity.

The opinions expressed by the author are his alone, and do not reflect the opinions of Aqumin LLC, its shareholders, partners or affiliates.