Retail Quants May Be the Next Stabilizing Force for Markets
Speaking at the Options Industry Conference recently, Henry Schwartz, vice president of market intelligence at Cboe Global Markets, showed a slide with large volume spikes in zero-day-to-expiration options for the S&P 500 Index caused by small (under 10 contracts) orders. These ultra short-term contracts are popular with retail quantitative traders and now represent the majority of S&P 500 options volume, often exceeding half the total trading in the S&P 500 itself. If there is enough retail quant trading to drive large spikes in volume, these trades may well be affecting the price behavior of the S&P 500. Moreover, if it's happening with the S&P500, it could be happening with other major markets, too.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
1 Green Flag for Fluor Stock Right Now
Key Points Fluor's second-quarter report arrived at the beginning of this month with big sales and earnings misses. While macroeconomic uncertainty weighs on the company's momentum, the business still has a big sales backlog. Fluor could continue to see volatile trading, but the company's backlog and exposure to AI infrastructure power trends suggest the stock could have big upside. 10 stocks we like better than Fluor › Fluor (NYSE: FLR) published its second-quarter results at the beginning of August, and performance for the period came in significantly below the average Wall Street analyst estimate. The engineering and construction specialist posted non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per share of $0.43 on revenue of $3.98 billion in the period, falling short of the consensus target's call for per-share earnings of $0.56 on sales of roughly $4.7 billion. Revenue unexpectedly fell 6% year over year in the period. Fluor stock saw a big sell-off in conjunction with the weaker-than-expected Q2 print, and its share price is down roughly 23.5% across August's trading as of this writing. While Fluor has seen a huge valuation pullback this month, there's also a positive sign for the company. There's one big green flag for Fluor stock at current pricing levels Fluor's Q2 report arrived with some disappointing results, but some dynamics suggest that the stock could rebound well above current levels following the big pullback. Fluor notched $1.8 billion in new bookings in the second quarter, with 72% of those bookings being reimbursable. Meanwhile, the company's total bookings backlog stood at $28.2 billion, with 80% of that figure being reimbursable. Even though total bookings saw a drawdown from the $28.7 billion level at the end of the previous quarter, there are still clear indications that large, previously contracted deals are being converted into sales. Macroeconomic uncertainty has presented a significant performance headwind for Fluor, but the business's sizable backlog suggests that the business is attractively valued with a market capitalization of roughly $7 billion. Fluor's majority ownership position in NuScale Power gives it significant exposure to the rise of nuclear power being used to power artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, and the relatively high degree of visibility on the company's forward sales outlook suggests that the stock could have a favorable risk-reward dynamic at current levels. Should you invest $1,000 in Fluor right now? Before you buy stock in Fluor, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Fluor wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $649,544!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,113,059!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,062% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 185% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 13, 2025 Keith Noonan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends NuScale Power. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 1 Green Flag for Fluor Stock Right Now was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Congressman Morgan Luttrell Tours Hertha Metals' Texas Plant Driving U.S. Steel and Iron Independence
CONROE, Texas, August 14, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On August 11th, CEO Laureen Meroueh and Hertha Metals – a domestic steel and high-purity iron producing company based out of Conroe – hosted Congressman Morgan Luttrell for a tour of Hertha Metals' plant. During the tour, Congressman Luttrell saw Hertha's one-step furnace in action: turning low-grade domestic ore and millscale into high-purity iron for rare earth magnets used in defense, energy, and electronics. The visit also spotlighted Hertha's upcoming 9,000-tonne-per-year plant, set to bring 550 jobs and strengthen America's industrial security. "It was an honor to welcome Congressman Morgan Luttrell to our Conroe plant," said Laureen Meroueh, CEO of Hertha Metals. "By producing high-purity iron domestically, we're reducing America's reliance on foreign supply chains for materials critical to defense, energy, and advanced manufacturing – all while creating more than 550 jobs and making Conroe a cornerstone of America's industrial future." "The United States is the world's largest steel importer yet has no domestic source of high-purity iron. China exports over 90 percent of the high-purity iron in rare earth magnets – a reliance that poses a direct threat to America's industrial and national security," said Congressman Morgan Luttrell (R-TX). "Hertha Metals is changing that and meeting the moment by creating a 9,000 tonne per year plant in Conroe with enough capacity to meet the country's demand in the rare earth magnet market. I'm proud that this new high purity iron production plant will generate over 500 jobs in my district." More Background: Hertha Metals is revitalizing American-made high-purity iron and steel manufacturing through innovation. By leveraging abundant U.S. natural gas and domestic iron ore, Hertha developed a next-generation steelmaking process that delivers high-purity iron, as well as high performance steel, using our country's abundant resources. By 2030, Hertha Metals will scale steel production to 500,000 tonnes annually, a commercial steel micro mill. To learn more, visit View source version on Contacts media@
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Cisco Hits FY26 Targets as AI Orders Surge
Cisco's (NASDAQ:CSCO) latest numbers show it's surfing the AI wave with confidence and landing exactly where Wall Street wanted it to. The networking giant wrapped up fiscal 2025 with results that mostly topped expectations, thanks in large part to a boom in demand for AI infrastructure. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 9 Warning Signs with CSCO. For the June quarter, adjusted EPS ticked in at $0.99 just over the $0.98 forecast while GAAP EPS came in at $0.71 versus $0.66 expected. Revenue rose 8% year over year to $14.7 billion with products pulling in $10.78 billion and networking matching the $7.34 billion estimate right on the nose. Services added another $3.79B. Margins were steady, with adjusted gross margin at 68.4%. CEO Chuck Robbins said AI infrastructure orders from big cloud customers more than doubled Cisco's original 2025 target a sign, he argued, that the company is well-positioned for the architectural shift needed to power the AI era. For FY26, Cisco is guiding for $59 billion$60 billion in revenue and adjusted EPS of $4$4.06, perfectly in line with analyst calls. First-quarter projections also land ahead of consensus at the midpoint, keeping the AI narrative front and center. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio
