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May 10th
Reuters — “Wall Street Anxiety Plunges on Euro Zone Aid – VIX”
“It doesn’t mean the people are not all of a sudden not fearful at all. But the rescue package, the coordinated efforts of the market are giving less reasons to invest in options,” said Steve Claussen, chief investment strategist at online brokerage OptionsHouse.com in Chicago.”
May 6th
Wall Street Journal — “UPDATE:NYSE: P&G’s Plunge Came After Stock Moved Below Circuit Breaker”
May 6th
Marketwatch — “NYSE: P&G’s Plunge Came After Stock Moved Below Circuit Breaker”
“The speed at which liquidity can disappear from the equity markets is frightening,” said Steve Claussen, chief investment strategist for OptionsHouse. “There is some talk about bogus prints on third markets, which if recorded for calculating the index values could show an artificially low print.”
May 4th
Wall Street Journal — “VIX Volatility Index Climbs More Than 27% As Stocks Slide”
“This is much more of a macro event in front of us,” said Steve Claussen, chief investment strategist for OptionsHouse. “It’s not like earnings season, where one stock could have good earnings and another stock could have bad earnings. We’re now talking about sovereign risk and systemic risk.”
April 30th
Wall Street Journal — “After Palm Gets an Offer, Traders Seek Cover”
“There were a ton of people betting that the stock would go to zero,” said Steve Claussen, chief investment strategist at OptionsHouse LLC.”
April 14th
Reuters — “Options Investors Appear to be Bullish on Yum Brand Earnings”
“Most of the trades are on the bid side of the market, implying there are mostly sellers anticipating not much of a move from today’s price after earnings,” said Steve Claussen, chief investment strategist at online brokerage OptionsHouse.com in Chicago.
April 1st
Marketwatch — “April Options for Nervous Bulls” by OptionsHouse Chief Investment Strategist Steve Claussen.
“If you have been long stocks, you may have enjoyed a tremendous run from the lows of March 2009. Now, understandably, you may be afraid to sell them for fear of missing out on additional potential gains. Yet, it’s starting to get hard to get a peaceful night’s sleep over concerns this rally might be running out of gas…..”
April 1st
Dow Jones Newswire — “It’s SPY vs. SPX in CBOE battle of generics”
Despite technical differences in contract specifications, “they’re virtually the same options,” said George Ruhana, chief executive of Chicago-based brokerage OptionsHouse LLC.
March 19th
Reuters — U.S. Health Insurers Attract Bullish Options Bets
“Typically, traders buy on the rumor and sell on the news. In this case, it’s the complete opposite,” said Steve Claussen, chief investment strategist at online brokerage OptionsHouse.com in Chicago.
March 5th
Wall Street Journal — Betting on Stability, Traders ‘Straddle’ and ‘Strangle’
“Earnings season is pretty much behind us, and that is typically when you see volatility sellers come out—after the events are known,” said Steve Claussen, chief investment strategist for OptionsHouse.
February 23rd
MoneyMagazine.ws — Review of Online Brokerage OptionsHouse
February 22nd
Benzinga.com — Interview with OptionsHouse CEO George Ruhana
February 17th
Reuters — AMAT Options Suggests Small Gains on Results
“Investors definitely seem to be awaiting somewhat of a pop after earnings tonight,” said Steve Claussen, chief investment strategist at online brokerage OptionsHouse.com in Chicago.
February 1st
Stocks, Futures and Options Magazine — Options at the Crossroads
“A lot of people want to be customers on the most liquid front-month stuff and the at-the-money strikes,” Ruhana says. “But there are strikes across the board on this thing, and we need fair and orderly markets in all of them.”
February 1st
Futures Magazine — CBOE Creates New Order Type
George Ruhana, CEO of OptionsHouse, says “professional” customers caused two problems for CBOE and ISE before this rule went into effect. “First, they get priority at the top of the book, so they get filled before the market makers, when in essence they are making markets in much the same way. Second, these people do not pay fees. …they were free-loading in the CBOE model,” he explains.
January 28th
Wall Street Journal — Steady for Express Scripts, Dollar Tree?
“They seem to be selling front-month premium because the companies don’t announce earnings until after February options expire,” said Steve Claussen, chief investment strategist at OptionsHouse LLC.
January 26th
Reuters — Yahoo Options Show Investors Split on Post-Earnings Direction
“In early afternoon trading, 26,000 trades were made on the underlying stock in the options market, with 16,000 calls and 9,700 puts,” according to Steve Claussen, chief investment strategist at online brokerage OptionsHouse.com in Chicago. “The average daily trade volume is about 45,000, with calls beating puts by a ratio of 2:1.”
January 4th
MarketWatch — “Meet the Covered Strangle” by OptionsHouse Chief Investment Strategist Steve Claussen
“One of the basic option strategies stock investors first trade when they make the plunge into option trading is the covered call…”
2009
Barron’s — Social Investing Doesn’t Quite Click
“SO LONG TO FLAT PRICING: OptionsHouse, which has featured flat-fee pricing for stock and options trades, is changing part of its fee structure to reflect changes in the way exchanges operate. George Ruhana, CEO of Options-House, detailed the new fees for us.”
The Sun’s Financial Diary — OptionsHouse Introduction:An Interview with CEO George Ruhana
Reuters — Traders Pull Back in Dollar Fund After New Shares Issued
“When that supply became available today, the premium disappeared,” said Steve Claussen, chief investment strategist at online brokerage OptionsHouse LLC. “It seemed that some option investors exited their long call positions earlier in the session, giving up on the idea that the dollar would rally in the near term.”
Bloomberg — 3Com Options Trades May Have Been More Than Luck
“I don’t believe in that much luck,” said Steve Claussen, chief investment strategist at OptionsHouse LLC, the Chicago- based online brokerage unit of options trading firm PEAK6 Investments LP, and a former market maker at the Chicago Board Options Exchange. “If you’re on the other side of someone buying calls and a takeover is announced, it’s like someone held you up at gunpoint. It’s like you’ve been robbed and you feel violated.”
Bloomberg — VIX Falls to Two-Week Low as G-20 Says Stimulus Will Continue
“As soon as the market shows any signs of stability, people are willing to sell options,” said Steve Claussen, chief investment strategist at OptionsHouse LLC, the Chicago-based online brokerage unit of options trading firm PEAK6 Investments LP. “There’s a high probability that we could touch 20 in the next two weeks.”
November 5th
Wall Street Journal — Dollar ETF Lures Traders
“This could be a relatively cheap way to hedge against strength in the dollar, potentially for someone who’s long hard assets, like metals, miners, energy or industrials,” said Steve Claussen, chief investment strategist with OptionsHouse.
October 30th
Wall Street Journal — Volatility Yardstick for Stocks Reverses its Surges
“In particular, an institutional investor appeared to buy call options in the $13-$14 range as far out as January”, according to Steve Claussen, chief investment strategist at OptionsHouse.
October 22nd
Wall Street Journal — Freeport Earnings Unleash Plays in Other Miners
“One trader sold June $30 Vale calls”, Mr. (Steve) Claussen, chief investment strategist at OptionsHouse said. “At a premium of $2.39, that would mean the seller thinks the stock won’t rise above $32.39 before the middle of next year. Vale’s American depositary receipts rose 48 cents, or 1.8%, to $26.93, on the NYSE.”
October 15th
Wall Street Journal — After Intel, Traders Rally Behind IBM
“You can make the assumption that people are expecting a good number” when IBM reports earnings, said Steve Claussen, chief investment strategist of OptionsHouse LLC.
September 12th
Wall Street Journal — ‘Fear Gauge’ is Showing Far Less of it
In fact, some strategists said the VIX could go lower. “Even though the VIX is coming in a great deal, there could still be some room to go,” said Stephen Claussen, chief investment strategist of OptionsHouse LLC.
2008
UseableMarkets — Interview: Gong Szeto of OptionsHouse
TheStreet.com Options Report (Webcast) — TheStreet.com’s Steve Smith Interviews OptionsHouse’s John Hass about Volatility and Industry Consolidation
Wall Street Journal Webcast — MarketWatch’s Paul Lin Interviews OptionsHouse’s CEO John Hass
Wall Street & Technology — Online Options Brokers Should Target Women and Generation Y, Survey Shows
2007
Barron’s — Price Volatility: Brokers Adjust Fees
October 17
InvestmentNews — OptionsHouse debuts flat-rate commission
October 17
Bloomberg — OptionsHouse Slashes Commissions to Challenge Larger Rivals
October 17
The Wall Street Journal — Options and Futures Flow into the Portfolio Mainstream
August 6
InvestmentNews — OptionsHouse latest to offer “virtual trading” tool
June 20
BusinessWeek — That’s the Ticker! Online options trading has gotten much simpler…
May 1
The Wall Street Journal — The Trading Pool Grows
April 13
Wall Street Letter — OptionsHouse Plots Analytics Push, Hires For Institutional Biz
March 29
TheStreet.com TV — OptionsHouse: The New Player in the House (Video)
TheStreet.com — Time for a System Check
January 15
Barron’s — Barron’s, Sign of a Bull Market: New Brokers
Wall Street & Technology — OptionsHouse Goes Lives with Online Trading Site
Forbes — The Return Of The Daytrader
Reuters — New brokerage OptionsHouse offers flat trading fee