Tail Wagging the Dog: How Options Gamma Drives Equity Price Action

The Interview: Imran Lakha of Options Insight and Brent Kochuba of SpotGamma are veterans of the options market, and they join Real Vision to shed light on how options exert a hidden pressure on the stock market. Most associate the phrase “gamma squeeze” with GameStop, but Kochuba notes that gamma squeezes are very common, noting the various ways in which dislocations in dealer gamma can drive price action in indices such as the S&P 500 but also in single-name equities like Tesla and Apple. He describes his quantitative method to identify levels of gamma resistance in single-name equities and index futures, using detailed charts levels to spot what he names "call walls" and "volatility triggers." Kochuba and Lakha make sense of the drastic transformation the options market has undergone over the past year, and they speculate on the future of this highly sophisticated asset class. Lastly, Lakha shares with Kochuba his findings in the nascent world of crypto derivatives.

Recorded on May 3rd, 2021.

Key learnings: The explosion in single-stock option volumes means that options are now playing a huge role in driving price action in the equity market. Kochuba argues that this new environment offers the venturesome trader an opportunity to exploit the option market makers' to hedge their exposure. Lakha notes that Bitcoin and Ethereum exhibit call skew, which offers opportunities that are rarely seen in traditional capital markets. Lakha's website is https://www.options-insight.com/ and Kochuba's analysis can be found here: https://spotgamma.com/.

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