Remember when Bear Stearns went belly up in March 2008, plummeting to a near zero stock price?  (incidentally,this was just days after Chief CNBC Clown Cramer recommended it for the last time)


Option volume on the PUT side of Bear Stearns was at record levels just days and weeks before the implosion, implying that somebody knew the disaster was coming.  And those somebodies captured serious profit from their ill gotten bets.

For those that believe in the power of big money and their big bets in the option markets, there are at least a few FREE services out there that report on unusually high option activity volume.  Here is a roundup of three of them.  Please add any other free high volume option alert services you find in the comments section.

  • Schaeffer’s Research posts 2 tables of Unusually High option volume – calls and puts.  The tables are at this link.
  • Andrew Wilkinson takes it a step further.  He publishes a daily option update that provides info on high option volume trades.  But he also provides a description of what the possibility of those high volume trades are.  Andrew’s daily articles are at this link.
  • The Optionmonster website offers detailed option activity as part of its fee based Heat Seeker functionality.  But a basic membership to the site is free with registration, and a snapshot of some of the Heatseeker activity is available for free on the registered users home page.