Options Flow Summary: General Sentiment, LEH, GS & Pin Candidates

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General Sentiment
An interesting morning ahead of the Fed release.  Broad averages are up and the CBOE VIX is down in anticipation of the announcement due shortly.

Financials are boosted by Lehmanís positive earnings surprise and overall options volume is on pace for a typical 10 million contract day. Approaching 2pm, we have calls slightly outpacing puts with a cautiously bullish flow bias.





Lehman Brothers(LEH) and Goldman Sachs (GS)
Lehman stock is up 4.28% to $61.13 on a positive earnings surprise and comments out of their conference call.  Options flow over the past week has painted a somewhat bearish picture. A total of just over 33,000 Sep 55 puts traded in buyer dominated flow.

In addition, nearly 25,000 Sep 60 calls have changed hands with sellers leading the charge. Todayís flow looks like the holder is unwinding these protective positions. We've had 20,000 Sep 55 puts being sold over the course of the day with prices ranging from $.40 down to $.15. 

Pin Candidates
Other financials with earnings scheduled for this week include Morgan Stanley, AG Edwards, Bear Stearns and Goldman Sachs. Of these, Goldman is seeing the most volume with just over 52,000 contracts trading with call buyers and put sellers leading the activity.

Symbol	Expiry	Strike	Put / Call	Spot	Distance	OI
INTC	Sep7	25	Calls	$25.13	0.13	61,869
INTC	Sep7	25	Puts	$25.13	0.13	51,653
ORCL	Sep7	20	Calls	$20.15	0.15	55,414
ORCL	Sep7	20	Puts	$20.15	0.15	22,664
UNH	Sep7	50	Calls	$49.74	0.26	27,863
UNH	Sep7	50	Puts	$49.74	0.26	56,133
YHOO	Sep7	25	Calls	$24.71	0.29	52,182
YHOO	Sep7	25	Puts	$24.71	0.29	17,858
GM	Sep7	35	Calls	$35.50	0.5	69,400
GM	Sep7	35	Puts	$35.50	0.5	37,025
GE	Sep7	40	Calls	$40.74	0.74	100,944
GE	Sep7	40	Puts	$40.74	0.74	27,641

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