Apple has traded in the green for much of today's session, and the heavy option volume is once again in the soon-to-expire options.
AAPL is up just under 1 percent to $547.85. It opened below $540 but has been holding above that support level since closing just below it last Thursday.
Total option volume in the name tops 334,000 contracts so far today, with 188,000 calls. More than two-thirds of that volume is in the options that expire on Friday.
The top strike is the November 55 call with 20,000 contracts, twice the open interest. Both the 540 puts and 545 calls have seen more than 17,700 contracts change hands, and both are also above open interest.
Again the action is mostly the work of intraday traders looking to profit from buying and selling optiong premiums. The average implied volatility is 31.7 percent, in the middle of its recent range. The rate is also in line with its 30-day historical volatility, which has climbed from 18 percent in mid-September.
More From optionMONSTER
A rally in global share markets paused on Friday as investors braced for monthly jobs data from the United States, …