Barclays on Flows:
“As investors rotate out of elevated tech stocks and into value names, options trading activity has climbed to a record.
Options trades on US indexes, ETFs and single stocks climbed to a new high of $5.7 trillion in the middle of last week, said Stefano Pascale, director and head of US equity derivatives research at Barclays.
That volume eclipses a prior peak from the fourth quarter, he said.
In a research note Tuesday, Barclays said the uptick in options activity is ‘underscoring how intensely investors are repositioning beneath the surface.’
The bank points to a near doubling of options volumes in the XLP as evidence that investors have been trading around the rotation. Flows into staples stocks hit a record last week.”