Pretty hard selling in the market today and here are some key items that should help you in forming an opinion about certain stocks in this market environment. Look at the option chains for the stocks listed below as their option activity has seen some tremendous increase today. Typically you can see what others are thinking by looking at the option volume and perhaps see some institutional action as well.

As an example, $CUZ saw 1600 Jan 09 puts at the $30 strike go out and 1600 April 09 puts at the $25 strike go out as well. This type of option activity is a spread between both the strikes and the months.

The put/call ratio is a key indicator of sentiment towards a stock with high ratios signaling bearish sentiment. If you look at the charts for these companies and see them approaching resistance then that would make the high put/call ratio logical from a technical perspective. However, if there aren’t any levels of resistance ahead then the chances increase that the high put/call ratio might be fundamental in nature.