Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) is recently down 1% due to Rajat Gupta (who served on the boards of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble (PG) both), having been charged by the SEC in an insider trading scheme.

GS March 155 and 160 puts were active. March and July put option implied volatility of 27 is near its 26-week average of 29 according to Track Data. Large put volume suggests traders hedging for downside price movement.

Staples, Inc. (SPLS) March call option implied volatility is at 37, June is at 29 according to Track Data, compared to its 26-week average of 28, suggesting larger near-term movement into Q4 results on March 2.

Options Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB - option chain) stock is trading lower today after the company disclosed in a regulatory filing that it has been subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding commercial-loan practices. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on FITB.

This morning, FITB opened at $13.97. So far today the stock has hit a high of $14.15 and a low of $13.67. As of 11:50, FITB is trading at $14.02, down $0.58 (-4.0%). The chart for FITB looks bullish and S&P gives FITB a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy ranking.

Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer sold about 50 million shares of his Microsoft stock for $1.34 billion, as reported in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

Let's listen to a fictitious exchange between Steve and his tax accountant: "Steve, you know you hold 408 million shares of Microsoft. For the end of the year tax adjustments, it's a good idea to sell some of it, say 50 million. Microsoft's earnings are strong. The mutual and hedge guys most likely will be buying. We can sell into that strength."

After nearly five months, federal regulators have been able to dissect the events of May 6, the day when the Dow plunged almost 1,000 points.

A joint report issued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pieced together that day's events and came up with this finding, as reported in the Wall Street Journal. A computerized trading program run by a Waddell & Reed trader automatically sold 35,000 e-mini S&P contracts. These contracts mirror the larger S&P contracts. The trader's program was triggered at 9% of the trade volume.

On May 6, we saw the Dow plunge almost 1,000 points in a matter of minutes. To date, no one has pinpointed the cause of the crash.

Meanwhile the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been scrambling to plug the leak in the dike. An article in USA Today outlines the expanded SEC rules.

With sophisticated high-frequency trading and quant funds, it seems that the proverbial Hal 9000 has taken over Wall Street. Of course, a stark example of this was in May 6, in which the market inexplicably lost $862 billion in market value within 20 minutes. It was the "Flash Crash."

Since then, the SEC and other government regulators have been investigating the matter. Already, there are some changes that have been put in place, such as circuit breakers. And yes, these have been triggered in some cases already.

The Securities and Exchange Commission pretty much fell asleep for the past two years. Now, there's talk that the agency plans to get tough on violators whose greed and recklessness took this country to its knees. The Federal Reserve had to pledge or spend $12.8 trillion to bail them out.

The $12.8 trillion is gone and we have a country with 17 million unemployed and underemployed. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke could have done much better just taking that $12.8 trillion and help those in need. All he had to do was use one good bank for Americans to switch their money into, and let the greedy ones take a hit. With $12.8 trillion Bernanke could have put this country back on its feet again.

If you are familiar with Securities and Exchange Commission cases, you will recognize this boilerplate settlement. By "boilerplate" I mean that Goldman Sachs (GS) is fined, but neither admits nor denies any of the charges.

Goldman settled for a measly $550 million. This amounts to about a week's worth of trading. Goldman further got regulators to drop all fraud charges and settle for a lower charge, which said the marketing material for collateralized debt obligations(CDOs) "contained incomplete information."

The exodus is set to begin. Rumors have pegged today as the day that Colorado is going to leave the Big 12 athletic conference for the "greener pastures" of the PAC-10.

This move will be the first in what will become the end of one of NCAA Football's most storied and most profitable athletic conferences. The Big 12 was one of the leaders of the NCAA Football world, but it is set to become nothing more than a carcass, left to be picked over by the major predators of the football world (most notably the PAC-10, SEC, and the Big Ten).

For weeks, Goldman Sachs has been swinging in the wind as the SEC charges were made, Senate hearings (chest pounding) were conducted and it was announced that the DOJ was investigating Goldman and the rest of the Wall Street banking club.

This week, I posted How Much Further Can Goldman Sachs Drop? at the behest of one of our editors. Today, amid the rumors that settlement talks are under way between Goldman Sachs and the SEC, I am wondering how much the stock will bounce when rumors become reality? I would bet a lot. I have bet a lot.