On Thursday, stocks fell 4.3% shortly after the opening, then rallied back to break-even on Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) earnings only to be crushed before the close on lousy earnings by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT).

It's this kind of extreme volatility that sends money managers to Clancy's Bar, since it gives few hints as to the market's true direction.

Contrary signals are everywhere.

The bulls point to a tenacious support at S&P 500 (SPX) 800 to 820; an oversold stochastic, which almost gave a buy signal on Wednesday; grossly oversold internal indicators yesterday; and high fear numbers by the Association of American Investors (AAII) and others.

But the bears say that a breakdown is almost upon us and point to the higher CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), a foreboding series of charts, and a world banking crisis that seems to have no end.

So, what's an investor to do?

One of the first things that I did was to redraw the support line at S&P 820 to reflect the lows at 804 on Tuesday and Wednesday. This results in a broader major support zone at SPX 800 to 820. A break of that zone would probably result in an immediate test of the closing low of 752.

At 752, we could hold again by forming a double-bottom and a volatile sideways market for the rest of this year.

But if S&P 750 is crushed on high volume, look out below, since there is little support before 620-650.

Sam Collins is a contributor to OptionsZone.com.

About a month ago, Zac Bissonnette highlighted an insightful Financial Times article by Mark Sellers, a well-known value investor. According to the article, Sellers focuses on two types of investments:

• Companies with economic moats/tangible asset values exceeding current market price (asset plays)
• "Optionality" investments

Throughout the article (which is free to read), Sellers highlighted a very interesting stock, Carrizo Oil and Gas (NASDAQ: CRZO). Rather than quoting Sellers, I'll remind you that you can read the article here. However, I would like to show you the stock's chart, which appears very interesting to me. As you can see, since featuring the stock in his article, it has fallen more than $5 per share.

While this certainly isn't a huge sell-off, I think it has created a very interesting buying opportunity for people who like Carrizo as a long term investment for a couple reasons. First and foremost, the stock is currently sitting right around a support level. In addition, the stock is very oversold here according to the stochastics, leading me to believe the support will hold. While hardcore value investors will argue that the buying price doesn't matter as long as the intrinsic value is significantly higher -- a concept I don't necessarily agree with -- I believe it always makes sense to buy stocks at logical and opportune times.

With the tremendous "free options" which aren't being priced into the stock, as Sellers outlined, and an attractive buying opportunity according to the chart, I think Carrizo is very interesting here.

On a sidenote, both Zac Bissonnette and I are big fans of Adams Golf (OTC BB: ADGO) -- a stock which we think holds a great "free option" potential. Basically, the stock's net current asset value covers much of the current market capitalization and, as a result, we believe the market is underestimating the future of the company's hybrid irons -- a product receiving solid reviews and visibility. For a more extensive take on this stock, please see Zac's post.

Disclosure: Kevin Kelly and Zac Bissonnette are long Adams Golf.