"Imagine a business backed by taxpayers; better yet, a business that gets taxpayers' money at zero percent interest (or close to it) and then loans money back out to those same taxpayers at a 3% rate, or more," suggests Karim Rahemtulla.

The editor of The Xcelerated Profits Report explains, "Sounds like a sweet deal, right? But it gets even better. Taxpayers also cover a good chunk of the bad debts, too. So if you have toxic loans, you get to write them off at almost no cost. Where is this financial utopia? Right here in the United States."

"We use a system known as 'expectational analysis ' which uses combination of fundamental, technical and sentiment indicators -- combined with a contrarian investment approach -- to select both our long and short trading ideas," explains Bernie Schaeffer.

The editor of The Option Advisor adds, "In the technology sector, our recent options recommendations include buying calls on Cree (CREE) and Netgear (NTGR).

Today, we have seen more than 7,500 April 70 calls change hands for 25 cents per contract, which was the asking price at the time (suggesting buying pressure). This compares to existing open interest of just 3,100. Breakeven for this particular strategy is $70.25, so the call buyer needs SHW to move nearly 7% higher by April 16 to put these calls in profitable territory.

It's time to get serious about home builders again, and today I started building a position in KB Home (KBH) using options. Since the collapse of the residential real estate market three years ago prognosticators have been debating when the home builders might be worthy of investing your precious coin of the realm.

As is to be expected in these volatile times most were either too optimistic or pessimistic and few got it right. Like many stocks the home builders appear to have bottomed last March. In the case of KB Home shares were available at $10. Today they have been trading between $17.64 and $18.00 per share, up 80%, although it has been a rocky road.

That is a very healthy return, but there is much more upside to come. How would you like to make 43% quick? Yeah me too!

"We use a combination of fundamental, technical and sentiment indicators -- combined with a contrarian investment approach -- to select both our long and short trading ideas," says Bernie Schaeffer.

The editor of The Options Advisor explains, "In the tech sector, we recommend calls on software company Blue Coat Systems (BCSI) while also recommend buying puts on Internet security firm McAffee (MFE).

Within the first hour of the trading day, option traders were piling into Tyco International (TYC) calls, selling roughly 4,000 of the April 37 calls for 65 cents. These options are out-of-the-money by slightly more than a dollar and are easily the most-active option trading across Tyco today.

Given that open interest at this strike was just 2,283 heading into today's trading, it is plausible that today's volume traded to open. The price action suggests these calls were sold to open, which is a bearish to neutral strategy. The investor in question may already own TYC shares and could be selling these upside calls as a hedge against modest downside during the next two months.

With earnings now out of the way for Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), option traders are looking for the stock to stay in a short-term range (at least for the next few weeks).

Shortly after today's opening bell, a trader simultaneously sold 6,000 each of the March 35 puts and March 35 calls, creating a short straddle. A straddle seller is essentially expecting limited volatility in the underlying stock over the option's lifespan. The closer ANF finishes to the straddle strike (35) at expiration, the better it is for the seller. In fact, for the seller to retain the entire credit collected today, ANF would have to close right at 35 on March expiration in about four weeks.

UAL Corp. (UAUA) shares have had quite a 2010, gaining roughly 23% year-to-date and rocketing 17% higher last Tuesday amid a broad rally in the airline sector. Earlier today, the stock hit a fresh 52-week high but has since retreated about 1.5%.

With the stock at historical highs, some option traders are predicting that a pullback is in the offing. The near-term March 15 puts have seen heightened activity today, with nearly 40,000 contracts trading in the first four hours of the session. Heading into today, this out-of-the-money put was home to fewer than 9,000 contracts, suggesting that the bulk of today's volume is being traded to open (and will translate as new open interest tomorrow).

A few days after Alcoa (AA) surprised to the downside with its fourth-quarter earnings report, option traders looked a bit longer term, selling upside calls in the July series, possibly as part of a covered-call strategy.

The July 20-strike call, which is out-of-the-money by more than $4, or about 28%, saw more than 20,000 contracts trade on Friday, versus open interest of just 2,512. This morning, open interest expanded to more than 22,000, meaning that nearly all of Friday's volume traded to open.

Alcoa Inc. (AA) kicked off earnings season last night -- with mixed results -- but Intel Corp. (INTC) will mark the unofficial beginning of the tech earnings season when it reports after the close on Thursday. Analysts are expecting per-share earnings of 30 cents, a wide improvement over the fourth quarter of 2008, when Intel banked four cents per share.

Although January options do not expire until Friday (the day after Intel reports), some option traders chose to scoop up call positions in the February series during Monday's trading. These later-dated options provide a little more time value and a few more weeks for Intel to make a move.

It's a slow day in the options market, and investors are expecting a slow couple of months in terms of Dell (DELL) price action - and they are taking on a lot of risk to bet on this.

The January 14 straddle has been active today. (A straddle is the simultaneous purchase or sale of a call and put with the same expiration date and same strike price). In this case, the straddle was sold 8,000 times for $1.47 (an average of 55 cents for the out-of-the-money put and an average price of 92 cents for the in-the-money call). The volume crossed the tape around 11:00 AM Eastern time in two large blocks of 4,000 straddles.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), one of the equities consistently seeing the heaviest daily option volume, saw some heavy options activity right out of the gate Monday morning.

The January 2012 37.50-strike call is easily the site of heaviest call volume so far, with 39,660 contracts trading on open interest of just 521. Eleven minutes after the opening bell sounded, a block of 38,563 contracts crossed the tape, trading one penny off the ask price at $1.55 per contract.

As an observer of financial markets, I've been stunned by the recent growth of options trading. Options and futures trading have become huge among individual investors, and the interest in the topic is only getting bigger.

So, who benefits most from the surge in options and futures trading? CME Group (NASDAQ: CME).

CME Group is the company that operates the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, the place where options and futures trades actually take place. Whenever you place an options or futures transaction, the only sure winner in the game is CME Group.

Over the past few weeks the market has been playing a favorable tune but that does not mean that all bad news and negativity have been wrung out of it. There is plenty of fear and suspicion creating volatility.

In many cases this past quarter I have been doing naked puts, in stocks I would be happy to own anyway. I first mentioned this opportunity about seven week ago in Investor fear puts me 'naked' on Wall Street. The actual option position is a "sell to open" put where you get paid today, to pledge to buy something at a later date. These options are available at different strike prices and monthly intervals depending on the company stock.

"Our latest Focus Stock is a bullish play on Dell Computer (NASDAQ: DELL)," says Chris Johnson, who uses both a technical and contrarian-based approach in his Insightful Investor.

"Dell Computer is one of the largest retail computer manufactures in the world. The company supplies businesses and consumers with PC computers, printers, and other peripherals.

"For years, we've watched Michael Dell's company languish, as a slowdown in PC demand combined with a saturation of the PC market caused DELL shares to fall more than 50%. Now, after spending the past four months trading around the 20 mark, the stock may be ready to make a short-term run.

"From a technical perspective, the stock has recently built a bottom around the 20 level. This comes after bouncing from the lows near 18, which also represents the lows during the bear market started in 2000.