Starting in May, options traders showed a willingness to go all-out with speculative trades. After a brief respite, they returned in July and now in August, they have set new records. Compared to overall volume levels, we've never seen such zealous speculative activity.; Stocks have managed a tremendous run in recent days, weeks, and months. That kind of activity tends to continue. But it's being met with a historic bout of poor participation, with relatively few stocks helping to push the indexes along their momentum streaks.

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