Oil option market is quiet…

Not much to say about oil options these days, except the market is extremely quiet… Where is the volume? WTI crude options averaged only 118,514 contracts per day in January, down from 161,351 in December and down from 278,740 in November (this may have been a record) … Implied volatility started out the year in the low 50’s and is now (basis Feb 1) in the low 30’s (the market believes all this talk about “balance”?” Are speculators on the sidelines, have they gone away?) … Ranking strikes by open interest shows really nothing of size and nothing interesting… In fact many of the larger strikes were put on pre 4Q18… Here is the CME’s excellent tool from yesterday’s settlement:

The CME link is here…