new york may 1 reuters  the weekend rescue of troubled lender first republic bank frcn has done little to allay options traders concerns about the overall health of us regional banks the 30day implied volatility on the spdr sp regional banking etf  a measure of expected nearterm price swings  was only about two points lower on monday from the previous week even after jpmorgan chase  co emerged as the winner of the weekend auction for first republic bank the measure recently stood at 36 well off the high of 82 touched in midmarch when markets were roiled by the twin collapse of lenders silvergate and silicon valley bank though much higher than its average reading of 23 for the januaryfebruary period by comparison traders appear to be sanguine regarding the outlook for the nation’s biggest banks which are seen as being less vulnerable to the kinds of ructions that have rocked their regional counterparts the 30day implied volatility for the financial select sector spdr funds xlfp which counts some of the largest us banks among its top holdings is back to where it was before the first signs of trouble at nowdefunct silvergate and silicon valley bank emerged in early march traders who had bought upside calls on regional banks on friday appeared to be exiting those positions as the regulatorengineered rescue of first republic failed to catalyze a rally in the midcap bank sector you did have some bullish positioning on friday said chris murphy cohead of derivatives strategy at susquehanna i actually think that maybe these call buyers from friday were looking for a little bit more of a positive reaction he said spdr sp regional banking etf shares were down 2 at 4170 in afternoon trading at the individual stock level traders were focused on regional lender pacwest bancorp pacwo on monday with pacwest shares down 7 put options typically used for bearish bets outnumbered call options usually employed for bullish bets 4to1 according to trade alert data reporting by saqib iqbal ahmed and laura matthews editing by ira iosebashvili