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Posts Tagged ‘AGO’

Dow Chemical Option Bulls and Bears on the Prowl

www.interactivebrokers.com

Today’s tickers: DOW, GLD, ISIS, DTV, SINA, XOM, SPWRA, AGO & SINA

DOW – The Dow Chemical Co. – Shares of the manufacturer of chemicals and plastic materials increased 2% during the trading session to $29.45. We observed a mix of bullish and bearish option plays on the stock today. One investor appears to have unraveled an in-the-money ratio call spread in the December contract in order to finance the purchase of 7,500 calls at the December 28 strike for 1.92 apiece. Further along, in the January 2010 contract, another bullish player rolled a long call position to a higher strike price. It looks like the investor originally paid between 2.35 to 3.30 in premium to buy 5,000 calls at the now deep-in-the-money January 24 strike back on September 14, 2009. Today the trader closed out the December 24 strike calls by selling 5,000 contracts for 5.30 each. The closing sale of the calls was spread against the purchase of 5,000 fresh call options at the higher January 28 strike for about 2.45 premium per contract. Finally, protective plays dominated the March 2010 contract. Two put spreads were established this afternoon. The first transaction involved the purchased of 5,000 puts at the March 27 strike for 2.08 each, marked against the sale of the same number of puts at the lower March 20 strike for 47 cents apiece. The net cost of the trade amounts to 1.61 per contract and yields protection beneath the breakeven price of $25.39. The other put spread involved the same number of put options but was transacted at the March 26/19 strikes at a net cost of 1.38 per contract. Downside protection on this play kicks in if shares decline through the breakeven point at $24.62 by expiration day in March.

GLD – SPDR Gold Trust ETF – More than 253,800 option contracts changed hands on the GLD with about 30 minutes remaining in the trading day. Investors traded calls on the exchange-traded fund more than 1.8 times to each put option in play. Shares of the GLD, which replicates the performance of the price of gold bullion, are up 0.25% in late-day trading to stand at $111.90. A large-volume ratio call spread on the fund suggests some investors expect the price of gold to rise sharply by expiration in January 2010. Bullish traders bought approximately 15,000 calls at the January 112 strike for an…
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Trash in Drugs Sends Genzyme Lower

www.interactivebrokers.com

Today’s tickers: GENZ, AGO, UUP, PALM & DIS

GENZ – Genzyme Corp. – - A hot topic in the last few minutes has seen shares of biotech company, Genzyme slide by 5% to $50.50 with the AP reporting that the FDA has found tiny particles of trash in Genzyme made drugs, which according to the article says “bits of steel, rubber and fiber in drug vials could cause serious adverse health effects for patients. Option wizards were quick to pounce on the opportunity to sell rapidly deteriorating call options in the December 50 and 55 strike prices. While this could be the work of frantic bulls trying to get out of the way of a potential sandstorm it’s more likely the case that trigger-happy bears have been awakened. Ahead of the news the December 50 call traded lightly during the morning at a 4.70 premium before slumping to 2.30 on volume measuring a couple of thousand contracts, while the 55 strike fell from a pre-breaking news premium of 1.85 all the way down to 70 cents. While the situation has stabilized, option implied volatility across the field is up around 25% at 42% today. That’s something for call-writers to pay heed to.

AGO – Assured Guaranty Ltd. – – Shares in the bond issurer are 14.8% higher at $20.77 and broke right through the 52-week high after Moody’s lowered its insurance financial strength rating on the company from Aa2 to Aa3. In a statement the company expressed its delight in having maintained a double-A rating in the current economic climate. It also noted that Moody’s number-crunching of its insured residential mortgage exposure was conducted under a pretty dire scenario and was based on “an extremely pessimistic view of the future performance of residential mortgage exposure.” The company boasted that even on this worst case scenario its $12.5 billion claims paying resources are more than sufficient to meet projected obligations. The options activity confirmed the bullish jump in Assured’s share price. Using the December contract investors established 11,000 bullish bought call options at the December 22.5 strike price indicating further bullish moves ahead. The 1.40 premium would require the share price to rise a further 15% to reach breakeven at expiration. Curiously the call buying frenzy caused options implied volatility to rise from 69% to 75% today. Options volume of almost 30,000 contracts is around nine times the usual on the…
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Phil's Favorites

Violent Protests in Greece; 6 Cabinet Members Resign

Violent Protests in Greece; 6 Cabinet Members Resign; LAOS leader "I Would Rather Starve Than be Under German Jackboot"; Controversy Over Missing Paragraphs

Courtesy of Mish

Imagine you are asked to sign a document but three pages were missing. Further imagine the documents you were asked to sign were written in English but you only speak Greek. Would you sign?

That is exactly the predicament Greek officials were placed in by the Troika. Here is the story sent to me by Demetri Kofinas at Capital Account.

Hello Mish

George Karatzaferis leader of LOAS political party gave a speech today addressing why he refused to sign this latest agreement. In his speech, he said that he a...

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Sabrient

Sabrient Risers - 2/11/2012

Top 5 RisersStockRatingAnalysisICABUYThe projected value for Empresas ICA is still rising quickly even though past earnings have already improved significantly.XBUYThe projected value for US Steel is still rising quickly even though past earnings have already improved significantly.FEICBUYProjected value continues to rise for FEI while long term increases in earnings growth are also becoming more widely expected.ASBCBUYMany analysts are expecting higher than previously expected long term growth from Associated Bancorp, and its near-term earnings outlook is also improving....

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Zero Hedge

Ten Minutes With Italy's Mario Monti

Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.

Submitted by CrownThomas.

Italy's Prime Minister (and self appointed economy minister) shot over to CNBC after his meeting with President Obama this afternoon to discuss how well everything looks for Italy since he was elected took over.

Notable Comments:

  • Italian banks are "vulnerable" but have recapitalized themselves (rather, the ECB has given them money)
  • He had a good meeting with Obama, and Obama is supportive (he's careful to...


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Chart School

Getting Technical: Weekend Update

Courtesy of Doug Short.

Here's the latest weekend update from Serge Perreault, a Chartered Accountant and market technician located near Montreal, Canada. Serge has been following the U.S. market in a series of weekly charts. Here is his update on the S&P 500.

This week, the S&P 500 could not break so much resistance and now paused its ascension, on average volume and on falling momentum.

Notice also how the "Volume EMA10" has continued its downtrend.


 


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Insider Scoop

Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Friday February 10, 2012

Courtesy of Benzinga.

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Friday February 10, 2012:

Actuant Acquires Jeyco Pty

The Deal:
Actuant (NYSE: ATU) announced Friday that it has acquired Jeyco Pty Ltd (“Jeyco”). Headquartered near Perth, Australia, Jeyco designs and provides specialized mooring, rigging and towing systems and services to the offshore oil & gas industry in Australia and other international markets. Additionally, its highly engineered products are used in a variety of applications for other markets including cyclone mooring and marine, defense and mining tow systems. Jeyco generates annual revenues of approximately $20 million.

Actuant shares closed at $27.33 Friday, a loss of 0.18% on average volume.

...

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Market Montage

And Still Not a Single 1% Down Day in 2012

Submitted by Mark Hanna

Courtesy of MarketMontage. View original post here.

A little flurry of buying in the closing 5 minutes tacked on 2 S&P points and took the major indexes off the lows.  Only the Russell 2000 finished with a greater than 1% loss (1.4%) as it has been relatively weak versus the senior indexes for the past few sessions.   While today was the "worst day of the year" – it was quite a low bar as the previous biggest loss on the S&P 500 was -0.57%.

The S&P 500 held well above the 10 day moving average (didn't even really touch it) and did not even attempt to fill the gap from last Friday's employment report.  The teflon market rolls on for now.  Specul...



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ETF Selector

ETFs Skid On Greece (VGK, EWG, FXE, DIA, SPY)

Courtesy of John Nyaradi.

Greece was “saved” for less than 24 hours but now major ETFs around the world skid into the weekend on Greek fears

After wangling for a week or more, Greek took their new deal to the European Ministers meeting, only to have it promptly rejected and so as we go into the weekend, major global markets and ETFs have again hit the skids on Greece.

After two years of wangling, the European zone is demanding yet more and deeper cuts for Greece to qualify for the next round of bailout loans that will keep the country from going bankrupt on March 20th.

Major European and United States ETF responded negatively to the new developments:

SPDR Dow Jones Industrial ETF (NYSEARCA:...



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All About Trends

Mid-Day Update

Reminder: David is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.

Click here for the full report.




To learn more, sign up for David's free newsletter and receive the free report from All About Trends - "How To Outperform 90% Of Wall Street With Just $500 A Week." Tell David PSW sent you. - Ilene...

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Option Review

True Religion Falls Apart At The Seams After Earnings

 

Today’s tickers: TRLG, KR & IGT

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OpTrader

Swing trading portfolio - week of February 6th, 2012

Reminder: OpTrader is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.

This post is for all our live virtual trade ideas and daily comments. Please click on "comments" below to follow our live discussion. All of our current  trades are listed in the spreadsheet below, with entry price (1/2 in and All in), and exit prices (1/3 out, 2/3 out, and All out).

We also indicate our stop, which is most of the time the "5 day moving average". All trades, unless indicated, are front-month ATM options. 

Please feel free to participate in the discussion and ask any questions you might have about this virtual portfolio, by clicking on the "comments" link right below.

To learn more about the swing trading virtual portfolio (strategy, performance, FAQ, etc.), please click here

Optrader 

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Stock World Weekly

Stock World Weekly: The Relentless Pursuit of Meaningless Metrics

NEW: Elliott and Ilene are available to chat with Members regarding topics presented in SWW, comments are found below each post.

Here's the latest Stock World Weekly, called "The Relentless Pursuit of Meaningless Metrics."  

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IRA Strategy/Income Trader

Weekend Virtual Portfolio Update 1/30/2012

Here is a quick update of past trades and our current position. AA Money No trade this week as we wait for AA to settle. Phil remarked last week that AA seemed overvalued. In the meantime, it looks like we might have to roll our Feb 9 calls. Good thing we sold only 5 of them against our position. Last week P&L - 310.00 We lost ground last week, but we still have 11 months to sell premium! FAS Money Very good week for FAS Money as we benefited from the large amount of premium sold the previous week. We covered most of the shorts in advance of the Fed speech, but sold another set of options on Wednesday after the speech - 2 FAS calls that expired worthless on Friday, 2 FAS put that we are still holding and 2 FAZ put that we bought back for a profit on Friday. A late stick comparable to last week's almost gave us problems at the end of the day though! Last week P&L - $4277.00 IWM Money A decent week in this virtual portfo...

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Pharmboy

Biotech Investing for 2012

Reminder: Pharmboy is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.

Finding new and exciting Biotech companies that target novel mechanisms is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.  Sure there are many companies working on cutting edge science, but investing in those companies to reap the rewards of their work is a very dangerous game.  More often than not, companies fail because the mechanism does not pan out, the compound(s) do not have pharmacokinetics (get into the body or last very long in the body), or an adverse event happens that knocks years off a development timeline.  In addition, the stock can be manipulated by market makers so investors don't know which way is up.  I approach investing in biotechs as a long term prospect.  I continue to like our current portfolio of biotech companies (join in chat for many of those plays), and we continually add/subtract shares and sell/buy options on ...



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