Rumors Spur Run On Research In Motion Weeklies
by Option Review - September 27th, 2011 2:34 pm
Today’s tickers: RIMM, POT, AXP & HSC
RIMM - Research in Motion Ltd. – Speculation that activist investor Carl Icahn may have approached and taken a stake in beleaguered BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion Ltd., sent shares in the Canadian company up as much as 7.4% to an earlier high of $23.29. The hum of the rumor mill spurred a pile-up in weekly call options on the stock, as traders scrambled to get long the short-dated contracts in the event that the rumors have legs. Speculative plays are heaviest in the Sept. $23 strike call, where more than 14,100 contracts changed hands against previously existing open interest of 2,610 positions. Most of the calls were purchased for an average premium of $0.42 a-pop, thus preparing longs to profit should RIMM’s shares exceed the average breakeven price of $23.42 at expiration this week. Investors exchanged more than 7,100 calls at the higher Sept. $24 strike today, and appear to have purchased a little more than half of the contracts at an average premium of $0.30 a-pop. Traders long the calls may benefit from continued gains in implied volatility and the price of the underlying shares. Clarity on the rumors from Icahn himself may see the stock continue to climb, or could burst call buyers’ bubble and send shares back down. Lack of clarity could potentially work in favor of long options positions should speculation continue to lift volatility.
POT - Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, Inc. – Bullish positioning in options that expire at the end of the trading week popped on Potash Corp. this morning, as shares in the producer of fertilizer and feed products rallied 5.75% to $50.05 by 11:05 am EDT. Shares in the Canadian potash producer joined in on today’s relief rally in global equities, and were raised to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ with a 12-month target share price of $60.00 at Atlantic Equities today. Short-term bets on continued strength in Potash Corp.’s shares through the end of the month pushed volume in Sept. ’30…
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DiggOptions Players Sweet On Dunkin’ Brands Calls As Quiet Period Winds Down
by Option Review - September 1st, 2011 2:27 pm
Today’s tickers: DNKN, AXP, LXK & CBG
DNKN - Dunkin’ Brands Group, Inc. – Options activity on the franchisor of Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins quick service restaurants spiked one day before analysts are expected to initiate coverage on the company. Shares in DNKN rallied as much as 6.1% to $27.95 this morning, but cooled to $26.95 in early-afternoon trade as investors await analyst opinion on the stock. The Canton, Massachusetts-based company’s shares are currently a far-cry from the $31.94-high achieved days after the IPO, but some traders are looking to the options market to speculate on a move in that direction. More than 3,000 options have changed hands on the stock thus far in the session, which is substantial next to overall open interest of 5,439 contracts. Demand is decidedly skewed in favor of calls on Dunkin’ Brands, with roughly 7 call options trading on the stock for each single put option in play this afternoon. The wave of activity lifted options implied volatility on DNKN 9.1% to 59.18% by 1:10 pm on the East Coast.
Bullish players itching for a near-term rally in the price of the underlying snapped up calls in the front month. It looks like traders purchased at least 1,000 calls at the September $30 strike for an average premium of $0.36 a-pop. Call buyers profit if shares in the provider of frozen treats and breakfast sandwiches surge 12.65% over the current price of $26.95 to surpass the average breakeven point to the upside at $30.36 by September expiration day. Like-minded optimists hungry for a Dunkin’ rally picked up around 185 calls out at the October $30 strike for a premium of $1.00 per contract. Positive analyst coverage of the America runs on Dunkin’ donut-maker could potentially spur a sprint to buy up shares in the stock to the delight of call holders. Of course, if it turns out analysts don’t quite have a sweet tooth for ice…
Bulls Bulk Up on Affymetrix Call Options
by Option Review - May 6th, 2011 4:13 pm
Today’s tickers: AFFX, AXP, WMG & MED
AFFX - Affymetrix, Inc. – Call options on the biotechnology company are in demand today, with shares in the maker of genetic analysis products rising as much as 6.3% to an intraday high of $6.25. The jump in options activity on the stock helped lift the overall reading of options implied volatility on Affymetrix 17.9% to 73.54% in early-afternoon trade. June in- and out-of-the-money calls are most active on AFFX today. It looks like the June $5.0 strike calls were also popular with bullish players during trading on Thursday. Open interest patterns in the calls suggest investors purchased 2,100 contracts at the June $5.0 strike yesterday for a premium of $0.95 each. The subsequent rally in the price of the underlying stock overnight combined with the sharp increase in implied volatility lifted the current asking price on the options to $1.50 each as of 1:25pm in New York. Options players hoping to see the price in Affymetrix shares continue to trend higher ahead of expiration day next month purchased the majority of the calls exchanged at the June $7.5 strike today. More than 2,000 calls changed hands at that strike on previously existing open interest of 561 contracts. The June $7.5 strike is the most heavily trafficked this afternoon, with buyers of the calls shelling out an average premium of $0.25 per contract for the options. Investors long the calls profit in the event that AFFX shares surge 24.0% over today’s high of $6.25 to surpass the average breakeven price of $7.75 by expiration day in June.
AXP - American Express Co. – Shares in the credit card company rallied as much as 1.9% this morning to touch an intraday- and nearly three-year high of $50.47. Trading in American Express options suggests investors differ…
Testy Tuesday – Topping or Popping?
by Phil - December 28th, 2010 8:24 am
Looks like we picked the wrong week to short FCX!
Copper hit a new all-time high in Shanghai this morning (as the guy who owns 90% of London’s closed for the holiday exchange supplies sold it to himself for more money than he did yesterday) and gold is back at $1,400 in the futures and that should give us a better entry on FCX puts than we expected for round 2 but Paul Krugman has me worried now that maybe commodity prices are just high because the World hasn’t got enough of them to go around. Usually Paul and I agree but i think he may be discounting the effect of a 10% decline in the dollar a little too much – which is understandable as he is still arguing for more stimulus while I’m arguing that the way they are stimulating now is causing this problem and can not and should not be sustained.
Still, we have to be pragmatic. That’s why, this weekend, I posted our "Secret Santa Inflation Hedges for 2011" as a follow-on to the "Breakout Defense – 5,000% in 5 Trades or Less" ideas of the 11th and, in the week between the two, we had bullish bets on HMY, XLF, CAKE, TNA, IWM, CCJ, CHK, EXC, TNA, XLF, UNG, GLD, AAPL, GLW, TOT and AXP – which I had mentioned on the 19th in the weekend post "It’s Never too Early to Predict the Future." Just because I think there’s going to be a disaster doesn’t mean we can’t go with the flow while we wait, right?
We don’t have to like the market to buy it above our breakout lines but we do need to keep in mind that this is a very thin rally that is very likely nothing but window dressing aimed at dragging money off the sidelines so the IBanks who have been propping up the markets can, once again, stick the retail shareholders with the bag as they load up on puts (watch the VIX to confirm) and crash the markets once again. I’ve seen it happen in 1999, I saw it happen in 2008 and, both times, the rally lasted longer than seemed logical but the smart play was to hit and run – not to leave your money on the table but to participate in the upswings and then…
Weekend Reading – It’s Never Too Early to Predict the Future!
by Phil - December 19th, 2010 7:57 am
Barron’s already has the 2011 Outlook on the Cover.
We were discussing the generally bullish in Member Chat and Barfinger said "So, Phil, what is your response to the bullish preview?" That was a great question because it made me think. Does he expect a "rebuttal"? I can understand that as I’ve been fairly bearish but let’s not confuse caution (I called for a cash out when the Dow hit 11,200 in early November, it peaked at 11,444 on the 5th and closed Friday at 11,491) with bearishness – it’s just that my now 45 days of running around saying "the sky is falling" while it stays in place does make me seem like a perma-bear.
The "October Overbought Eight" was my first bearish virtual portfolio since April 28th’s "Hedging for Disaster – 5 Plays that Make 500% if the Market Falls" (and it did, and they did). THAT was a bearish outlook! We are not that bearish here, otherwise it would have been the easiest thing in the World to re-up those plays for the new year. We expect a correction, but hopefully not the kind we had between May 4th and July 2nd, where the Dow dropped 1,600 points in just over 2 months. We are HOPING for a nice 20% pullback off the 15% gain from 9,800 to 11,270 back to the 11,000 line and holding that would make us very bullish going into next year.
That would be 1,180 on the S&P (the declining 200 dma) and just 5% down from Friday’s close – THAT’s how bearish I am! Where we are now is simply where the 5% Rule told us we’d be back on May 5th, where the chart pointed out that 1,240 is 20% off the upper, non-spike consolidation at 1,550 that marked the high for the S&P. 20% is the most powerful level in the 5% Rule and that’s why it’s been safer to wait and see how this line resolves than place long-term bets in either direction into the slow and volatile holidays.
Obviously, I am fairly convinced that Global "leaders" are making all sorts of policy mistakes handling the economy and I do believe it will all end in disaster but that does NOT mean I am market bearish.
Think if it this way: If you come across a…
Toppy Tuesday – What Would it Take to Get Over the Top?
by Phil - August 3rd, 2010 8:28 am
Wheeee, what fun!
Check out yesterday’s action on the Russell, up 1% from the gap up open (rejected at 665), down 1% and then up 1% to finish up 1.7% for the day, pretty much right where they started the mornining. Our other indexes had more conviction than the small caps, who have been our leader all year so perhaps, just maybe, they are consolidating at the 5% line (666) waiting for the other indexes to catch up? We had a similar situation in late February, where the Russell paused to wait (like a dog running ahead of it’s master) and again in later March while in April the Russell was slow to follow the other indexes as they trended lower.
Yeah, remember April when the Russell was at 740? Ah, good times… It was easy to call a top then and we hedged for disaster on April 28th so it’s not like we can’t see these things coming. It was easy to BUYBUYBUY as we tested our lows in June and July as that was the bottom of the same range (this is not rocket science, folks!) but now it is HARD to say which way we will go because we are in the middle of our range. I see too many of our Members looking for trades every day but not every day is a good day to trade. Some days are good for watching and waiting. Some weeks are good for watching and waiting…
I reiterated our 1,000% SDS spread from the weekend post in the morning in our morning Alert to Members as it’s nice to be able to commit $500 to a $5,000 pay-off that protects $50,000 worth of bullish positions from a 10% drop. That’s what insurance is supposed to do – it’s a "just in case thing." Since the market is now on a 10% "limit down" system, we don’t need to go too crazy with our insurance as even another 9/11-type event should not, in theory, give us more than a 10% drop before the markets are halted, giving us a chance to reposition on the fly. That’s why those Fed reports are such good practice for us – we get major market-moving information in the middle of the day and we react to it within moments and we’re good enough at it that we actually look forward to those violent Fed day…
Visa, Inc. Call Options Fly Off the Shelves
by Option Review - June 21st, 2010 4:34 pm
Today’s tickers: V, AXP, GIS, HNZ, AFFY, REV, AA & ORCL
V – Visa, Inc. – Frenzied call buying ensued on global payments network, Visa, Inc., this afternoon with the price of the underlying shares rallying as much as 8.76% to secure an intraday high of $83.79. Visa’s shares are currently up a more modest 4.90% to stand at $80.82 as of 3:10 pm (ET). The sharp rally in Visa’s share price likely stems from news that U.S. politicians reached an agreement on the regulation of interchange/”swipe” fees on credit and debit card transactions. Investors flooded the near-term July contract on Visa, Inc. to initiate bullish stances on the stock. Options traders expecting continued upward movement in the price of Visa’s shares by July expiration picked up approximately 6,800 calls at the July $85 strike for an average premium of $1.41 each. Investors long the July $85 strike calls make money only if shares of the underlying stock trade above $86.41 ahead of expiration day next month. Buying interest spread to the higher July $90 strike where some 4,300 calls were purchased at an average premium of $0.46 each. Call buyers at this strike price accrue profits if the firm’s shares surge 11.9% from the current price of $80.82 to trade above the average breakeven point to the upside at $90.46 by July expiration day. Finally, investors honed in on the July $95 strike to take ownership of 1,300 calls for an average premium of $0.19 per contract. Options players populating Visa, Inc. this afternoon displayed a clear preference for bullish calls on the stock by exchanging more than 2.3 call options to each single put contract in play thus far in the session. But, some optimistic individuals utilized puts to take a near-term bullish stance on Visa. Investors sold at least 1,400 puts at the July $80 strike to receive an average premium of $2.81 per contract. Put sellers keep the full premium pocketed on the transaction as long as Visa’s shares exceed $80.00 through expiration day next month. Investors short the puts are apparently happy to have shares of the underlying stock put to them at an effective price of $77.19 each in the event the puts land in-the-money at expiration.
AXP – American Express Co. – The global payments company appeared on our ‘most active by options volume’ market scanner this afternoon after one options strategist initiated…
Prior Weekly Wrap-Up – February Expiration Day Special!
by Phil - February 19th, 2010 7:17 am
I didn’t get to do a wrap-up last week so we have a lot of trades to go over and, with expiration looming and the Fed tightening, I thought it would be good to just get the list out on Friday so we can adjust our rolls to March where neccessary (in bold under appropriate positions).
In our Feb 7th Wrap-Up, I was gung-ho bullish saying "It’s Only a 55-Point Drop You Wimps!" and we had been BUYBUYBUYing at the bottom all week, especially Wed-Fri as the market spiked through our projected support at Dow 10,000 but not enough to change our minds as we bottom-fished on AAPL (2 trades), ABX, ACOR, AKAM, AMED, BRK/B (2), C, CCJ (3), CSCO, DELL, FXI, GE, GOOG, IBM, LLY, LOW, NLY, TBT (5 times!), TM (3), TNA, USO (yep, we wen long oil) and UYG. To say we were weigting bullish by that Monday was an understatement as we has finished the weekend in a bullish stance and were relying on our disaster hedges to protect us.
Those disaster hedges are an interesting set to look at, especially now that we’ve recovered 400 points:
- DXD July $27/33 bull call spread at $2.50, now $2 – down 20%
- We can roll the $27 calls to the $25 calls for $5 to widen the spread and drop our b/e from $29.50 to $28.50
- EDZ July $3/8 bull call spread at $2.10, now $1.60 - down 23%
- EDZ Apr $10 calls sold for .70, now .15 – up 78% (pair trade)
- SDS 2011 $36/40 bull call spread at $1.30, now $1 – down 18%
- We can roll the $36 calls to the $33 calls for $1.10
- TBT Jan $35/45 bull call spread at $6.30, now $7.40 - up 17%
- TBT March $50s sold for .65, now $1.22 – down 87% (pair trade)
This is what is great about disaster hedges. The potential upside on these spreads, if the market headed south was up about 100% on the 4 trades so a commitment of 5% of your virtual portfolio to each one (20%) would give you back 40% of your virtual portfolio in cash if the markets tanked. Already, after 2 weeks, we have the markets heading in the opposite direction and what is the cost? Not even 20% of the 20% you may have allocated, a 4% insurance premium while the 80% of the virtual portfolio that is bullish caught a…
PSW Rewind of 2009 – The First Quarter
by Phil - January 1st, 2010 2:42 pm
Thursday’s close was very exciting, wasn’t it?
Well it sure was for us as my 10:01 Alert to Members was a play on the DIA Jan $103 puts at .56. Thanks to the late afternoon dip, they finished the day at .90 (up 60%) after peaking out at .95, a very nice win to close off the year. That was the only Alert trade all week as this market has been too tough to call and we don’t make trades just for the hell of it. I had been sniping at DIA puts all week expecting a pay-off but Thursday it finally came together.
Of course, I also strongly advocated hedging on Thursday morning and listed 4 trade ideas in the morning post to hedge ourselves against the possibility of just such a drop so don’t say you haven’t been warned. Whether there will be follow-through on Monday or a full reversal remains to be seen and, even if I knew, I wouldn’t tell you here because this is a review – predictions are another article entirely.
We treaded very cautiously into last year because our PSW Holiday Retail Survey was not looking very pretty so it was no surprise to us, on Dec 26th, when we got some horrific retail reports. These are, of course, the same reports that we "beat" this year – but not by much. Dec 29th was Monday and Israeli jets attacked Hamas targets in the Gaza sending oil flying up to $48 a barrel. That gave us a nice commodity rally into the close of the year but January 2nd was a Friday and we decided (fortunately) to take the money and run on our long plays, holding open our main cover of SKF Jan $120s at $4.35, which hit $80 later in the month (up 1,732%) and USO Feb $32 puts at $3.40, which hit $10.50 in the Feb dip (up 208%) so, on the whole, not too differently positioned than we are now, coming into the new year. Visually 2009 looked a little like this:
January – Waiting for Obama, or Something, to Change
We began January much the same way we ended December with my Wed Jan 7th comment being: "We call it "Testy Tuesday" for a reason and our 5% rule was tested twice during the day but the market failed to…
Satyam Computer Attracts Bullish Option Strategies
by Option Review - August 31st, 2009 5:22 pm
Today’s tickers: SAY, UNG, DVN, BJS, AXP, & IP
SAY - The global IT solutions provider popped up on our ‘hot by options volume’ market scanner this afternoon after bullish call activity was observed in the near-term September contract. Shares of the firm have rallied higher by more than 16% during the session to stand at the current price of $6.37. Investors appear to have purchased approximately 4,000 calls at the September 7.5 strike for an average premium of 35 cents apiece. Shares of SAY would need to surge 23% higher in order for traders long the calls to begin to amass profits above the breakeven price of $7.85. Bullish sentiment spread to the October 7.5 strike where another 1,600 calls were scooped up for a premium of 51 cents. Option implied volatility on Satyam has exploded upwards from an intraday low of 74% to the current reading of 120%. We note that the 15,000 contracts exchanged on the stock today represent more than 54% of the total existing open interest on SAY of 27,735 lots. – Satyam Computer Service Limited –
UNG - Shares of the natural gas exchange-traded fund have slipped 4.4% lower today to reach a 5-year low of $10.64. Despite the present weakness in UNG, one investor was seen making far-term bullish bets on the fund by targeting the April 2010 contract. It appears that the trader established a bullish reversal play by shedding 3,000 puts at the April 10 strike for 1.85 apiece in order to purchase 3,000 calls at the higher April 11 strike for 1.82 each. The trader receives a net credit of 3 pennies per contract and has positioned himself to add to his gains if shares rally higher than $11.00 by expiration. The short put position indicates that the investor is happy to have shares put to him at an effective price of $8.15 in the event that the put options land in-the-money by expiration. Shares need only remain higher than $10.00 for this individual to retain the 3 cent credit indefinitely. – United States Natural Gas ETF –
DVN - The independent energy company appeared on our ‘most active by options volume’ market scanner following contrarian options activity in the January 2011 contract. Shares of DVN may have slipped more than 2% lower to $61.15 today, but did not deter one option trader from initiating a bull call spread on the stock. Hoping…
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
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