Put spreader portends near-term erosion in Energy fund’s shares
by Option Review - September 10th, 2010 8:29 am
Today’s tickers: XLE, CROX, COCO, PCX, EBAY, NTAP, MW, ARG & AXL
XLE – Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF – A massive put spread purchased on the XLE, an exchange-traded fund designed to correspond to the performance of the Energy Select Sector of the S&P 500 Index, points perhaps to one investor’s expectation that the price of the fund’s shares are set to decline ahead of September expiration day. Shares of the fund are currently up 0.40% at $54.06 as of 3:45 pm ET. It looks like the pessimistic player picked up approximately 40,000 puts at the September $53 strike for an average premium of $0.21 each, and sold about the same number of puts at the lower September $52 strike at an average premium of $0.44 a-pop. Net premium paid to purchase the spread amounts to $0.23 per contract. The investor responsible for the transaction stands ready to make money if shares of the XLE fall 2.4% from the current price of $54.06 to breach the effective breakeven point at $52.77 by expiration next Friday. Maximum potential profits of $0.77 per contract – for a total of $3,080 million – are available to the trader if the XLE’s shares drop 3.8% to slip beneath $52.00 by expiration day.
CROX – Crocs, Inc. – The footwear firm’s shares plunged 15.5% in afternoon trading to touch down at an intraday low of $11.68. Sharp share price erosion spurred put buying by options traders expecting the stock to continue lower ahead of October expiration. Investors purchased approximately 5,100 now in-the-money puts at the October $12 strike for an average premium of $0.85 each. Put players make money if shares fall another 4.5% from today’s low of $11.68 to breach the average breakeven point at $11.15 by expiration day next month. Options implied volatility on the shoe maker shot up 26.7% to 66.39% as of 3:40 pm ET.
COCO – Corinthian Colleges, Inc. – Shares in for-profit university, Corinthian Colleges, Inc., shot up 14.5% to an intraday high of $5.61 this morning on speculation the company may be acquired. Options traders were quick to initiate bullish stances on the stock in case the rumors end up having some truth to them. COCO’s shares cooled slightly in afternoon trading and are currently up 9.8% on the day to stand at $5.38 as of 2:50 pm ET. Speculators hoping to see shares continue higher picked…
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DiggBank of America Bear Cleans Up
by Option Review - May 28th, 2010 5:41 pm
Today’s tickers: BAC, FXY, VALE, ATPG, CAT, EBAY, CSCO, KG, NE & AGN
BAC – Bank of America Corp. – Activity in out-of-the-money call options on Bank of America in the first half of the trading session appears to be the work of an investor taking profits on the closing purchase of a previously established bearish short call position. BAC’s shares surrendered 1.85% today to stand at $15.88 as of 2:45 pm (ET). It looks like the investor originally sold 20,500 calls at the November $24 strike for an average premium of $0.37 per contract back on April 28, 2010, when shares of the underlying stock were trading at a volume-weighted average price of $17.73 each. In the past four weeks since the initial sale of the calls, Bank of America’s shares declined 12.12% down to the current price of $15.88. The call seller was properly positioned to benefit from share price erosion, and today was able to buy back the same call options for just $0.10 apiece. Thus, the closing purchase of the calls yields net profits of $0.27 per contract to the responsible party.
FXY – CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Index Fund – A sizeable debit call spread enacted on the FXY, an exchange-traded fund designed to reflect the price of the Japanese Yen, indicates one options strategist is expecting shares of the underlying fund to rally sharply by expiration in January 2011. Shares of the fund are currently up 0.18% at $109.14 as of 1:52 pm (ET). The investor purchased 8,709 calls at the January 2011 $110 strike for a premium of $4.40 apiece, and sold the same number of calls at the higher January 2011 $125 strike for $1.00 in premium each. The net cost of the transaction amounts to $3.40 per contract, thus dictating a breakeven price – above which profits start to accumulate – of $113.40. Shares of the FXY must rally at least 3.90% from the current value of $109.14 before the responsible party starts to make money. Maximum potential profits of $11.60 per contract are available to the spread trader if shares jump 14.53% from the current value of the fund to $125.00 in the next eight months to expiration. It does not appear the fund’s share price has ever exceeded the current 52-week high of $115.40, attained back on November 30, 2009.
VALE – Vale S.A. – Shares of the world’s largest…
Smart Virtual Portfolio Management III – The $1,000,000 Virtual Portfolio (Members Only)
by Phil - May 15th, 2010 6:35 am
You can’t lose what you don’t have.
The reverse is true for people with Millions in a stock virtual portfolio. Phil points out that the reson you don’t run a large hedge fund trying to make 100% gains is that the people who invest in those funds are more interested in what we call "preservation of capital" rather than generating wealth. Generally, the people who have $1M of investable cash to play the markets have already achieved a great deal of success, often by taking their own risks along the way. For most of us, $1M is hard to come by and, while we want to put that money to work – we certainly don’t want it wondering off and joining the circus.
As a high net-worth investor, you need to decide how to diversify your assets to suit your long-term goals. We’re not going to get into that here – let’s just say that if you want to gamble and go for some of our "more exciting" plays, perhaps allocate a portion of the virtual portfolio to those. Whether that’s 5% or 10% or 30% is up to you but it is good to fence off your risk to a sensible, manageable amount that you really can afford to lose while keeping the bulk of your market allocation well diversified and well-hedged.
I have my own 5% Rule. Phil’s famous 5% Rule deals with the predictable movement of stocks in their trading ranges but my 5% Rule, which Phil also agrees with is simply "Do not put more than 5% of your virtual portfolio in the stock of any one company!” This is so much easier said than done for many reasons!!
[1] Transition to Large Numbers
Moving from a 5 or 6 figure account to a 7 figure account has a profound impact on many traders. In fact, our friend Dr. Brett refers to the effect “performance anxiety” can have on a virtual portfolio and notes that one of the causes is the responsibility felt by traders as larger dollar amounts are traded. Phil advocates a system of "purging" Short-Term Virtual Portfolio gains when they gets too large and shifting money into safer investments in a Long-Term Virtual Portfolio – it is good to have a strategy for balancing out your holdings, not just target goals.
While it might be acceptable to put 15% of your $10,000 virtual portfolio on that long call you just KNOW will…
Weekly Wrap-Up – Why Does This Rally Give Me the Creeps?
by Phil - April 25th, 2010 8:29 am
I’m sorry, I am trying so hard to get bullish but it’s not working…
My only solution is to, as we often joke, switch off my brain and stop reading the news (listening to it is great as everything is coming up roses in TV-land) and ignore the now-exposed shenanigans on Wall Street (why should I worry about my investments just because the people running the game are up on fraud charges?) and for goodness sakes don’t even look at something as depressing as "The Economic Elite vs. the People of the United States of America," neither Parts 1-3 or Parts 4-6 because that can lead to thinking and thinking makes it REALLY hard to go to sleep at night with your money riding on the top of an 80% market while gold is trading at $1,150 an ounce because of overwhelming global instability and a total lack of faith in the global financial markets.
Yep, if we don’t think about all that stuff and focus on the good stuff, like the fact that Unemployment is only 3% for those of us who earn $150,000 a year (for the poor it’s 31%), and 93% of our virtually fully-employed analysts predict the S&P will finish the year even higher (although not too much higher) with only Andrew Garhwaite of Credit Suisse in need of an "attitude adjustment" with his puny target of 1,175, which is 32 points lower than Friday’s close. Fortunately, enlightened analysts like Deutsche Bank’s Binky Chad think we can still squeeze another 100 points out of this rally (about 10%) although Goldman Sachs is wimping out at 1,250, their partner in "whatever you want to call it", JP Morgan is up at 1,300. So it’s BUYBUYBUY from the gang of 12 and we’ll be whipping Andrew into shape by the next report or he may find himself the fall guy for the next scandal…
Oops, sorry, I wasn’t supposed to mention the scandals as that’s not really a buying premise unless of course you look at the sheer volume of things the IBanks were getting away with and then look at the virtual nothing that is being done about it and then we can conclude there is no reason they can’t pump this market back up to Dow 14,000 because we already know it was such total BS last time, when we dropped 50% like…
Thursday’s Thrills – Greek Tragedies and Wall Street Worries
by Phil - April 22nd, 2010 8:28 am
Obama is coming to Wall Street.
The President will laying out his case for legislation at 11:55 to crack down on Wall Street with new regulations. "One of the most significant contributors to this recession was a financial crisis as dire as any we’ve known in generations," Obama will say, according to excerpts from his speech released by the White House. "And that crisis was born of a failure of responsibility — from Wall Street to Washington — that brought down many of the world’s largest financial firms and nearly dragged our economy into a second Great Depression. It is essential that we learn the lessons of this crisis, so we don’t doom ourselves to repeat it. And make no mistake, that is exactly what will happen if we allow this moment to pass — an outcome that is unacceptable to me and to the American people."
The President needs just one Republican vote (or two non-votes) to pass the 1,336-page Financial Reform Bill authored by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd which aims to bring new oversight to hedge funds and derivatives while cracking down on risky bank trading and to put in place protections for consumers of financial products. It will also establish a system for unwinding troubled financial companies to (theoretically) prevent a repeat of past catastrophes with BSC, LEH and AIG.
The House of Representatives approved a bill in December that called for the most sweeping regulatory changes since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The House bill embraced most of a comprehensive package of financial reform proposals introduced by Obama in 2009. The Senate version, if passed, would have to be reconciled in joint committee with the House before it goes to Obama for his signature and becomes law. Meanwhile, the IMF has a proposal on the table to tax bank balance sheets that some analysts suggest will cut pre-tax profits by as much as 20% if the measure moves forward
And speaking of catastrophes that need unwinding – Greece has sent the Pound and the Euro back to recent lows and has Europe down about a point as The EU says Greece’s budget deficit last year was worse than it previously forecast and could top 14 percent of gross domestic product as “off- market swaps” cloud its estimates. The EU’s statistics office said today Greece’s deficit was 13.6 percent last year, higher than the government’s…
Option Players Construct Conflicting Strategies on EBAY
by Option Review - March 5th, 2010 4:09 pm
Today’s tickers: EBAY, RCL, RAI, VLO, VRSN, USU, JAS, NUAN, TIVO & DNR
EBAY – eBay, Inc. – Two different options strategies employed on online auction-house, eBay, Inc., today indicate conflicting medium-term sentiment on the stock. One trader is positioning for a significant rally in the price of the underlying, while another individual anticipates shares will remain range-bound through July expiration. EBAY’s shares increased 3.35% during the current session to stand at $24.58. The uber-bullish stance taken on the stock involved the purchase of 10,000 call options at the July $30 strike for a premium of $0.22 per contract. The investor holding the calls stands ready to amass profits should shares of the underlying stock surge 22.95% from the current price to surpass the effective breakeven point on the calls at $30.22 by expiration in five months time. In contrast, the other options player initiated a sold strangle, which yields maximum benefits only if shares trade within a specified range through expiration. The investor sold 3,500 calls at the July $26 strike for a premium of $1.10 apiece in combination with the sale of the same number of puts at the lower July $21 strike for a premium of $0.58 each. Gross premium enjoyed on the trade amounts to $1.68 per contract. The investor keeps the full amount of premium if shares trade between $21.00 and $26.00 through expiration. However, losses accrue on the position if EBAY’s shares trade above the upper breakeven point at $27.68, or if shares slip beneath the lower breakeven price of $19.32 by expiration day. If the call-buying optimist ends up accurately predicting EBAY’s future share movements, the strangle seller will lose out big time. But, if shares do remain range-bound, the call-buyer only ever risks losing $0.22 per contract, or the price paid to take ownership of the call contracts.
RCL – Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. – The cruise operator received an upgrade to ‘neutral’ from ‘sell’ with a target share price of $27.00 at Goldman Sachs Group yesterday, and today nearly reached the target price amid a 2.60% rally in the price of the underlying shares to $29.70. Option trading in the June contract today is likely the work of a bullish trader investing in married put options. It appears the investor purchased shares of the underlying stock for about $29.36 apiece in conjunction with the purchase of approximately 39,000 puts at the…
Long-Term Bullish Spread Unfolds On IBM
by Option Review - January 25th, 2010 4:39 pm
Today’s tickers: IBM, XLF, TXN, XLF, CTXS, EBAY, HAL & FITB
IBM – International Business Machines Corp. – A long-term bullish transaction on IBM suggests one investor is positioning for a significant boost in share price at the computer services firm by expiration in January 2011. IBM’s shares are trading 0.75% higher this afternoon to $126.47. The optimistic trader purchased a ratio call spread on the stock, buying 5,000 calls at the January 2011 $135 strike for an average premium of $6.24 apiece, and selling 10,000 calls at the higher January 2011 $150 strike for a premium of $2.33 each. The net cost of the ratio spread amounts to just $1.58 per contract. Thus, the trader accrues profits if IBM’s shares rally 8% over the current price to surpass the breakeven point at $136.58 by expiration next year. Maximum available profits of $13.42 per contract amass only if shares surge 18.60% to $150.00. IBM’s shares must increase to a new 52-week high in order for the investor to break even on the transaction. The current 52-week high on the stock is $134.25, attained back on January 19, 2010.
XLF – Financial Select Sector SPDR – Option traders continue to initiate bearish strategies on the financial ETF today despite the 0.90% rebound in shares of the underlying to $14.31. Earlier we reported a June $14/$10 ratio put spread, which established downside protection beneath a breakeven share price of $13.30. This afternoon we observed a similar transaction take place. Another pessimistic investor purchased an even larger ratio put spread in the June contract. It looks like this individual bought 27,500 puts at the now in-the-money June $15 strike for an average premium of $1.52 apiece, spread against the sale of 55,000 puts at the lower June $12 strike for about $0.39 each. The net cost of the ratio transaction amounts to $0.74 per contract, and provides downside protection beneath a breakeven share price of $14.26.
TXN – Texas Instruments, Inc. – Chipmaker, Texas Instruments, is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results after the closing bell this afternoon, and although analysts expect the firm to post profits of $0.49 per share on a 19% increase in sales, option traders initiated near-term protective plays. Shares of the semiconductor company are up 1.80% to $23.52 ahead of earnings. One investor established a bearish risk reversal by selling 5,000 calls at the February $24 strike for a…
Goldman Sachs Bulls and Bears Collide
by Phil - January 21st, 2010 5:13 pm
Today’s tickers: GS, WFT, FITB, NITE, USU, KFT, UNP, EBAY, SBUX & HOTT
GS – Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. – Near-term bears and bulls crossed paths in the February contract on global investment banking firm, Goldman Sachs Group, today. The past 48 hours have stirred up a plethora of concerning news for investors, most recently, President Obama’s call to limit the size and trading activity of large financial institutions, which pummeled the financial sector like a ton of bricks, dragging equities down across the board. Additionally, markets are still smarting from China’s reining in of monetary policy, which sent the US dollar up over the past couple of days. The VIX jumped yesterday and continues higher during the current session. The fear-gauge increased 19.67% today to an intraday high of 21.90 countering the declines in the S&P 500. Investors watched Goldman’s shares fall 4% to $161.07 this afternoon even though the firm earned $8.20 per share in the fourth-quarter, which blew right past average estimates of $5.19 a share. Frenzied options trading exploded on the financial institution with roughly 358,000 contracts exchanged on the stock by 2:50 pm (EDT). Bearish bets were plentiful, although there is also evidence of contrarian bullish plays, as well. Put options were purchased as low as the February $145 strike where 3,500 contracts were purchased for an average premium of $1.46 per contract. Shares are still 12.20% greater at the current level than the breakeven price on the puts at $143.54. The heaviest put trading occurred at the nearest to-the-money February $160 strike where more than 23,000 contracts changed hands. At least 8,100 of the contracts were purchased for $4.12 per contract. Contrarian players sold 2,300 puts at the February $135 strike to pocket an average premium of $0.93 each. Put sellers retain the full premium as long as Goldman’s shares trade above $135.00 through expiration next month. Some investors are looking right through the negative news and buying call options. Most notable is the 7,200 calls purchased at the February $165 strike for an average premium of $4.52 each. The stock must rebound back to $169.52 in order for call buyers to breakeven on their purchases. Other traders threw in the towel at the higher February $170 strike by selling at least 8,900 calls to receive an average premium of $3.02 per contract. Two-way trading traffic in GS options and investor uncertainty has lifted…
Testy Tuesday – Have the Markets Become Comfortably Numb?
by Phil - January 19th, 2010 8:08 am
"There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship’s smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can’t hear what you’re saying.
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown,
The dream is gone.
but I have become comfortably numb." – Pink Floyd
I have a theory that the markets (and the American people in general) aren’t irrational, they are simply shell-shocked after suffering a very traumatic group financial experience…
To be shell-shocked is to be "mentally confused, upset, or exhausted as a result of excessive stress" and the most common symptoms are: Fatigue, slower reaction times, indecision, disconnection from one’s surroundings, and inability to prioritize – That certainly sounds like our Congress doesn’t it? Combat stress disorder was first diagnosed in WWI, when 10% of the troops were killed and 56% wounded – far worse than had been experienced in previous wars. Our current financial crisis has similarly affected more people than any previous crisis with almost everyone knowing someone who is bankrupt or lost their jobs or homes and almost no one escaped the carnage of the downturn without some financial damage.
Combat fatigue may go a long way to explaining the severe drop-off in volume that has plagued the markets since March, with participation now down to 25% of where we were last January and that leaves us open to the blatant sort of market manipulation that Karl Denninger caught last week as well as the usual nonsense we get daily from HFT programs that drive the market with such precision that we are able to tell how the day is going to go by simply checking our hourly volume targets. Here’s a clip from CNBC where a floor trader discusses market manipulation as a fact of trading (2 mins in).
As Nicholas Santiago points out on In The Money Stocks, "January is usually a very high volume month, yet it has started off the New Year even lighter than the last two months of 2009. Light volume markets are very difficult to short. Hence the old saying, ‘never short a dull market’." Not only is the market volume…
Option Traders Try Their Luck with Out-of-the-Money Calls on MGM Mirage
by Option Review - December 23rd, 2009 4:13 pm
Today’s tickers: MGM, EWC, EWZ, DHI, XLF, GLW, TRA, CF, PHM, GFI & EBAY
MGM – MGM Mirage, Inc. – Shares of casino resort operator, MGM Mirage, rallied 5.25% this afternoon to $9.62. Option traders expecting shares to rally significantly in the next 12 months bought call options in the January 2011 contract. Approximately 20,000 calls were purchased at the January 2011 20 strike for an average premium of 70 cents per contract. Investors break even on the calls if MGM’s shares more than double by expiration. Shares must rally at least 115% to the breakeven price of $20.70 in order for call-buyers to begin to accumulate profits.
EWC – iShares MSCI Canada Index ETF – The exchange-traded fund, which mirrors the performance of publicly traded securities in the Canadian market, attracted pessimistic option players. The bearish risk reversal established on the fund contrasts with the nearly 1.5% rally in shares of the underlying to $26.30 during the session. It appears one investor sold 12,500 calls at the June 27 strike for a premium of 1.60 each, spread against the purchase of the same number of calls at the lower June 26 strike for two dollars premium apiece. The net cost of the reversal amounts to 40 cents per contract. Profits on the trade – assuming the investor holds no underlying stock position – accrue if shares of the EWC slip beneath the breakeven point to the downside at $25.60 by expiration in June 2010.
EWZ – iShares MSCI Brazil Index ETF – A number of bullish trades on the Brazil exchange-traded fund today suggest shares of the EWZ are set to rally in the first few months of the new year. Shares edged 1.5% higher during the trading day to stand at $73.21. Optimistic traders employed a number of different option strategies in order to position for bullish movement in the price of the underlying stock. One trader initiated a risk reversal in the January contract by selling 6,000 puts at the January 72 strike for 1.80 each, spread against the purchase of 6,000 in-the-money calls at the same strike for 2.70 apiece. The cost of getting long the call options is reduced to 90 cents per contract for the reversal player. Profits on the position amass above the breakeven price of $72.90. Another option bull unfurled the wings of a butterfly spread in the March contract. The trader…
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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...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site
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