Posts Tagged
‘FO’
by Option Review - December 8th, 2010 4:07 pm
Today’s tickers: FO, XLK, KFN & SLE
FO - Fortune Brands, Inc. – The holding company for firms engaged in the manufacture, production and sale of distilled spirits, home and hardware products and golf products popped up on our scanners in the first half of the trading session after one strategist initiated a sizeable stock and option combination play. Fortune Brands’ shares rallied as much as 2.10% to hit an intraday- and new 52-week high of $62.44 on news the firm’s Board of Directors approved in principle a plan that would ultimately result in the firm focusing exclusively on the distilled spirits business. The options trader populating Fortune Brands today appears to have purchased 500,000 shares of the underlying stock at a price of $61.30 as part of a buy-write or covered call strategy. The investor sold 5,000 in-the-money calls at the January 2011 $60 strike to receive premium of $3.10 apiece. Finally, the investor also purchased downside protection in the form of 5,000 puts at the lower January 2011 $55 strike at a premium of $0.65 a-pop. Buying up the put options cuts in to premium received on the sale of the calls, leaving the investor a net credit of $2.45 per contract. The rich premium pocketed by the investor effectively reduces the price paid to get long the stock from $61.30 to $58.85 a share. Thus, the buy-write strategist stands prepared to accumulate maximum potential gains of 1.95% if the shares are called away from him ahead of January expiration. The puts protect the value of the underlying in the event that shares in Fortune Brands slip lower by expiration day next month. But, if FO’s shares slide under $60.00 and the calls expire worthless at expiration, the investor may choose to hold onto the underlying position in order to capitalize on a potential rally that may be in store for FO in 2011.…

Tags: FO, KFN, SLE, XLK
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by Option Review - November 30th, 2010 4:18 pm
Today’s tickers: JPM, UPS, GM, SNDK, FO & SVU
JPM - JPMorgan Chase & Co. – One options strategist expecting a near-term turnaround in JPMorgan’s shares purchased a call spread in the December contract today. Shares of the financial services firm are currently down 0.75% to stand at $37.62 in the final hour of the trading session. It looks like the investor picked up 7,000 calls at the December $38 strike at a premium of $0.80 each, and sold the same number of calls at the higher December $40 strike for a premium of $0.22 apiece. Net premium paid to initiate the bullish spread amounts to $0.58 per contract, thus positioning the trader to make money should shares in JPMorgan climb 2.55% to surpass the effective breakeven price of $38.58 by December expiration day. The call-spreader stands prepared to accumulate maximum potential profits of $1.42 per contract if shares rally 6.3% over the current price of $37.62 to trade above $40.00 by expiration day in the final month of the year.
UPS - United Parcel Service, Inc. – Bullish options traders are scooping up in- and out-of-the-money call options on UPS this afternoon. Shares of the package delivery services provider increased as much as 0.80% today to hit an intraday- and new 52-week high of $70.44. The stock is currently up 0.40% to arrive at $70.15 as of 1:50 pm. More than 25,700 option contracts have changed hands on UPS thus far today, with more than 4.25 calls exchanged on the stock for each single put contract that has traded. Near-term bulls purchased more than 1,400 now in-the-money calls at the December $70 strike for an average premium of $1.16 each. Optimists looked up to the higher December $72.5 strike where more than 13,000 calls changed hands versus previously existing open…

Tags: FO, GM, JPM, SNDK, SVU, UPS
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by Option Review - March 15th, 2010 4:10 pm
Today’s tickers: FO, STJ, XLB, BSX, BIDU, VRSN & MNKD
FO – Fortune Brands, Inc. – Shares of the holding company with subsidiaries such as Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc., which manufactures Jim Beam whiskey and Maker’s Mark, and Acushnet Company, the producer of Titleist golf products, rallied 2.35% during the session to reach a new 52-week high of $48.45. The increase in Fortune’s share price inspired bullish options trading on the stock today. Approximately 1,000 calls were picked up at the April $50 strike for an average premium of $0.66 apiece. But, the real action took place at the June $50 strike where nearly 15,500 calls were purchased for an average premium of $1.68 per contract. Investors holding the June $50 strike call options stand ready to amass profits only if Fortune Brands’ shares rally another 6.65% from the current day’s price to breach the breakeven point on the calls at $51.68 by expiration day in June.
STJ – St. Jude Medical, Inc. – The manufacturer of cardiovascular medical devices experienced a sharp 8.45% rally in its share price today to $40.67 on news its rival, Boston Scientific Corp., suspended sales of its implantable heart defibrillator this morning. Options players initiated bullish transactions on the stock by selling 2,100 puts at the March $40 strike for an average premium of $0.60 apiece. Put-sellers keep the $0.60 premium per contract as long as St. Jude’s shares trade above $40.00 through expiration on Friday. However, put-players are obliged to have shares of the underlying stock put to them at an effective price of $39.40 each should the put options land in-the-money at expiration. Optimistic investors scooped up 3,100 call options at the July $45 strike by paying an average premium of $0.77 per contract. Call-coveters are positioned to profit only if shares rally another 12.5% from the current price to breach the breakeven share price at $45.77 by expiration day in July.
XLB – Materials Select Sector SPDR – Shares of the XLB, an exchange-traded fund that tracks the performance of the materials economic sector of the S&P Composite Stock Index, declined 0.30% today to $33.19. Trading in long-dated options on the fund, however, suggests one individual is bullish on the sector through expiration in January 2011. It appears the investor sold 10,000 put options outright at the January 2011 $27 strike for a premium of $1.32 per contract. The…

Tags: BIDU, BSX, FO, MNKD, STJ, VRSN, XLB
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February 11th, 2012 6:46 pm
It's Well Past Time for Plan Z
Courtesy of The Automatic Earth
Mario Draghi captured the utter ineptitude of him and every other Eurocrat out there when he said the following at today’s press conference in response to a question about a Greek exit: “To have a Plan B means defeat already. I am confident that all the pieces of this will fall in the proper places.”
Most 5-year old children in pre-school have already been told not to believe that they can always win and that “winning isn’t everything”, but Draghi & Co. still refuse to consider the possibility of failure even as it is staring them in the face. What’s really disturbing is that the stakes here are obviously much, much higher than they are o...
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February 11th, 2012 5:35 pm
Courtesy of Doug Short.
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
It's interesting to watch some of the terms bandied about in headline news. For example, the LA Times headline reads S&P says student loan debt could be next financial bubble.
Next? Could Be?
What with the word "next"? Also what's with the words "could be"? Without a doubt student loans are in a bubble and have been for many years. The source of the problem, as it always is with financial bubbles, is cheap money, loans to nearly anyone, and in the case of student loans, no way to discharge the debt, even in bankruptcy.
From the article:
"Student-loan debt has ballooned and m...
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February 11th, 2012 5:11 pm
Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.
Submitted by ilene.
Treasury Market Panic Reversal Due To Little Known Forces Called Supply and Demand Courtesy of Lee Adler of the Wall Street Examiner
The Treasury market panic saw a bit of a reversal this...
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February 11th, 2012 12:00 am
Top 5 RisersStockRatingAnalysis
ICABUYThe 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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February 10th, 2012 6:20 pm
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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February 10th, 2012 4:14 pm
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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February 10th, 2012 4:11 pm
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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February 10th, 2012 1:40 pm
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February 10th, 2012 1:22 pm
Today’s tickers: TRLG, KR & IGT
...
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February 6th, 2012 9:02 am
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
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February 5th, 2012 5:19 am
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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January 30th, 2012 7:22 am
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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January 18th, 2012 1:09 am
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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