Options Activity Suggests Tough Week For Halliburton, Clear Skies For JetBlue
by Option Review - December 6th, 2011 2:02 pm
Today’s tickers: HAL, JBLU, DELL & HL
HAL - Halliburton Co. – Shares in the Houston, Texas-based oilfield services provider dropped as much as 5.8% to $34.86 today on reports BP is accusing a unit of the Halliburton Co. of destroying evidence that could have shown the company is also at fault for the deadly explosion in the Gulf of Mexico last year. Options traders expecting the stock to remain under pressure this week placed short-term bearish bets on the stock. Weekly puts that expire at the end of the trading week attracted heavier-than-usual volume, with the Dec. ’09 $35 strike put trading more than 4,400 times against open interest of just 444 contracts. It looks like investor purchased the majority of the $35 strike weekly puts for an average premium of $0.53 each. In-the-money put buyers at this strike stand prepared to profit should the price of the underlying fall another 1.1% to breach the average breakeven point on the downside at $34.47 at expiration. Bears picked up put options at the lower Dec. ’09 $ 34 strike for an average premium of $0.31 each, as well. Approximately 2,700 puts have changed hands at the $34 strike as of 12:30 PM ET. Options implied volatility on Halliburton is up 5.7% at 50.55% in early-afternoon trade.
JBLU - JetBlue Airways Corp. – Investors initiating near-term bullish positions in JetBlue Airways this morning appear to have shown up relatively late to the party, however, late could be better than never as long as the price of the underlying stock continues to rise in the next couple of weeks. Shares in JetBlue Airways Corp. are up 1.7% today to stand at $4.78 as of 11:20 AM ET. The stock has rallied roughly 30.0% since AMR Corp. filed for bankruptcy on November 29. Some traders jumped into JBLU…
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DiggAll Eyes On IMAX Corp. Calls As Shares Soar
by Option Review - August 29th, 2011 2:30 pm
Today’s tickers: IMAX, AMZN, HAL & MU
IMAX - IMAX Corp. – Call options on the entertainment technology company are in demand this morning after shares in IMAX jumped 9.1% roughly 40 minutes into the trading session to an intraday high of $17.63. The sizable move in the price of the underlying coupled with increased trading in IMAX options lifted the stock’s reading of implied volatility 10.3% to 82.95% by 11:05 am ET. The sharp rise in shares and volatility are a boon to investors who appear to have purchased September contract calls on the stock on Friday. Open interest in the Sept. $20 strike call suggest some 1,400 contracts were picked up at an average premium of $0.25 apiece during the final trading session last week. Investors long the calls at $0.25 per contract now hold contracts that have more than doubled in value over the weekend. Traders eyeing the Sept. $20 strike calls this morning exchanged more than 3,800 of the options, exceeding the 2,116 previously existing positions at that strike. It looks like investors purchased around 2,700 of the calls this morning for an average premium of $0.40 each. Call buyers profit if shares in IMAX Corp. jump 15.7% over today’s high of $17.63 to surpass the average breakeven price of $20.40 at expiration in a couple of weeks. The September $20 strike call currently commands an asking price of $0.75 per contract as of 11:15 am in New York.
AMZN - Amazon.com, Inc. – Shares in online retail giant Amazon.com gained 2.8% to $204.76 this morning, but call buyers in the front month are positioning for far more substantial gains in the price of the underlying come September expiration. Call options on AMZN are trading roughly 1.7 times for each single put option in action today, with…
Options Strategist Sees Halliburton Rebound On The Horizon
by Option Review - August 9th, 2011 2:59 pm
Today’s tickers: HAL, AOL, CQB & XRT
HAL - Halliburton Co. – Options activity on Halliburton suggests one strategist seized the opportunity to take a bullish stance on the provider of oil equipment and services this morning on the heels of a 27.5% dip in the price of the underlying during the past three weeks. Shares in Houston, TX-based Halliburton recovered 4.8% of their value thus far in the session to trade at $44.46 as of 11:45 am ET. It looks like the options player is positioned for limited, albeit potentially substantial, bullish movement in the price of the underlying through September expiration. The investor initiated a ratio call spread, buying 5,000 calls at the September $50 strike for a premium of $1.21 each, and selling 10,000 calls up at the September $55 strike at a premium of $0.425 apiece. Net premium paid to initiate the spread amounts to $0.36 per contract, thus preparing the trader to profit should shares in HAL rally another 13.3% over the current price of $44.46 to surpass the effective breakeven price of $50.36 by expiration next month. Maximum potential profits of $4.46 per contract pad the investor’s wallet in the event that Halliburton’s shares surge 23.7% to settle at $55.00 at September expiration. HAL’s shares reached a 52-week high of $57.77 on July 25 before the market meltdown pulled the price of oil and oil and gas companies down with it.
AOL - AOL, Inc. – U.S. stocks are rallying ahead of the FOMC statement this afternoon, recovering somewhat from Monday’s harrowing selloff, but investors in global web services provider AOL suffered more pain today as shares in the name failed to join in the broad market gain. AOL’s shares plunged 22.0% today to $11.75, the lowest traded price since the company’s 2009 spinoff from…
Technical Tuesday – Twelve Thousand Two Hundred or Bust!
by Phil - June 7th, 2011 8:11 am
Our winning streak continues!
With 335M barrels of oil still on fake order at the NYMEX, yesterday’s early morning short play at $100.60 gave us a ride back to $99 and that was good for as much as $536M pre-market. In the morning post, I said "hopefully we’ll get another crack at shorting oil at $100 or higher" and we did – right at the open – and that was good for a ride back to $99 for another $335M of potential gains (just following through with last Thursday’s plan to break the NYMEX speculators).
We took the money and ran on those USO June $40 puts at $1.40 (up 22%) in Member Chat at 10:53 but the next rebound in oil didn’t quite get to $100 ($99.88) and we missed the run down to $98.50, which is where it’s sitting this morning.
Of course, we don’t only short oil… In my 9:58 Alert to Members I, of course, reminded them that oil was at $100 and shortable again but we also grabbed the QQQ weekly $56 puts for .33 and those finished the day at .55 for a 66.6% gain (the mark of the Blankfein), which is not bad for 6 hour’s work (or so I am told). We also had a more complicated spread with DDM offsetting SPY as a sort of arbitrage on two spreads.
Thanks to David Ristau’s guest appearance in Member Chat pre-market, where he mentioned he was jumping on our short oil bandwagon, we selected HAL for a short trade in Member Chat at 10:10 along with our planned PCLN short play (mentioned pre-market in the morning post) and both of those were, of course, huge winners already so thanks for HAL David!
It wasn’t ALL bearish, we went long on XLF as it hit $14.90 with some short put sales along with a very long-term bull play on HOV but we took a loss bottom-fishing on IWM as the June $79 calls stopped us out after falling from $2.07 to $1.95 (down 5.8%) but we had to try something long to get a little balance or risk being too bearish. Our bullish sentiment didn’t last long though and we decided to short the Nasdaq futures at the 2,300 line at 11:42, those gave us a spectacular run down…
Fickle Friday – Google Goes Down as Costs Inflate
by Phil - April 15th, 2011 8:19 am
Well who’d have thunk it?
The cost of doing business is rising and GOOG happens to be one of those businesses that lacks pricing power as their rates are generally set through an auction process and their users have to VOLUNTEER to pay more money to advertise. Most advertisers on Google are on fixed budgets, like MSM advertisers and Google has done a great job of replicating that model. Why then, should it be surprising if a maturing Google begins to look more like a traditional media outlet than a dot com company with exploding growth?
Don’t get me wrong, we love Google long-term but we did short them as well as BIDU into Google earnings as we felt Google would disappoint enough to spook BIDU investors as well. We’re taking the short money and running and looking for some bullish plays now – the drop from $630 last month to $545 today is plenty of froth blown off the top for us to get long-term interested again. As you can see from the tag cloud of the Conference Call, growth is still there, especially in mobile display ads (Android a bit disappointing) and no major negatives. I’m not going to write a whole thing about GOOG though, there are thousands of people doing that and our Members know well enough where I stand. I’m more interested in examining the bigger picture.
We expected Q1 earnings to be rough and we’ve already seen FDX, NKE, ORCL, RIMM, FAST, FCS and AA struggle so hopefully you don’t have to be hit on the head with another whole week of earnings before you get a little more cautious. Next week we hear from C, HAL, LLY, TXN, BK, GS, INTC, IBM, SYK, USB, VMW and YHOO on Monday and Tuesday and then we’re off to the races with hundreds of companies reporting each week for the rest of the month. Our job in the first few weeks of earnings season is to get a feel for the quarter and, so far, that feeling is rough.
It’s all about inflation, of course and don’t say we didn’t warn you about that one! We went more bearish up at those 100% lines we’ve been watching and now the question really is – how bad was it? Inflation is, after all, our long-term BULLISH premise. We don’t think corporations…
Halliburton Options Trade Smartly
by Option Review - October 29th, 2010 4:06 pm
Today’s tickers: HAL, CSTR, AMAG & FXI, SPY
HAL - Halliburton Co. – A sharp fall in Thursday’s session for oil services and sloppy cement-mixer Halliburton has not gained much traction at the end of the week. The stock today trades on both sides of unchanged and is currently at $31.71. While the prospects for additional liability are pretty much set out on the table following a report showing it provided BP with an unstable cement mix to surround the Macondo oil well, BP didn’t notice or attempt to rectify the error. Halliburton’s November puts are being sold as the stock stabilizes while the smart trade appears to be selling well out of the money call options expiring in April. Around 4,000 call options at the $36 strike price have traded to the bid telling us that an investor is taking a long stock and short call position or is simply just writing premium. The 52-week high at $35.89 remains a tall order after yesterday’s news making the short position in the calls look like a viable proposition.
CSTR - Coinstar Inc. – Coin and DVD-rental-machine operator Coinstar provided a pop for its shares after reporting surging revenues thanks to growth in its DVD-machine operations located in supermarket chains around the nation. Investors were primed for a dip in profits but were left smiling by a 42% increase in revenues on the movie-rental side. Call options on the stock were equally hot property on Friday after the share price jumped by 23% to $56.86. Formerly out-of-the-money call options expiring in November and which were trading at $1.50 yesterday traded all the way up to $8.00 a piece today despite a 20% slide in options implied volatility, typical after earnings. The share price surge put calls at six option strikes in-to-the-money on Friday. Compared to a 10-day average today’s overall options volume stacks up to more than five-times the norm.…
Options Feeding Frenzy Ensues on Halliburton Co.
by Option Review - October 28th, 2010 4:44 pm
Today’s tickers: HAL, BP, USU, S, POT, VALE & SKX
HAL - Halliburton Co. – Investors are piling into put options on the oil services provider this afternoon following reports that suggest Halliburton shares culpability with BP for failing to act on warning signs that may have prevented the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. At around 1:30 pm this afternoon, HAL’s shares descended into freefall, declining as much as 16.15% to an intraday low of $28.86 in the span of about 30 minutes. Shares gained some composure later in the session, but are still down 10.15% to stand at $30.93 as of 2:45 pm in New York. According to articles on the subject today, HAL submitted documents to the National Commission investigating the BP spill that showed that three out of the four tests of the foam cement conducted by Halliburton before the April 20 blowout indicated the mixture would be unstable. Although Halliburton shared the results of one of two tests conducted in February, neither BP nor Halliburton acted on the information from the foam-stability tests. Uncertainty regarding the impact this new information may have on HAL going forward sent options traders into overdrive and fueled a more than 89.7% increase in the stock’s overall reading of options implied volatility to an intraday high of 62.38%. Investors have driven options volume on Halliburton up to 225,000 contracts as of 3:05 pm. Volume is heaviest in the November contract with the $30 strike put options receiving the most attention. More than 19,000 puts have changed hands at that strike. But, traders are purchasing more bearish contracts as well in case HAL’s shares continue to suffer in the weeks ahead. Pessimists purchased puts at the November $25 strike, where more than 3,400 lots changed hands, at an average premium of $0.39 each. Near-term call options are quite active, as well. The majority of volume in November contract calls appears to be the work of sellers throwing in the towel on the HAL following today’s news story. Longer-term bearishness appeared in the April 2011 contract where one trader initiated a ratio put spread. It looks like the investor purchased 1,250 puts at the April 2011…
H&R Block Put Options in Play as Shares Drop
by Option Review - October 14th, 2010 5:59 pm
Today’s tickers: HRB, XRT, GRMN, HAL, F, MWW & BK
HRB - H&R Block, Inc. – Investors are bulking up on H&R Block put options this afternoon following reports the provider of tax services acquired tax-preparation firm 2SS Holdings for $287 million in cash. HRB’s shares dropped like a rock today, falling as much as 10.445% during the session to hit an intraday low of $12.26. Options traders basically ignored the existence of H&R Block calls and instead focused their efforts on buying up bearish put contracts across several expiries. More than 7.95 put options changed hands on HRB for each single call option in play on the stock as of 3:15 p.m. in New York trading. The sharp increase in demand for put options and the rapid descent in the price of the underlying shares fueled a 33.3% rise in the overall reading of options implied volatility on the stock to 70.39% late in the trading day. Pessimistic players picked up 5,600 now in-the-money puts at the October $12.5 strike for an average premium of $0.24 each. These contracts expire tomorrow, but investors may make money if HRB’s shares trade below the average breakeven price of $12.26 ahead of expiration. Put volume is most significant in the November contract. It looks like investors picked up 9,300 puts at the November $10 strike at a premium of $0.38 each, coveted another 10,300 contracts at the November $11 strike for premium of $0.57 apiece, and purchased approximately 2,500 puts at the November $12 strike for a premium of $0.81 a-pop. Volume in put options generated at each of the strikes described outweighs previously existing open interest at each one many times over. Put players may be scrambling to secure downside protection on existing positions in the underlying shares, or could be enacting outright bearish bets on the stock. HRB’s shares are down 9.50% at $12.39 with 35 minutes remaining in the trading session.…
Advanced Pattern Recognition: Omega III Weekly Wrap-Up
by Phil - June 19th, 2010 6:46 am
What a fine and predictable week it was!
How can you not have fun when the market does exactly what you expect it to do every day? Why it’s almost as if we stole Goldman Sach’s evil playbook (and the Russell once again is at 666) so we too can make profits EVERY SINGLE TRADING DAY – just like they do! This is a real testament to my famous saying:
We don’t care IF the game is rigged, as long as we know HOW it is rigged so we can place our bets accordingly.
Remember it was last summer that Goldman’s secret trading program was stolen. At the time, Goldman Sachs asserted that: "There is a danger that somebody who knew how to use this program could use it to manipulate markets in unfair ways." I believe this was a misquote and what GS meant to say was that there was a danger someone ELSE could use it to manipulate the markets in unfair ways. Was it just a coincidence that the indictment of computer thief Sergey Aleynikov on Feb 11th coincided with the beginning of this year’s massive rally or was that the day GS regained sole control of their pet program?
Does this sound conspiratorial? Well perhaps then you haven’t read Tim Lavin’s "Monsters in the Markets," where he points out: "Algorithms now trigger 70 percent of all trades in U.S. equities. The speed and volume of everyday trading have propelled the market into a new and esoteric dimension, and rendered traders in the pits largely obsolete… At least a few high-frequency traders have learned to make a killing by detecting the more simplistic algo strategies deployed by basic pension funds and mutual funds, buying the next stock the funds plan to buy, and then selling it to them at a higher price. This may not be illegal, but it’s almost certainly unfair to the funds’ investors. “It is increasingly clear that there are quite a number of high-frequency bandits in the high- frequency-trading community who pump up volume statistics, front-run investor orders, increase transaction costs, and hurt real liquidity,” according to former NASDAQ vice-chairman David Weild."
We certainly know better than to trust our money to fund managers! Last Friday ("Pattern Recognition 101"), we determined that the TradeBots were following the rally pattern we now call Omega III and that meant we expected the day to finish…
Buy-Write Strategist Positions for Halliburton Rebound
by Option Review - June 3rd, 2010 5:12 pm
Buy-write strategist positions for Halliburton rebound
Today’s tickers: HAL, RDC, CHK, AMAT, M, KR, HOLX, XLF, LVS & AVNR
HAL – Halliburton Co. – The provider of services, products, maintenance, engineering and construction to oil and natural gas companies around the globe was rated new ‘accumulate’ with a 12-month target share price of $28.00 at Madison Williams today. Perhaps the new rating inspired the bullish buy-write strategy initiated on the stock in the October contract this afternoon. Halliburton’s shares rallied 1.95% in morning trading to touch an intraday high of $24.14, but inched lower during the session to trade flat at $23.68 as of 2:55 pm (ET). The optimistic options investor enacted the buy-write strategy, or covered call play, by selling 2,500 calls at the October $28 strike price for a premium of $1.17 apiece. The investor likely purchased approximately 250,000 Halliburton shares around the same time for an average price of $23.35 apiece. The sale of the call options effectively reduces the price paid per share to $22.18 each. This strategy positions the investor to accrue maximum gains of 26.23% if HAL’s shares rally above $28.00 by October expiration. If the stock does surge through $28.00, the calls will likely be exercised and the investor will have the underlying shares called from him at $28.00 each, leaving the covered-call seller with significant profits in pocket.
RDC – Rowan Companies, Inc. – Shares of the manufacturer of equipment utilized in the drilling, mining and timber industries are lower by 3.90% to stand at $23.72 in late afternoon trading after the Obama administration extended a ban on offshore drilling. Rowan’s shares have recovered somewhat after plummeting 16.7% from an intraday high of $25.58 in morning trading down to an intraday low of $21.26 this afternoon. Bearish options traders scrambled to establish pessimistic positions in the June contract. Investors purchased 1,600 puts at the June $20 strike for an average premium of $0.41 apiece, suggesting some strategists are bracing for continued share price erosion ahead of June expiration. June $20 strike put buyers make money if Rowan’s shares slide 17.4% from the current price of $23.72 to breach the average breakeven point to the downside at $19.59. Investors also purchased 1,300 puts at the higher June $22.5 strike for a premium of $0.93 each, and picked up roughly 2,400 in-the-money puts at the June $25 strike for an average premium of $1.95…
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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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