Posts Tagged
‘IPG’
by Option Review - October 5th, 2010 4:16 pm
Today’s tickers: IPG, UPS, ATML, CBS, CHL, CAVM, ROST & WL
IPG - Interpublic Group Companies, Inc. – Long-term bullish trading in Interpublic Group LEAPs indicates one strategist is preparing for the price of the underlying stock to climb substantially higher by expiration day in January 2012. Shares of the advertising and marketing services firm rose 4.80% to $10.46 by 2:50 pm ET. The options strategist appears to have enacted a delta neutral transaction, buying 210,000 shares of the underlying stock at $10.40 each, spread against the sale of 5,000 calls at the January 2012 $12.5 strike for an average premium of $0.975 apiece on a 0.42 delta. The sale of the calls can be considered a financing mechanism as well as a potential exit strategy on the long position in shares. The investor could wind up having the shares called from him at $12.50 each in the event that at expiration IPG’s shares exceed $12.50. In this case, the trader would realize gains of 32.625% on the rally in shares from the reduced purchase price of $9.425 a share up to $12.50 a share. Interpublic’s overall reading of options implied volatility is down 3.4% at 40.65% one hour before the final bell. The marketing services provider announces its third-quarter results before the market opens on October 29, 2010.
UPS - United Parcel Service, Inc. – A sizeable near-term bullish transaction involving 23,000 call options and a large chunk of UPS shares caught our eye today. Shares of the world’s largest package delivery company, which announced Friday it plans to raise the non-contractual UPS Freight rate by 5.9% starting October 18, are currently up 3.20% to stand at $68.25 as of 2:30 pm ET. It looks like the investor responsible for the transaction established a covered call on the stock to position for the price of the underlying shares to continue higher ahead of October expiration. The trader purchased approximately 322,000 shares at $67.57 each and sold 23,000 calls at a premium of $0.19 apiece on…

Tags: ATML, CAVM, CBS, CHL, IPG, ROST, UPS, WL
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by Option Review - April 29th, 2010 4:20 pm
Today’s tickers: HAL, IPG, AMGN, BP, COF, FXI, OMX, NEM & FSLR
HAL – Halliburton Co. – Making sense of options activity on oil company, Halliburton Co., this afternoon is difficult due to the chaotic and seemingly pattern-less trading taking place on the stock. Investors exchanged more than 200,000 contracts on HAL by 3:00 pm (ET), which represents approximately 37% of total existing open interest on the stock of 541,062 contracts. Frenzied options trading was catalyzed by news the firm is assisting in ongoing investigations regarding the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as HAL reportedly provided a variety of oilfield services to Deepwater Horizon rig, which is the rig that caught fire and sank last week. Options volume and options implied volatility on Halliburton jumped while its shares slipped 6.3% to $31.26. The surge in demand for option contracts on the stock, coupled with uncertainty regarding possible repercussions stemming from HAL’s connection to the situation in the Gulf of Mexico, lifted the overall reading of options implied volatility 25.4% to 44.13% as of 3:25 pm (ET). Trading activity is heaviest in the May contract with decent volume building in both call and put options. Some bearish investors bracing for continued share price erosion purchased about 2,200 puts at the lowest available strike – the May $25 strike price – for an average premium of $0.16 apiece. Buying interest in put options was also apparent at the May $26 strike where 1,800 puts were picked up for an average premium of $0.20 each. May $29 strike puts were the most heavily trafficked as more than 16,700 contracts changed hands by 3:22 pm (ET), versus previously existing open interest of just 2,743 contracts at that strike. But, the put action was certainly not one-sided as investors took to buying and selling the contracts, with buyers gaining the right to sell the stock at $29.00, and sellers receiving an average premium of $0.81 per contract in exchange for bearing the risk of having shares of the underlying stock put to them at $29.00. Similar two-way trading traffic in calls took place at out-of-the-money strike prices as some traders threw in the towel on bullish stances expiring in May. Meanwhile, contrarian players purchased out-of-the-money calls, perhaps to prepare for a potential rebound in the price per share ahead of expiration next month.
IPG – Interpublic Group of Cos., Inc. – Advertising and…

Tags: AMGN, BP, COF, FSLR, FXI, HAL, IPG, NEM, OMX
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by Phil - January 7th, 2010 4:31 pm
Today’s tickers: F, IPG, MBI, DAL, XLF, XHB, CROX, GME, BBBY & NVTL
F – Ford Motor Co. – Yesterday we reported on a short strangle play, which implied the automaker’s shares would likely remain within the realm of $10.00 to $12.00 for the next six months to expiration in June 2010. Today we observed bullish options activity in the January 2011 contract, which points to significantly higher shares for Ford in the next twelve months. The stock rallied again today, gaining 2% to reach a new 52-week high of $11.60 with just under 30 minutes remaining in the session. Bullish indications came in the form of a call spread and plain-vanilla call buying strategies. It looks like one investor purchased a large chunk of 50,000 calls at the January 2011 $17.50 strike for an average of $0.58 apiece. The trader responsible for the transaction benefits from this position only if Ford’s shares explode 56% over the current price to surpass the breakeven point at $18.08 by next January. The parameters of the call spread also implies a significant increase in shares of the motor company by 2011, but the nature of the spread limits upside profit potential, whereas the plain-vanilla call buyer’s profits are potentially limitless. The investor responsible for the spread selected the more conservative January 2011 $15 strike to purchase approximately 6,000 calls for an average premium of $1.06 per contract. The other half of the debit spread involved the sale of the same number of calls at the higher January 2011 $22.50 strike for about $0.20 each. The net cost of the bullish play amounts to $0.86 per contract and positions the investor to accrue profits above the breakeven price of $15.86. Maximum potential profits of $6.64 per contract are available to the trader if Ford’s shares rally a whopping 94% from the current value to $22.50 by expiration in January of 2011.
IPG – Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. – A long straddle strategy initiated on the advertising and marketing company implies one investor expects greater volatility in the price of the underlying through expiration in February. The inherent nature of the long straddle suggests shares of IPG may swing dramatically in the next few weeks. Interpublic’s shares are currently off 2.5% to stand at $7.27 in afternoon trading. The straddle-player purchased about 2,000 puts at the February $7.50 strike for an average premium of…

Tags: BBBY, CROX, DAL, F, GME, IPG, MBI, NVTL, XHB, XLF
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by Option Review - June 16th, 2009 5:08 pm
Today’s tickers: URBN, URE, IPG, WDC, JPM, STEC & ATHR
URBN– The clothing-haven for hipsters jumped to the top of our ‘hot by options volume’ market scanner this afternoon after one Urban-bear was observed taking profits in the January 2010 contract. It appears that this individual originally established a 40,000 lot put spread on July 22, 2008, at a net cost of 4.50. The trader partially unraveled the spread on November 13, 2008, leaving open interest of approximately 28,000 lots at each of the strike prices involved in the spread. Today he has once again targeted his urban-hunting ground to go in for the kill by closing out the position completely. The January 15 strike price saw 26,500 put options purchased for a premium of 1.19 apiece spread against the sale of 26,500 deep in-the-money puts at the January 30 strike for 10.04 per contract. The gross premium realized on this leg of the trade amounts to 8.85. Subtracting the 4.50 paid to initially purchase the bearish put spread yields profits of 4.35 or approximately $11,527,500. – Urban Outfitters, Inc.
URE– The bruised and battered real estate ETF has deflated more than 4.5% today to $3.50. In just a few short days, it will have been one full year since the fund was trading a staggering 841% higher at $32.94. One investor, who has no doubt witnessed the plunge in the price of the underlying over the course of the year, has taken a bearish stance on the stock today. This individual looks to have sold short 25,500 puts at the July 3.0 strike price for a premium of 15 cents per contract or $382,500. If the price of the URE falls beneath $3.00 by expiration, the trader appears happy to have the underlying shares put to him at an effective price of $2.85 each. Otherwise, he retains the full premium received on the transaction if the puts land out-of-the-money by the third Friday of next month. – ProShares Ultra Real Estate
IPG – Shares of the advertising and marketing services firm have declined more than 2% today to stand at $5.53. Despite the current erosion in the price of the underlying, one option trader was observed getting bullish on the stock through expiration in October. Hoping for a significant recovery in shares, the investor purchased 31,500 calls at the October 7.5 strike price for an average premium of…

Tags: ATHR, IPG, JPM, STEC, URBN, URE, WDC
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by Option Review - May 4th, 2009 6:11 pm
Today’s tickers: CSCO, NYT, DRYS, INTC, VIX, MON, USB, CROX, IPG, ELN, & WFC
CSCO Cisco Systems, Inc. – Shares are off slightly by less than 1% to $19.42 ahead of earnings expected for release from the company this Wednesday. We observed a rash of put selling in the June and July contracts, a bullish sign from option investors on the stock. The in-the-money June 20 strike price saw some 4,700 puts sold for a premium of 1.40 apiece while the in-the-money July 20 strike also had about 4,500 puts sold for 1.61 per contract. Finally, the deeper in-the-money July 21 strike had some 4,400 puts shed for a rich premium of 2.23 apiece. Perhaps put-sellers see Cisco rebounding through the summer months.
NYT The New York Times Company – The media company has experienced a share price surge of more than 8.5% to $5.87 amid reports that the New England newspaper, The Boston Globe, is safe for now as NYT has not filed its intention to close the newspaper. NYT appeared on our ‘hot by options volume’ market scanner late in the trading day as one investor appears to have sold 5,000 in-the-money puts at the July 7.5 strike price for a premium of 2.12 apiece in order to fund a bull call position in the October contract. The put premium helped fund the purchase of 15,000 calls at the October 10 strike for about 37 cents each. The trade yields a net credit of about 1.01 to the investor given the richer put premium received on the sale (1*2.12 – [3* 0.37] = 1.01). NYT plans to continue talks with its unions in order to avoid closing The Globe. The deadlines for negotiations have been extended to Sunday.
DRYS DryShips, Inc. – Shares of the shipping company have gained 13% to arrive at the current share price of $9.35. The drybulk carrier received a target share price increase to $12.00 from $10.00 by an analyst at Jeffries & Co. as well as an upgrade to ‘outperform’ at Oppenheimer. Bulls hungry for a continued near-term rally on DRYS picked up 12,500 call options at the May 11 strike price for an average premium of 25 cents apiece. The overall tone on the Greek fleet was optimistic as investors showed their preference for call options by trading calls more than five times to every put option in play. It…

Tags: CROX, CSCO, DRYS, ELN, INTC, IPG, MON, NYT, USB, VIX, WFC
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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
Reminder: David is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.
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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.
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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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