News Corp. Options Predict Pie In The Face For Bears
by Option Review - August 19th, 2011 3:02 pm
Today’s tickers: NWSA, OIH, FRX & NVLS
NWSA - News Corp. – The phone hacking scandal that dragged Rupert Murdoch’s media empire through the mud won’t stifle shares in News Corp. forever, by the looks of one massive transaction in long-dated call options this morning. Shares in NWSA dropped more than 25.0% to as low as $13.38 in the weeks following well-publicized allegations that News of the World hacked murder victim Milly Dowler’s mobile phone. Efforts by Murdoch & Murdoch to apologize for actions they said occurred without their knowledge at the company’s tabloid, as well as other steps taken recently to soothe investor concerns, helped shares in NWSA recover in August. The stock still stands roughly 14.0% off its highest point in July, after slipping 1.3% during today’s session to $15.98 as of 12:00 pm in New York.
Huge prints in January 2013 contract call options on the media company within 30 minutes of the opening bell today suggests one big player sees shares in News Corp. not only recovering over the next year and a half, but also possibly rising to their highest since 2000. Just before 10:00 am ET, a QCC order to buy a 50,000-lot Jan. 2013 $20/$25 call spread at a net premium of $0.90 per contract was entered at the PHLX. The QCC order, which allows valid and executable orders to immediately cross upon arrival with no auction, protects the anonymity of the trader and involves a stock component executed away from the Exchange on which the options were crossed. It is unclear what the stock component is at this time, but it’s worth noting that such knowledge could alter one’s interpretation of the transaction. Keeping that disclaimer in mind, it appears the call spread is looking for shares in News Corp. to…
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DiggIncome Portfolio – Month Four – Stormy Weather!
by Phil - August 13th, 2011 7:57 am
Riders on the storm
Into this house we’re born
Into this world we’re thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor out alone
Riders on the storm
What a crazy couple of week’s we’ve been having! Very fortunately, in last month’s update of our virtual income portfolio, we had already cashed out $33,084 – more than enough to take us through our first 8 months (our planned $4,000 a month to live on). We did that using just $200,000 of our $1M in buying power ($500,000 portfolio), staying very conservative and waiting for a bigger dip than the one we had had in June.
Well, here we are! We are now 10% below June’s bottom and we did do a little bottom fishing, adding positions in WFR, SONC, IMAX, VLO, OIH, TBT and HOLI – positions we’ll be reviewing below. To a large extent, we followed the strategy I called "Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There" during this sell-off although it was (and still is) a nail-biter as we tested my August 2nd prediction of the "worst-case" scenario of a 20% drop from the top.
We stuck to our guns this week and had a lot of fun playing the wild gyrations with our short-term betting but the Income Portfolio is an exercise in managing a "low-touch" portfolio – one that does not require us to make daily adjustments. I am aware that can be frustrating for people who stare at the markets every day but that is what our short-term trade ideas are for in Member Chat. That goes for people who are retired or semi-retired too. You don’t HAVE to play every day – or any day for that matter but you do need to work one week a month and that would be this week – the week of…
F’ing Thursday – Give Us a Break!
by Phil - August 11th, 2011 8:30 am
Holy cow – when will it end?
As I mentioned yesterday, we were expecting a whipsaw after the morning sell-off and we played that perfectly with bullish trades on the DIA and OIH and, as we move up, we took bearish plays on GLL, TZA and QQQ. All good so far but then we did a little bottom fishing before wising up and shorting USO into the close – just in case. The futures were up 2% this morning at 5am and I had to warn our Members:
Overall, this is too weak to get us over the hump and we are going to have to lean a little more bearish unless we can follow Europe up 2.5% or more. Our charts will turn from "spiking low on volume" to "consolidating for a move below 20%" very quickly if we don’t gets something bullish going by tomorrow.
The Dollar was at 74.64 at the time and it’s only 75.04 now (7:50) but the futures have gone from up 2% to down 1% in less than 3 hours – that is insane! How are retail investors supposed to play this market? The average person does not have the stomach for watching their virtual portfolio’s value go up and down 5% a day – at some point they are all going to pull the plug and walk away. Of course, as I was saying yesterday – that’s just what the Banksters want you to do, assuming they know QE3 is right around the corner, accompanied by a 20%+ market rally into the year’s end.
Anyway, hope is NOT a strategy for the prudent investor so I published another set of Disaster Hedges this morning as it’s time to add a layer to our longer hedges (which are now deeply in the money). I hate to chase these plays but one thing we learned in 2008 is that there may never be a bottom (not in the short run) no matter how oversold you think things may be. Was the market wrong in 2008 to go below S&P 1,000? Well 3 years of subsequent trading seem to indicate that it was – but that did not stop us from dropping 33% lower, to 666 (the mark of the Blankfein!).
Our entire goal in a sell-off like this is to simply preserve our cash. The lower we…
Bullish Player Rigs Up Call Spread on Oil Services HOLDRS Trust
by Option Review - January 18th, 2011 4:19 pm
Today’s tickers: OIH, AFFY, CAT, EBAY, IYT & RIG
OIH - Oil Services HOLDRS Trust – Shares in the Oil Services HOLDRS Trust are up 0.50% in the final hour of trading to secure an intraday- and new 52-week high of $147.34. One options player expecting shares to continue to hit new highs through February expiration initiated a debit call spread. Shares in the OIH, an issuer of depository receipts known as Oil Service HOLDRS that represent ownership in the common stock of companies engaged in drilling, well-site management and other services for the oil service industry, are up 5.25% year-to-date, and have surged 57.75% since touching down at a six-month low of $93.36 on July 1, 2010. The optimistic options trader looked to out-of-the-money calls expiring next month, buying 3,600 calls at the February $155 strike for a premium of $1.48 each, and selling the same number of calls up at the February $160 strike at a premium of $0.58 apiece. Net premium paid to initiate the spread amounts to $0.90 per contract. Thus, the investor is prepared to make money should the price of the underlying shares rally another 5.8% over today’s high of $147.34 to surpass the effective breakeven price of $155.90 by expiration day in February. Maximum potential profits of $4.10 per contract are available to the call-spreader should shares in the OIH jump 8.6% to trade above $160.00 before the contracts expire. Options implied volatility inched up 3.2% to 26.42% by 3:55pm in New York.
AFFY - Affymetrix, Inc. – Investors are buying call options on the biotechnology company today with shares in the Santa Clara, CA-based firm rising as much as 7.6% during the session to an intraday- and 6-month high of $5.67. Bullish players expecting shares in Affymetrix to continue to rally picked up…
Near-Term Bulls Shop Around for Call Options at Newell Rubbermaid
by Option Review - December 1st, 2010 4:22 pm
Today’s tickers: NWL, GRS, OIH, HIG, EWZ, MBT & XOP
NWL - Newell Rubbermaid, Inc. – The global marketer of everyday commercial and consumer products popped up on our ‘hot by options volume’ market scanner during the second half of the trading session due to bullish activity in the December contract. Shares in Newell Rubbermaid are up 3.35% to stand at $17.33 with 45 minutes remaining before the final bell. Options traders exchanged more than 3,460 call options at the December $17.5 strike, versus previously existing open interest of just 980 contracts. It looks like more than 3,000 of the calls were purchased for a premium of $0.35 per contract. Plain-vanilla call buyers are prepared to make money should shares increase another 3.00% to exceed the effective breakeven point to the upside at $17.85 ahead of December expiration day. Rubbermaid’s shares last traded above $17.85 as recently as November 5, 2010.
GRS - Gammon Gold, Inc. – Bullish players picked up call options on the gold mining company today with shares of the Halifax, Nova Scotia-based firm climbing 1.2% to $6.77 in the final hour of the session. Investors expecting Gammon’s shares to extend gains purchased more than 3,000 calls at the January 2011 $7.0 strike for a premium of $0.43 apiece. Call buyers at this strike are poised to profit should shares in Gammon Gold surge 9.75% over the current price of $6.77 to surpass the effective breakeven point at $7.43 by January expiration. More than 3,280 calls changed hands at the Jan. 2011 $7.0 strike, which is more than six times the number of contracts represented by the 531 lots of previously existing open interest at that strike. Bullish sentiment spread to the March 2011 $7.5 strike where another 1,000 call options were purchased for premium of $0.48 each.…
Thursday – Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble!
by Phil - September 23rd, 2010 7:51 am
"I’m forever blowing bubbles,
Pretty bubbles in the air,
They fly so high, nearly reach the sky,
Then like my dreams they fade and die.
Fortune’s always hiding,
I’ve looked everywhere,
I’m forever blowing bubbles,
Pretty bubbles in the air."
Gold, Treasuries, Junk Bonds, Netflix (we shorted them yesterday), PCLN (we shorted them Monday), Credit Default Swaps – take your pick of what is going to be the next bubble to burst.
We shorted TLT again yesterday ($105) as I sure wouldn’t lend the US money at those rates and neither, it seems, will the "smart money" guys anymore. The cost to hedge against losses on U.S. government debt rose to the most in six weeks as investors bet the Federal Reserve will put more cash into the economy. Credit-default swaps on U.S. Treasuries climbed 1.7 basis points, the biggest increase in more than three weeks, to 49.4, according to data provider CMA. The Fed said Tuesday that slowing inflation and sluggish growth may require further action. The statement positioned the central bank to expand its near-record $2.3 trillion balance sheet as soon as their November meeting – just in time for a Santa Clause boost for the markets.
So why does this not make us bullish? Well, as I said to Members on Tuesday, it was an anticipated statement with no immediate action and we’re at the top of a 10% run for September so, as I said in yesterday’s post, we anticipate a pullback of 2%, back to our 4% line (see post). Also in yesterday’s post, I mentioned our IWM 9/30 $67 puts ($1.10) and the DIA Oct $105 puts (.89) both of which were good for a reload on yesterday’s silly spike, where I said to Members in the 9:56 Alert:
I like the same IWM and DIA puts as yesterday as we test 10,800 on the Dow – I don’t think it’s going to last. Tomorrow we lose the usual 450,000 jobs for the week and we have Existing Home Sales at 10, which can now disappoint as Building Permits were a big upside surprise yesterday. We also get Leading Economic Indicators at 10 but they are expected up just 0.1% and I doubt they go negative. Friday we have Durable Goods, which should be down 2% and New Home Sales at 10, also now set up to disappoint even
…
Thank Jobs It’s Friday!
by Phil - July 2nd, 2010 8:23 am
Do I know what the jobs data will be at 8:30? Nope.
Then why would I title a post "Thank Jobs It’s Friday!" – what if the report sucks and we go down? Well, at this point, even if that does happen, I think that will be the end of it. We’ve been building up to this "terrible" jobs number all week and we got a rotten ADP Report and a rotten Unemployment Report so everyone is expecting a rotten Non-Farm Payroll report. When everyone expects the same thing, we like to bet against it. Sometimes we’re wrong and sometimes we’re right but you make some amazing money when you are right. The magnitude of the short squeeze that would follow a significantly BTE NFP Report could send up up 300 points or more on the day, likely with a big finish this afternoon and some follow-through on Tuesday as the rest of the world plays catch-up.
A bad report, on the other hand, is already baked into the cake and we have yet to test S&P 1,000 so we can expect support there. It wouldn’t be pleasant, but we should be able to scramble and protect ourselves if we head lower so the smart move is to play for the mega-move higher, and that’s where we are. Of course, it’s also a balance issue. In our last Weekly Wrap-Up, we had the following open trade ideas going into June 21st (we had gotten bearish at the end of the previous week):
- APOL July $40 puts spread at .46, now .60 – up 30%
- BBY Jan $37 puts sold for $4, now $3 – up 25%
- BP July $30/32 bull call spread at $1, now .70 – down 30%
- YRCW at .21, now .15 – down 28%
- BP Oct $33/July $33 ratio backspread (3:5) at net $225, now $524 – up 132%
- TZA July $7 calls .08 (net of spread), now $1.50 – up 1,775%
- SIRI 2012 $1 puts sold at .33, still .33 – even
- USO July $33 puts at .51, now $1.08 – up 131%
- GLL July $37 puts, sold for $1.30, now .35 – up 70%
- TBT July $38 puts sold for $1, now $2.05 – down 105%
- OIH June $104.10 puts at $2.02, now $8.70 – up 330%
- TZA July $6/8 bull call spread for .55, now $1.48 – up 169%
- TZA July $6 puts sold for
…
Testy Tuesday – Bottom Busting or Big Bounce?
by Phil - June 29th, 2010 8:27 am
Wheeee, what a ride!
Finally all our very boring sitting around at 75% cash makes us feel smart as the market makes what we hope is that final blow-off bottom to re-test our lows. I already sent out an Alert to Members this morning so a lot of this is old news to them but nothing has changed since 4:30 so here’s a quick reprise – What we are mainly seeing in the futures this morning is 2 major factors that are driving the markets lower:
1) Japan, where too strong Yen (88.6), -0.1% industrial output, -1.7% exports, rising unemployment (just 5.2%) AND lower houshold spending (-0.7%) numbers sent the Nikkei down 1.25% today to 9,570. If you think about it though, pretty much all of that is a strong Yen issue because it lowers demand for the exports (making them more expensive) and then factories slow down and people get laid off and household spending drops from that PLUS the fact that it’s now cheaper for them to buy imports so they can buy the same stuff at lower prices.
So, overall, nothing people shouldn’t have expected but ugly to read about.
2) China, where the Shanghai fell 4.27% today to 2,427, which is a lot because they are a 10% limit down market on individual stocks so you can bet the selling isn’t done if the AVERAGE was down 4.27%. The Hang Seng was ugly too, falling 2.3% to 20,248. What sent China off a cliff was kind of silly. The Conference Board, which is a NY-based research firm had reported that Chinese economic indicators rose 1.7% in April – something at the time (June 15th) we thought sounded a bit high. Well, funny thing is it turns out the people at the Conference Board must have been high on something because it turns out they made a "calculation error" and the correct number was just 0.3%.
There is a third factor in play and, earlier this morning I thought it was too silly to be considered but, apparently, you can panic retail investors over pretty much anything. On Thursday, there are $547.5Bn worth of bank-loans from last year’s special liquidity program that are due to roll over and there are rumors circulating that the ECB won’t renew the facility at all. The ECB has, in fact, already promised to replace it with rolling 3-month loans at the…
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…
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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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