Rumor Mill Drives Heavy Action In Valero Options
by Option Review - October 26th, 2011 1:42 pm
Today’s tickers: VLO, EBAY, TMO & TRGT
VLO - Valero Energy Corp. – Reports of takeover chatter fueled frenzied trading in Valero Energy Corp. options, with volume in VLO topping 83,000 contracts by 12:05 pm in New York. Shares in the producer of gasoline, jet fuel and other refined products surged 11.1% to $24.28 in early-afternoon trade. Call options are changing hands at a rate of more than three contracts to each single put option in play on the stock. November and December contracts are the most heavily trafficked thus far in the session, although options plays are present in each available expiry. While trading in Nov. and Dec. calls is mixed, there does appear to be a bullish bias to the transactions. Investors snapped up calls at the Nov. $24, $25, $26 and $27 strikes to position for continued bullish movement in the price of the underlying through expiration next month. The Nov. $25 strike call has generated the most volume, with more than 3,500 contracts having changed hands so far today. It appears buyers of the Nov. $25 strike call picked up more than 1,800 lots for an average premium of $0.99 each. Traders long the contracts may profit at expiration day if shares in VLO rally another 4.7% to surpass the average breakeven price of $25.99. Investors hoping to see sharp gains in the stock over the next few weeks purchased around 515 calls up at the Nov. $31 strike for an average premium of $0.09 each. Premium paid to get long the calls may be lost and gone forever in the event that shares are trading below those levels come expiration day in a few weeks time. Valero Energy Corp. is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings before the opening bell on November 1.
EBAY - eBay, Inc. – Bearish activity in eBay, Inc. options this morning suggests one strategist may profit if shares in the provider of online marketplaces and secure payment services decline substantially within the next four weeks. Meanwhile, trading traffic in November contract call options may be the work of an investor throwing in the towel on hopes for a sharp near-term rally in the price of the underlying. Shares in EBAY slipped 2.75% to $30.80 by 11:30 am in New York. Volume in eBay’s options is heaviest at the Nov. $29 strike, where it appears one trader purchased around 6,000 puts for an average premium of…
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DiggWells Fargo Weekly Puts In Play As Financials Retreat
by Option Review - October 13th, 2011 1:53 pm
Today’s tickers: WFC, EQIX & TMO
WFC - Wells Fargo & Co. – Highly anticipated third-quarter earnings released from JPMorgan this morning knocked financials off what had started to look like a possible road to recovery. Shares in Wells Fargo, set to reveal its own performance for the third quarter ahead of the opening bell on Monday, fell 4.3% to $25.80 by 12:20 pm EDT. Put buyers burst onto the scene straight out of the gate on Thursday. Investors chomping at the bit for downside protection are snapping up puts that could have been purchased yesterday for a fraction of the present cost. Bearish action in the weeklys is heaviest at the Oct. ’14 $26 strike, where more than 12,000 now in-the-money puts changed hands against open interest of 3,465 contracts. It looks like more than 8,000 of the puts were purchased for an average premium of $0.39 a-pop by midday on Wall St. The premium required to buy the puts at the tail-end of Wednesday’s session ranged between $0.12 and $0.15 per contract. Investors are trading more than two put options on Wells Fargo this afternoon for each single call option in action on the stock today. Options implied volatility on WFC, which had come off earlier in the week, currently stands 9.7% higher on the day at 49.3%.
EQIX - Equinix, Inc. – Fresh prints in Equinix call options suggest one strategist is positioned for the price of the underlying to realize substantial, albeit limited, gains through expiration day in November. The ratio call spread initiated on the provider of network neutral data center services may be a bullish bet on the stock ahead of the company’s third-quarter earnings report on October 26. Shares in Equinix currently trade 0.75% lower on the day at $94.16. It looks like the…
Big Payday for Pre-Earnings Put Buyer on RIMM
by Option Review - June 17th, 2011 8:00 pm
Today’s tickers: RIMM, TMO, CNO & PIP
RIMM - Research In Motion Ltd. – Ouch. Shares in the BlackBerry maker plunged 23.35% today to an intraday- and four-year low of $27.08 following the release of worse-than-anticipated first-quarter earnings on Thursday after the close. Ongoing concerns regarding RIMM’s ability to stay competitive in the smartphone market coupled with the company’s second revision lower to earnings estimates for the full year were reason enough for investors to punish the stock. Options volume on Research In Motion is greater than 565,000 contracts as of 1:05pm in New York. Puts are trading roughly 1.75 times to each single call option in play this afternoon. Trading traffic is heaviest in June contract options expiring today, while weekly options expiring next Friday generated interest, as well. Nearer-term contracts are certainly the most popular today, but traders are also generating substantial volume in longer-dated options. The largest single print in options on the stock thus far in the session appears to be the work of one strategist profiting from RIMM’s pain. It looks like the investor purchased roughly 30,000 puts at the January 2012 $35 strike for a premium of $4.80 on Wednesday. The nose-dive in the price of the underlying stock sent premium on those puts flying, and it appears the trader sold the position for $7.80 a-pop within the first 25 minutes of the opening bell this morning. In roughly 48 hours, the put buyer has banked net profits of $3.00 per contract on the position, or total gains of approximately $9 million. Next, it looks like the investor extended bearish sentiment on the stock by purchasing another chunk of around 30,000 puts at the lower January 2012 $30 strike for a premium of $4.76 each. The fresh lot of puts position the trader to profit should shares in RIMM trade beneath the effective breakeven price of $25.24 at expiration next year. Of course, the put buyer need not wait until expiration to take profits on position if…
2010 Outlook – A Tale of Two Economies
by Phil - December 27th, 2009 6:54 am
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." – Charles Dickens, 1859
Dickens famous novel (which was originally written as a weekly series in 31 installments) depicts life in the time of the French revolution but was also a parable, meant to warn the British aristocracy that they should not ingore the parallels to the social inequities that existed at the time in England. Dickens warned the nobles that the seeds of revolution were planted through unjust acts and surely there would be a time of reaping yet to come.
It is said that the French Revolution was sparked by outrage over a statement by the Queen Mary Antoinette who, when told that the peasants had no bread to eat, supposedly replied (she never actually said this) "Qu’ils mangent de la brioche" or "Then let them eat cake." It’s hard for us to imagine the impact of this statement in modern times but "peasants" were 90% of the population at the time and bread was 90% of what they ate, consuming 50% of the average family’s income (people weren’t silly enough to pay for housing back then – they just found a bit of land, bought some wood and nails and built their own homes). Brioche was a luxury combination of bread enriched with flour and butter so the statement "Qu’ils mangent de la brioche" implies both lack of caring and cluelessness on the part of the Queen.
The United States had what passes for a revolution between 2006 and 2008 as we threw out the Republicans and went with a Democrat-controlled government. While the Bush administration, the Republican Congress and Fox News may have been as clueless as a French Queen to the plight of the people – the fact of the matter is that the base pay…
Hi-Ho Long-Term Silver Bulls!
by Option Review - November 18th, 2009 4:15 pm
Today’s tickers: SLV, EWT, CL, BG, ILMN, COH, TMO, SPG, BG, ADSK & SLM
SLV – iShares Silver Trust ETF – A bull call spread in the January 2011 contract on the silver ETF today suggests shares of the SLV may rally significantly over the next year and two months time. Shares of the SLV are currently up 0.5% to $18.23. The silver-bull purchased a ratio call spread by buying 3,000 calls at the January 23 strike for an average premium of 1.93 apiece, and selling 6,000 calls at the higher January 30 strike for about 90 cents each. The net cost of the transaction is reduced to just 13 cents per contract. Shares of the fund must rally at least 27% before the investor breaks even at a price of $23.13. The trader stands ready to accumulate maximum potential profits of 6.87 per contract if the stock surges up to $30.00 by January 2011.
EWT – iShares MSCI Taiwan Index ETF – A massive bearish play on the Taiwan Index exchange-traded fund caught our attention this afternoon with shares of the EWT down 0.5% to $12.64 in late-day trading. It appears one investor established a bearish risk reversal in the December contract to position for potential share price declines through expiration. The trader sold 31,000 calls at the December 13 strike for 20 cents premium apiece, spread against the purchase of 31,000 puts at the lower December 12 strike for 20 cents each. The sale of the calls exactly offset the cost of buying the puts. Essentially the reversal is a “free” bet that shares of the EWT will trend lower ahead of the 2010. The investor responsible for the transaction is likely long shares of the underlying fund and seeking protection to the downside. If shares fall beneath $12.00, the value of the underlying position is protected. However, if shares of the fund rally by expiration, the trader risks having shares of the stock called from him at $13.00 apiece.
CL – Colgate-Palmolive Co. – Speculation that Reckitt Benckiser Group may acquire Colgate-Palmolive spurred an all-out call option feeding frenzy on CL today and lifted shares of the U.S. company to a new 52-week high of $86.33. Investors flooded the November and December contracts, scooping up call options to position for further upward movement in the price of the underlying. The sudden surge in demand for Colgate-Palmolive options…
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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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coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site
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