Bears Augment Put Positions On Consumer Discretionary ETF
by Option Review - September 2nd, 2011 2:41 pm
Today’s tickers: XLY, REGN, WM & CMC
XLY - Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund – Bears are hoarding put options on the Consumer Discretionary SPDR Fund following the release of dismal employment figures ahead of the open this morning. We noted growing interest in XLY puts on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, which suggested traders were hungry for varying degrees of protective or bearish positions on the sector. Shares in the XLY, an exchange-traded fund that tracks the performance of the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector of the S&P 500 Index, are down 1.9% in early-afternoon trade to stand at $36.42. The fund’s shares have fallen roughly 13.0% since hitting a 52-week high of $41.78 in the first full trading week of July. The sizable positions initiated in XLY puts earlier in the week, pale in comparison to the large bearish prints in the options today. It looks like one or more investors purchased some 34,750 puts at the October $30 strike for an average premium of $0.41 apiece. Put buyers profit if shares in the XLY plunge 18.75% from the current price of $36.42 to breach the average breakeven point on the downside at $29.59 by expiration day next month. Much of the 17,564 puts represented in open interest at the October $30 strike were purchased Tuesday for an average premium of $0.36 each. Traders long the put options may see the value of their positions appreciate if the price of the underlying fund continues to push lower in the next seven weeks to October expiration day.
REGN - Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. – Demand for Regeneron calls jumped after the New York Times reported five more patients using Roche’s cancer drug Avastin to treat eye diseases were blinded. Shares in the biotechnology company Regeneron, which is seeking FDA approval…
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DiggImax Surges on Sony Buyout Talk
by Option Review - December 31st, 2010 4:16 pm
Today’s tickers: IMAX, HIG, VRGY, TOL & WM
IMAX - Imax Corp. – Earlier today you’d have needed more than just 3D-glasses to see the trail left behind by a near 20% surge in shares of the movie-theater corporation. Rumors have emerged that Japan’s Sony Corporation is set to make a $40-plus bid for the company enamored by its growing popularity amongst movie theater-goers. With more films built using 3D-technology shares in the company had already tripled this year in anticipation of growing revenues. Earlier in the week we witnessed what appeared to be a delta-neutral strategy that would have benefitted perfectly from the surging share price, which has subsequently halved its intraday gain. An investor sold stock at around $25.00 and bought call options at the $30 strike expiring in March. As the shares jump in value, the delta on the option swells to give the investor a far-greater long exposure to the stock hugely eclipsing losses from the short position. But is looks like this trader is sitting pretty today as developments unfold and there is no action at that strike price. Rather investors appear to be more concerned with an imminent Sony bid and have targeted the January expiration $35 strike, which has traded in a range spanning 40-cents to $1.10 per contract as the share price digests today’s news. Trading currently at 60-cents the contract would make money by expiration only if shares in Imax surged by more than 18.6% based upon a share price at $30.00.
HIG - Hartford Financial Services Group. – Earlier in the month it appears that an options trader took to a bullish call strategy on the multi-line insurer. December 8 was a high volume day for the stock but also saw around 7,500 calls expiring in January 2011 trade at a 55-cent premium. The strike price of $27.50 was above the closing share price that day by exactly 10%. Just nine days ago the share price hit home lifting the premium to 90-cents. Since then and…
Bears Binge on Put Options as Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. Shares Nosedive
by Option Review - June 8th, 2010 4:21 pm
Today’s tickers: DO, GAP, RIG, WMS, IMA, BAX, IGT, CAT, CCJ, CVS & WM
DO – Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. – Shares of the world’s largest U.S. deep-water oil driller fell as much as 7.6% to an intraday low and new 52-week low of $54.70 after businessinsider.com reported the firm’s Ocean Saratoga rig is leaking crude into the Gulf of Mexico. Goldman Sachs’ ratings cut of Diamond Offshore shares to ‘sell’ from ‘neutral’, as well as a downgrade to ‘underperform’ from ‘market perform’ with a 12-month target share price of $54.00 at FBR Capital Markets, also helped drive the stock lower today. Bearish options investors populated the stock with pessimistic plays, buying near-term put options and selling calls in the June contract. Traders expecting Diamond’s shares to continue to decline purchased 1,200 now in-the-money puts at the June $58.63 strike for an average premium of $4.07 apiece. Investors holding these contracts profit if shares trade beneath the average breakeven price of $54.56 by June expiration. Buying interest spread to the lower June $54.88 strike where 1,100 puts were picked up for an average premium of $2.26 each. Another 1,100 puts were purchased at the June $53.63 strike for a premium of $1.82 per contract. Finally, uber-bearish players coveted 1,600 put options at the lower June $49.88 strike by paying an average premium of $0.92 apiece. Shares of the underlying stock must plunge 10.5% from the current intraday low of $54.70 before June $49.88 strike put buyers start to garner profits beneath the average breakeven price of $48.96. Investors not expecting Diamond’s shares to rally ahead of June expiration sold short 1,300 calls at the June $61.75 strike to pocket an average premium of $0.61 per contract. The premium is safe in call-sellers’ wallets as long as shares of the underlying stock trade below $61.75 through expiration day. Options implied volatility on Diamond Offshore Drilling is up 15.1% to 59.94% as of 3:10 pm (ET). Earlier implied volatility surged roughly 18% to 61.42%, DO’s highest reading of volatility in at least one year.
GAP – Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., Inc. – Investors bought put options on the operator of conventional supermarkets, combination food and drug stores and discount food stores today with shares of the underlying stock trading lower by 4.45% to stand at $4.08 as of 2:38 pm (ET). Pessimistic traders expecting GAP’s shares to continue to decline…
Stock Market Crash – Year One in Review – The Gathering Storm
by Phil - September 7th, 2009 7:13 am
Happy anniversary market crash!
One year ago, in September, the market started falling in earnest. A lot of people were caught by surprise by that drop as many thought we had just had a major correction and the worst was over. We had bounced off 10,800 on July 14th and had made it all the way back to touch 12,000 on August 14th but that day I warned my members in the morning post:
We’re really through the looking glass when you see investors stampede right back into oil and other commodity stocks at the first sign of a bounce off a 20% drop. I guess they’ve never seen a pullback off 20% before so it makes sense that Cramer would hit the BUYBUYBUY button on anything that smells like crude. I wish I had access to the tapes of all these same idiots telling you to BUYBUYBUY housing stocks and mortgage companies when they made their first bounce on the way to 80% losses.
It’s not just oil that is expensive, now it has to compete for consumer dollars with food and airline fares and tobacco prices and consumer goods etc. Oil was able to bubble up because people were enjoying a robust economy and it was the ONLY thing that was rising out of control. Metals began to follow it as that didn’t affect the average person but then companies had to start passing on the increased costs and the banks stopped lending money and the consumers were forced to stop using their home’s equity (if there was any left) like a piggy bank and *poof,* suddenly there isn’t enough money for oil. This isn’t going to change because there’ s a hurricane or a shut down pipeline or anything else.
Oil was trading at a still ridiculous $115 a barrel that day, down from $147 on July 1st but still choking the life out of the economy. We were very bearish on oil and natural gas ($14 at the time) as the fundamentals simply didn’t support the price of oil at $115 as much as they didn’t support $147 a month earlier. I had gone negative on oil too early though, as we thought $120 was surely the top back in May. Sometimes fundamentals can get you too ahead of the market. Our man Ben was between a rock and a hard place as he HAD to do something to…
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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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