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Posts Tagged ‘XRX’

Strangle Strategist Tightens Grip on JPMorgan

Today’s tickers: JPM, TIVO, RHT, UTX, CSCO, CI, BA, XRX, DIS, AKS & M

JPM - JPMorgan Chase & Co. – A long strangle enacted on JPMorgan today indicates one investor is expecting the firm to experience a significant shift in the price of its shares by June expiration. The investment banking and financial services giant realized a 1% rally in share price during the current session to $41.94. The investor initiated the strangle strategy by purchasing 9,000 calls at the June $46 strike for a premium of $1.06 apiece and by picking up 9,000 puts at the June $36 strike for $0.96 each. The net cost of the transaction amounts to $2.02 per contract. Strangle-players benefit from drastic moves in share price, but lose out if the value of the stock stagnates. In this specific trade, the investor profits if JPM’s shares rally above the upper breakeven price of $48.02 by expiration, or if shares trade below the lower breakeven point at $33.98, by June expiration. The trader is looking for increased volatility in the price of the underlying shares, but also may benefit from higher options implied volatility. Moves higher in options implied volatility corresponds with greater option premium on both calls and puts. Thus, the investor could potentially sell the strangle at a profit ahead of expiration day if combined premium on the trade exceeds the $2.02 per contract paid today. We note that JPM’s shares have not exceeded $47.47 in the past year, but did trade as low as $14.96 back on March 6, 2009.

TIVO - TiVo, Inc. – Shares of the innovator of digital-video recording services surged as much as 61.30% to an intraday high of $16.42, the highest price recorded for TiVo’s shares in at least five years. TiVo was named the victor today after a U.S. appeals court ruled that Dish Network Corp. and EchoStar Corp. are “still infringing its patent and should stop providing digital-video recording services.” Options traders had a field day with the news and exchanged upwards of 275,300 contracts on the stock by 3:10 pm (ET). Today’s options trading volume on TiVo represents just under 80% of the total existing open interest on the stock of 348,203 contracts. Investors populated the stock with a plethora of trading strategies. Some traders banked profits on the rally, while others employed the use of strangles. Plain-vanilla call buying and put selling by bullish individuals was…
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Fall Down Friday - Stop the Week, We Want To Get Off!

Boy, when sentiment shifts - it REALLY shifts!

Suddenly nothing is good enough for this market.  A beat from GOOG send the stock plummeting, massive earnings at GS sent the stock lower even before Obama read them the riot act (now called the "Volker Rule").  On the one hand, it’s all an overreaction but, on the very large other hand, it’s about freakin’ time this market finally acted normally and pulled back a little because 10,700 was pretty irrational given the underlying fundamentals

On the whole, we’re loving it as we went to cash last week and played bearish into the drop.  Last week I detailed how we had a great time day-trading in both directions and this week we hit it again with our upside DIA play on Wednesday (a 26% winner on the day) and yesterday I sent out a morning Alert to Members at 9:50 saying: "I am for shorting into this morning spike as it’s nonsense, especially this run in the Nas - most likely it will reverse but I’d like to see a clear move back to resistance first.  QQQQ $45 puts give you great leverage at .56 and you can use $46.20 on the Qs as a stop out, looking for .70+ on the day."  We hit .85 by lunch and pulled it just off the day’s high for a nice 51% gain on the day. 

I point this out both to encourage you to subscribe to our Newsletter (all 19,000 subscribers got yesterday’s free Alert) as well as to emphasize that WE DO NOT CARE which way the market goes.  Yes, I am very bearish on the short-term economy as I feel we are overbought and due for a correction but I also think we are probably OK over the longer term and we are taking advantage of these dips to pick up some long positions.  We are opportunistic players and we are investing along the premise I laid out in my 2010 outlook, which was titled "A Tale of Two Economies" as we see a great divide forming between the top 10% and the companies that service them and the bottom 90% of our population who are in dire straights, as are the companies that rely on selling to the masses to make a living.  

For an example of "Rich Company/Poor Company" just look at the earnings of two ends of the Financial Services sector:  Goldman Sach beat earnings expectations yesterday by 60% ($8.20 vs. $5.20) while…
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Mixed Sentiment on BAC Pits Bulls Against Bears

Today’s tickers: BAC, XRX, XLF, CAR, XLU, BIG, SLM, TTWO, MRVL & TSN

BAC - Bank of America Corp. – Investors employed two contradictory option strategies in the February contract on Bank of America today. One trader initiated a large bearish risk reversal while the other put on a bullish call spread. BAC’s shares rallied 3.5% this afternoon to $16.30. The pessimistic investor appears to have sold 30,000 in-the-money call options at the February 15 strike for 1.74 apiece in order to purchase 30,000 puts at the same strike for 84 cents each. The reversal results in a net credit of 90 cents per contract to the trader. Perhaps this individual expects shares to decline beneath the $15-level by expiration so he may retain the full 90 cent credit on the trade. Bullish trading in the same February 2010 contract suggests shares are set to rally higher in the next few months. An optimistic investor purchased 10,000 calls at the February 17 strike for 89 cents each, and sold the same number of calls at the higher February 19 strike for 34 cents apiece. The net cost of the spread amounts to 55 cents per contract. Maximum potential profits of 1.45 are available to the investor if shares increase more than 16.5% from the current price to a new 52-week high of $19.00 by expiration in February.

XRX - Xerox Corp. – One investor utilized the risk reversal strategy in order to take a long-term bullish stance on Xerox. Shares moved 1% higher this afternoon to $7.85. It looks like the trader sold 20,000 puts at the January 2011 7.5 strike for a premium of 1.15 each to partially finance the purchase of 20,000 calls at the same strike for 1.60 apiece. The net cost of the reversal amounts to 45 cents per contract. The investor profits if shares surpass the breakeven price of $7.95 within the next 12 months to expiration.

XLF - Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF – Shares of the XLF rallied 0.75% in afternoon trading to stand at $14.46. Bullish options activity on the fund suggests shares are likely to appreciate within the next several months. Optimistic investors purchased 69,000 in-the-money call options at the March 14 strike for an average premium of 1.36 per contract. XLF shares must rise 6% from the current price before profits accumulate above the breakeven point at $15.35. Shares last traded above $15.35 back on October…
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More on this topic (What's this?) Read more on Bank of America at Wikinvest

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Carter’s Earnings Cancel Sends Implied Options Volatility Skywards

Today’s tickers: CRI, RDC, XL, VIX, XHB, XRX, EFA, WYNN, BIDU & XHB

CRI - Carter’s Inc. – The more than 20,500 option contracts exchanged thus far today on the children’s apparel company trumps existing open interest of just 3,342 lots by a factor of 6. Shares of Carter’s are suffering significant erosion after the firm announced plans to delay its third-quarter earnings release, originally scheduled for this evening, perhaps until November 12, 2009. News of the postponement sent shares tumbling 25.5% lower to $21.16. Investor uncertainty jumped through the roof as evidenced by the massive 66% rise in option implied volatility this morning to an intraday high of 90%. Bullish investors took advantage of today’s declines by trading near-term call options. One trader put on a ratio call spread by purchasing 1,000 calls at the in-the-money November 20 strike for 2.30 apiece, and by selling 2,000 calls at the higher November 25 strike for 55 pennies each. The net cost of buying the calls is reduced to 1.20 per contract. The effective breakeven price of $21.20 on the transaction allows the investor to profit by expiration in November if shares of CRI rise at least 4 cents. Maximum potential profits of 3.80 per contract are available if the stock recovers up to $25.00. Losses would begin to accumulate if any rally lifted the share price above $28.80.

RDC - Rowan Companies, Inc. – Option traders scooped up put options on the provider of contract drilling services while shares slumped 2.75% to $24.90. The January 2010 22.5 strike had at least 1,400 puts purchased for an average premium of 1.16 apiece. The now in-the-money January 25 strike attracted traders who picked up 1,300 puts for about 2.15 each. Bearish sentiment spread to the April contract where another 2,000 puts were coveted at the April 22.5 strike for 2.02 a-pop. Finally, the most action took place at the in-the-money April 25 strike where 9,800 puts were purchased for an average of 3.18 each. Perhaps put-buying investors are aiming to protect the value of long positions in the underlying. Otherwise, traders placing bearish bets on RDC hope to accumulate profits on further share price weakness over the next several months.

XL - XL Capital Ltd. – Bullish investors took aim at XL Capital put options in the January contract this afternoon. Shares of XL are slightly higher by less than 0.25% to stand at the current price of…
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Werner Enterprises Sees Bearish Activity

Today’s tickers: WERN, MDVN, GT, XRX, SLE, AMGN, ESI, EBAY, FFIV & SLE

WERN - Werner Enterprises, Inc. – The truckload freight services firm edged onto our ‘hot by options volume’ market scanner due to bearish trading in the June contract. Shares of WERN slipped 0.5% lower this afternoon to $20.22. One investor initiated a ratio put spread by purchasing 6,000 put options at the June 20 strike for 2.25 apiece, and by simultaneously selling 12,000 puts at the lower June 17.5 strike for 1.10 each. The net cost of the trade is reduced to just one nickel per contract. The trader is probably aiming to protect the value of a long position in shares of WERN through expiration. Downside protection will kick in if shares decline more than 27 cents from the current price given the effective breakeven point on the trade at $19.95.

MDVN - Medivation, Inc. – Long-term bearish activity in the June 2010 contract suggests one investor may be bulking up on downside protection in case shares of biopharmaceutical company, Medivation, Inc., continue to decline. The stock is currently trading less than 0.5% lower to stand at $26.51. A put spread was established through the purchase of 10,000 puts at the June 22.5 strike for 7.80 apiece, marked against the sale of 10,000 puts at the lower June 12.5 strike for 1.87 each. The net cost of the pessimistic play amounts to 5.93 per contract. The spread was most likely initiated by an investor holding a long position in the underlying shares. Putting on the protective stance shields the investor from losses beneath the breakeven point at $16.57. However, if the trader is in fact long the stock, he will suffer a 38% decline in the value of MDVN before downside protection kicks in at the breakeven price described. An alternate scenario is that the investor does not hold a long position in MDVN. If this is the case, the trader is uber-bearish and expects to garner profits from significant declines in Medivation through expiration in June.

GT - The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. – Option traders populated the November contract on GT with bullish plays this afternoon. Shares added more than 2.5% during the session to arrive at the current price of $17.83. Some investors targeted the now in-the-money November 17.5 strike to purchase 3,800 calls for an average premium of one dollar apiece. Other traders looked to the higher…
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Chunky Put Play Hits Natural Gas ETF

Today’s tickers: UNG, QCOM, PXP, XRX, ALL, AMAT, MU & CMCSA

UNG - Shares of the natural gas exchange-traded fund are currently off by more than 1% to $11.80. One investor has picked up some serious downside protection on the fund today by purchasing a large chunk of put options in the April 2010 contract. We believe the trader is likely holding a long stock position in the UNG. It appears the trader purchased 31,000 puts at the April 9.0 strike for a premium of 75 cents per contract. The net cost of the put options amounts to $2,325,000. Shares of UNG would need to decline 30% from the current price before downside protection kicks in beneath the breakeven point at $8.25. Perhaps the put buyer expects the fund to reach a new 52-week low by expiration in April. The current 52-week low of $8.94 was attained on September 3, 2009. We note that it is always possible the trader is essentially shorting the stock and placing a large bearish bet on the ETF in order to profit from downward movement in the share price. – United States Natural Gas ETF –

QCOM - A tech-sector rally fueled by an analyst upgrade of Cisco Systems (CSCO) this morning helped boost shares of QCOM 2.5% during the trading session to $45.82. The manufacturer of wireless network products attracted optimistic option traders to the November contract. We observed plain-vanilla put selling at the November 42 strike where it appears 5,000 lots were sold short for an average premium of 92 cents apiece. Investors shorting the contracts will retain the full 92 cent premium as long as shares of QCOM remain higher than $42.00 through expiration. But, if the November 42 strike puts land in-the-money, investors short the contracts will have shares of the underlying put to them at $42.00 each. Finally, a sold strangle was initiated through the sale of 1,200 puts at the November 43 strike for 1.07 apiece, in combination with the sale of 1,200 calls at the higher November 50 strike for 81 pennies each. Investors ‘strangling’ QCOM receive a gross premium of 1.88. The full premium is retained by these individuals as long as the stock trades within the confines of the strike prices described through expiration in November. Traders face losses in the event that shares swing 13% higher to surpass the upper breakeven point at $51.88, or if shares decline…
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Bulls Head For Developed Markets ETF

Today’s tickers: EFA, HAL, VIAB, IR, EXPD, GE, CCL, V, & XRX

EFA – The exchange-traded fund representing stocks from Europe, Australasia, and the Far East attracted more than passing glances by bullish option traders today. The fund is currently higher by 1.5% to stand at $44.75. One optimistic individual appears to have sold 10,000 calls at the near-term July 46 strike price for 12 cents apiece in order to purchase 10,000 calls at the August 48 strike for 40 cents each. Rolling up to a higher strike cost the investor a net 28 cents per contract. Shares of EFA must rally through the breakeven point at $48.28 before the trader can reel in profits on the transaction. Bullish sentiment spread to the September contract where it appears that one trader initiated a covered call. The investor looks to have bought shares of the fund and concurrently shed 2,000 calls at the September 49 strike price for 58 cents per contract. The premium received for writing the calls reduced the price of getting long the stock to about $44.09 (assuming shares were trading at $44.67 at the time of execution). The short call position provides an effective exit strategy for the investor who will have shares of the fund called away from him in the event that the September 49 calls land in-the-money by expiration. Should this occur, the trader will have enjoyed gains of 11% on the rise in the price of the ETF. – iShares MSCI EAFE Index ETF

HAL – The oil and gas company jumped onto our ‘most active by options volume’ market scanner after a large chunk of puts were purchased in the January 2010 contract. Shares of the Houston, Texas-based firm are higher by 2% today to $19.29. Approximately 35,000 in-the-money put options were scooped up at the January 22 strike price for an average premium of 4.45 apiece. Perhaps the investor responsible for the transaction is long the stock and is looking to protect his position from potential downward movement in HAL through expiration in January. In this case the trader is hoping for the value of the stock to appreciate and would be considered bullish. On the other hand, the transaction could represent bearish speculation by an investor aiming to amass profits beneath the breakeven point to the downside at $17.55 by the start of 2010. – Halliburton Company

VIA B – The global entertainment content company has enjoyed…
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Zero Hedge

Everything You Need to Know About Dodd's Financial Reform Bill: "This Legislation Will Not Stop the Next Crisis from Coming"

Courtesy of George Washington

Instead of going into a lengthy analysis about the pros and cons of Chris Dodd's financial reform bill, I'll let the Senator speak for himself:

This legislation will not stop the next crisis from coming. No legislation can...

What Dodd is really saying is that there's no use in doing any of the things which all of the top independent economists and financial experts say need to be done to stabilize the economy. See this, this and this.

Poor old Wall Street has to become a more from Tyler

Chart School

CONSTRUCTIVE PULLBACK COULD CREATE BUYING OPPORTUNITIES

CONSTRUCTIVE PULLBACK COULD CREATE BUYING OPPORTUNITIES

Courtesy of David Grandey at All About Trends

The S&P 500 hit resistance at 1150 last week and is now pulling back.  It's all about the trend channels at this point.

Bottom line this overbought condition when viewing the 60 minute charts gets worked off by either going sideways or a pullback to trend channel support.

See the S&P 500 during January? It went sideways range bound. Don't rule that out over the next week or so. 

Well as you can see we are starting to work our way towards the trend channel support line. We'll either do that sideways till we catch it or down to it. Thus far the action seems corrective vs. impulsive.  Market Leaders 

Some MAY be topping right here. It doesn't take a rocket s...

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Trading Goddess

How Have the High Priced Shares Performed?

Back 0n August 21, 2008, we published an article called Top High Priced Share Stocks, which listed all the stocks trading in excess of $100 a share, that had P/E ratios less than 20, PEG ratios less than 1, market caps above $15 billion, and all but one paid a dividend. Remember, this is just before the market took its big dump.

Surprisingly, an interesting correlation turned up. The higher the higher priced shares, the better the return, and the shares that traded close to the $100 breakpoint did the worse. All the stocks that traded under $135 per share were down, and the others were up.

Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) the large investment banking firm, had the highest priced shares on the list at about $154 per share. It is now trading at $175, an increase of 14%.

CNOOC Limited (CEO) is the explorer and producer of crude oil and natural gas off the coast of China ...

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The Options Report

By Andrew Wilkinson


Fortune Brands’ Shares Trade at New 52-Week High, Bullish Players Covet Call Options

Today’s tickers: FO, STJ, XLB, BSX, BIDU, VRSN & MNKD

FO - Fortune Brands, Inc. – Shares of the holding company with subsidiaries such as Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc., which manufactures Jim Beam whiskey and Maker’s Mark, and Acushnet Company, the producer of Titleist golf products, rallied 2.35% during the session to reach a new 52-week high of $48.45. The increase in Fortune’s share price inspired bullish options trading on the stock today. Approximately 1,000 calls were picked up at the April $50 strike for an average premium of $0.66 apiece. But, the real action took place at the June $50 strike where nearly 15,500 calls were purchased for an average premium of $1.68 per contract. Investors holding the June $50 strike call options stand ready to amass profits only if Fortune Brands’ shares rall...



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Insider Zone


Insiders: March to Exit

By Ilene

Let's take a look at Insider Buying and Selling over the last week or so. These are screen shots from Finviz - the significant buys against a green background first and significant sells against the pink background second.  All the buys fit into my screen shot but the sells did not.  Click here to see all the sells.  

Note that the largest buy in the group, for KITD was at a price of 9.73 (KITD is currently at 11.54). The buy was part of an Equity Offering rather than an open market purchase. Tuzman Kaleil Isaza's (KITD's Chairman and Chief Exec. Officer) history of buys is http://www.insidercow.com/ more from Insider

OpTrader


Swing trading portfolio - week of March 15th 2010

This post is for live trades and daily comments. 

To learn more about the swing trading portfolio (strategy, membership etc.), please click here

- Optrader

...

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