Bullish Spreads Take Shape In Walgreen Options Ahead Of Earnings
by Option Review - December 15th, 2011 3:02 pm
Today’s tickers: WAG, CS, BMC & NOK
WAG - Walgreen Co. – Less than one week remains before Walgreen’s first-quarter earnings report, and a large options trade initiated on the stock this morning prepares one strategist to potentially enjoy big profits should the drugstore chain’s performance send shares skyward. Walgreen Co.’s shares today are up 1.0% at $33.94 in afternoon trade. It looks like the bullish player established a sizable call spread, buying at least 9,200 calls at the Jan. 2012 $35 strike and selling the same number of calls up at the Jan. 2012 $39 strike, all for a net premium outlay of $1.20 per contract. The investor may profit at expiration day next month as long as WAG’s shares rally another 6.7% to surpass the effective breakeven price of $36.20. Maximum possible profits of $2.80 per contract are available to the trader in the event that Walgreen’s shares soar 14.9% to exceed $39.00 at expiration in January.
CS - Credit Suisse Group – Call options on Credit Suisse are more active than usual today on news the financial services provider plans to merge operations of its investment banking and private banking units to lower costs. Shares in the second-largest Swiss bank rallied as much as 3.85% to $23.45 in the first half of the trading session. Fresh prints in Jan. 2012 contract call options indicate some investors are positioning for Credit Suisse Group’s shares to rise as the New Year gets underway. Traders exchanged more than 11,000 calls at the Jan. 2012 $25 strike against open interest of just 79 contracts. It looks like one trader generated much of the volume, buying 5,200 of the call options for an average premium of $0.90 a-pop. The investor stands prepared to profit should the Swiss bank’s shares surge 10.4% to top $25.90 at expiration next…
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Options Point To Ugly 2011 Finale For JPMorgan
by Option Review - August 22nd, 2011 3:00 pm
Today’s tickers: JPM, BMC, LNCR & PSS
JPM - JPMorgan Chase & Co. – Put butterfly spreads on JPMorgan suggest shares in the banking institution may end the year substantially lower than their current level. The stock fell as much as 2.4% during the first half of the trading session to secure a new 52-week low of $33.54, but some options players appear to be positioning for the stock to drop another 31.0% before the end of 2011. Weekly options covering JPM are also gloomy, with traders selling calls at the August $35, $36 and $37 strikes ahead of expiration and Ben Bernanke’s speech on Friday. Investors dabbling in deep out-of-the-money put options expiring in December may be employing put butterfly spreads to either reduce the cost of taking an outright bearish stance on JPM, or to hedge positions in the underlying shares should the stock continue to slide in the months to come. It looks like investors picked up 4,709 puts at the December $28 strike for a premium of $1.59 each, sold 9,418 puts at the December $23 strike for a premium of $0.82 per contract, and purchased 4,709 puts at the December $18 strike at a premium of $0.44 apiece. The spreads cost an average net premium of $0.39 per contract. Bears buying butterfly spreads stand prepared to profit should JPM’s shares plunge 17.7% to breach the upper breakeven point at $27.61 by December expiration. Maximum potential profits of $4.61 per contract are available on the strategy in the event that JPMorgan’s shares surrender 31.4% of their value to settle at $23.00 at expiration in a few months. Shares in the financial services provider last traded around $23.00 back in March 2009. The stock has already lost roughly 31.0% since reaching its 2011 peak of $48.36 in February.
BMC - BMC Software, Inc. – Software vendor, BMC Software, popped up on our scanners today due to greater-than-usual activity in its put options. Shares in the Houston, TX-based company are up 0.95% to stand…
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Rumor Mill Spurs Feverish Trading in Alcoa Options
by Option Review - May 3rd, 2011 4:09 pm
Today’s tickers: AA, BMC, CECO & XRX
AA - Alcoa, Inc. – Frenzied trading in Alcoa options this morning was driven largely by bullish players piling into calls on the aluminum manufacturer with shares in the name rallying as much as 4.3% to as high as $17.96 in the first half of the session. Rumors that Rio Tinto could make a $25.50 a share bid for the U.S. company spurred speculators to the options market, lifting options implied volatility on the stock 31.2% to 35.53% just before 11:30am. Both Rio Tinto and Alcoa are mum on the subject of takeover talks as of now, but investors are making a lot of noise in options land. Volume in Alcoa’s options has topped 220,000 contracts within the first two hours of trading, with investors heavily favoring call options on the aluminum maker. Traders are exchanging more than 8.4 contracts on Alcoa for each single put option in action this morning. Trading traffic is heaviest in the front month where investors are picking up out-of-the-money calls at every available strike price. May $18 strike calls are most active, followed by the May $20 strike calls. Call volume in the May $20 strike calls is currently pushing 30,000 contracts, which is more than two times the number of calls represented in open interest at that strike. Most of the call options were purchased for an average premium of $0.12 apiece, implying an average breakeven price for buyers at $20.12 through May expiration. Continued speculation regarding a potential takeover, or confirmation of such rumors for that matter, would no doubt send premium on the May $20 strike calls higher still. Optimism spread to the June contract calls where buyers of the options are leading the feeding frenzy. Investors traded more than 15,800 call options at the June $21 strike on nearly nonexistent open interest of 241 contracts. Buyers of these calls paid just $0.10 this morning, but the huge spike in implied volatility in conjunction with the rally…
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Whole Foods Strangled; Enormous Prints in Technology SPDR Put Options
by Option Review - October 7th, 2010 4:40 pm
Today’s tickers: WFMI, XLK, LCC, POT, BMC, TGT & BKE
WFMI - Whole Foods Market, Inc. – Shares of the operator of natural and organic foods supermarkets slipped 2.40% lower this afternoon to $35.31 as of 3:05 pm ET. The stock popped up on our ‘hot by options volume’ market scanner after one strategist initiated a short strangle in the November contract. It looks like the investor responsible for the trade expects shares in Whole Foods remain range-bound through expiration day next month. The trader sold 5,000 puts at the November $33 strike at a premium of $1.00 each, and shed 5,000 calls at the November $38 strike for premium of $0.92 a-pop. Gross premium pocketed by the strangle-seller amounts to $1.92 per contract. The trader keeps the full premium received as long as WFMI’s shares trade within the boundaries of the strike prices described through expiration. Short stances taken in both call and put options expose the investor to losses, however, should the price of the underlying stock fly upward or fall substantially in the next six weeks. The options strategist starts to lose money if shares rally above the upper breakeven price of $39.92, or should shares trade below the lower breakeven point at $31.08, by expiration day in November.
XLK - Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF – A massive debit put spread utilizing a total of 224,000 contracts on the Technology fund went through electronically this afternoon just after 2:00 pm in New York trading. The spread is perhaps the work of one big options market participant positioning for the price of the underlying shares to slide lower ahead of December expiration. Shares of the XLK, an exchange-traded fund designed to provide investment results that correspond to the price and yield performance of the Technology Select Sector of the S&P 500 Index, edged 0.17% lower to $23.14 by 2:50 pm ET. Companies represented in the Technology Select Sector Index are engaged in industries such as information technology, consulting, semiconductor equipment and products, as…
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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.