Options Traders Bombard Research in Motion Ltd.
by Option Review - October 26th, 2010 4:04 pm
Today’s tickers: RIMM, CAH, AVNR, HRBN, ANF & ADBE
RIMM - Research in Motion Ltd. – Investors are crowding the options arena on the Blackberry maker today with shares in Research in Motion rising as much as 9.5% earlier this afternoon to an intraday high of $56.62. The price of the underlying stock climbed the most in more than 10 months after an analyst remarked that the company’s Playbook tablet computer could give rival Apple Inc.’s iPad a run for its money. Shares are currently up 6.2% to stand at $54.94 with 45 minutes remaining before the final bell. November contract call options are by far the most active. Volume generated in near-term out-of-the-money calls today trumps previously existing open interest levels in all cases. Investors are buying more of those OTM calls than selling, but we will have to wait to see how open interest levels shift tomorrow to determine what portion of today’s activity represents intraday moves as compared to positions held by investors overnight. Bullish traders are also selling put options at the November $52.5 and $55 strikes, which suggests they expect shares to stay afloat, at least through expiration next month. Optimistic options players also made their mark in longer-dated contracts. Some investors initiated bull call spreads, buying approximately 2,000 calls at the December $65 strike for an average premium of $0.79 each, and selling about the same number of calls at the higher December $75 strike for an average premium of $0.21 apiece. Call spreaders are poised to profit should RIMM’s shares jump 15.8% over today’s high of $56.62 and trade above the average breakeven price of $65.58 by December expiration. Maximum potential profits of $9.42 per contract are attainable if the Blackberry producer’s shares rally 32.5% in the next couple of months to trade above $75.00 by expiration day. The Canada-based firm’s shares last traded above $75.00 back in March of 2010. Investors exchanged more than 296,000 option contracts on Research in Motion before 3:30 p.m. in…
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Trading in Electronic Arts’ Calls Accelerates Ahead of Earnings
by Option Review - May 11th, 2010 4:12 pm
Today’s tickers: ERTS, USO, ARMH, BK, JPM, GG, XRT, DF, CAH & PCLN
ERTS – Electronic Arts, Inc. – Call activity on the video game publisher is booming in late afternoon trading ahead of Electronic Arts’ fourth-quarter earnings announcement. Shares of the underlying stock are up 3.3% at $18.85 with 40 minutes remaining in the session. Analysts, on average, anticipate earnings of $0.05 per share on revenue of $835.4 million. Bullish options investors are scrambling to position for Electronic Arts’ share price to rally sharply should the firm’s earnings report beat average expectations. The majority of the call activity on the stock today is centered in the June contract where trading patterns look to be mimicking the parameters of a plain-vanilla debit call spread strategy. Approximately 15,000 calls were likely purchased for an average premium of $0.94 apiece at the June $20 strike. Meanwhile, traders sold about 15,000 calls at the higher June $22 strike for an average premium of $0.36 each. Investors employing this strategy reduce the net cost of buying the closer-to-the-money call options at the June $20 strike price to an average of $0.58 per contract. Maximum potential profits available to pseudo-call spreading traders amounts to $1.42 per contract should shares of the underlying stock surge 16.7% to surpass the $22.00-level by June expiration. Options implied volatility is up 6.9% to 57.12% ahead of the earnings announcement.
USO – United States Oil Fund LP – Shares of the U.S. Oil Fund are currently trading 1.25% lower on the day at $36.77. The USO’s share price of $36.77 is 12.2% below the May high of $41.90 attained back on May 3, 2010. One options investor is positioning for continued bearish movement in the price of the underlying fund through June expiration. The trader purchased a debit put spread, buying 3,000 lots at the June $36 strike for an average premium of $1.27 each, and selling the same number of contracts at the lower June $33 strike for $0.47 apiece. Net premium paid for the pessimistic play amounts to $0.80 per contract. The trader starts to make money if USO shares slip beneath the effective breakeven price of $35.20 by expiration day. Maximum potential profits of $2.20 per contract accumulate for the put-spreader if shares slump 10.25% beneath the current value to breach the $33.00-level by June expiration.
ARMH – ARM Holdings PLC – Optimistic options players initiated debit…
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Natural Gas Options Trader Enacts Bullish Risk Reversal
by Option Review - February 16th, 2010 4:32 pm
Today’s tickers: UNG, IP, EEM, CAH, TRA, UAUA, USO, WFMI, BRK.B & ANF
UNG – United States Natural Gas ETF – Shares of the natural gas exchange-traded fund, which mirrors the price and performance of natural gas, are down 1.85% to $9.67 with just under one hour remaining in the trading session. Options traders initiated bullish plays in the March contract despite the dip lower in the price of the underlying shares. It looks like one investor initiated a bullish risk reversal to position for a rebound in the price per UNG share by March expiration. The trader sold 8,250 in-the-money puts at the March $10 strike for a premium of $0.64 each in order to offset the cost of buying 8,250 calls at the same strike for $0.40 apiece. The trader pockets a net credit of $0.24 per contract on the reversal, which he keeps if shares of the fund trade above $10.00 by expiration day. Additional profits are available to the upside if and when the price per share exceeds $10.00 apiece.
IP – International Paper Co. – Global paper and packaging firm, International Paper Company, enticed bullish options traders to initiate optimistic positions in the March contract as shares of the underlying stock jumped 6% in late afternoon trading to $23.92. Plain-vanilla call buying took place at the March $25 strike where upwards of 10,000 contracts were purchased for an average premium of $0.45 apiece. Call buyers stand ready to accrue profits should IP’s shares rally another 6.40% over the current value of the stock to surpass the effective breakeven point on the calls at $25.45 by March expiration.
EEM – iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index ETF – Shares of the emerging markets exchange-traded fund, which generally corresponds to the price of the MSCI Emerging Markets index that was created by MSCI as a benchmark for international stock performance, rallied 2.30% to $39.32 this afternoon. June contract options activity on the EEM suggests shares may stagnate near the current price through expiration in four months. It looks like options traders sold straddles in order to pocket premium on the sale of both calls and puts. Investors sold approximately 9,100 calls at the June $39 strike for an average premium of $2.95 apiece and sold 9,100 puts at the same strike for a premium of $2.65 each. Gross premium enjoyed by straddle-sellers amounts to $5.60 per contract. Investors…
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Weekly Wrap-Up – The Return of Fundamentals?
by phil - September 27th, 2009 8:23 am
Fundamentals don't matter, until they do – then they matter a lot…
We had a fantastic week because we stuck to the fundamentals and stayed short – even though it was a very painful path to follow. In last week's wrap-up, facing the never-ending market climb on low volume I had said "I am trying to get bullish, really I am," and I was trying to find bullish plays for members - but we still ended up bearish for the week with a lot of bearish plays being added and thank goodness as it gave us a fantastic week this week!
Just following the plays I mentioned in last week's wrap-up would have been great as we had SKF bullish at $21 (now $26), DIA bearish at $98 (now $96.74), FAZ bullish at $16 (now $22.12), OIH bearish at $120 (now $114.75), SRS bullish at $8.50 (now $9.93) – and those were just from Thursday and Friday, last week was very active and very successful. I had been quoting Samuel Jackson to highlight my difficulty joining the bullish analysts and I closed last week's comments by saying: "It really is hard to be the shepherd in this market as I see wolves everywhere, waiting to pounce on the flock as the mainstream media leads them off to slaughter. Or maybe (hopefully) I’m just being paranoid and everything’s fine…"
Monday I led off the week with my concerns about the spread of the flu, as the season is upon us. That gave us 4 bullish (but hedged) plays on SVA, BCRX and CAH (2), none of which are performing so far so all of which are still good entries, especially CAH who got whacked by a DB downgrade on Thursday yet paid back $1Bn in debt on Friday and still look very good long-term.
I had an early look at the G20s "Framework for Sustainable and Balanced Growth," and our conclusion was that, although a good plan, it sure wasn't something the markets should be all pumped up about as stability was not going to grow us into the bullish valuations that our stocks had already risen to. I warned members that the media was misinterpreting/misrepresenting this report saying: "You can bet though, that "THEY" are acting on this information and they will be SELLSELLSELLING, as they did on Friday…
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Monday Malicious Microbe Mania
by phil - September 21st, 2009 8:29 am
Just when you thought it was safe to invest in Asia!
Today’s shocker came out of a World Health Organization meeting yesterday where officials estimate 20% to 30% of Asia’s population - or between 448 million and 672 million people will be infected by swine flu H1N1 this season. Hong Kong had their 15th death this weekend and eight more people are in critical condition. 492 new cases were confirmed over the weekend, bringing the official count in Hong Kong alone up to 22,054 infections. According to the WHO: "China may not be in a situation of what we call extensive local transmission, which Hong Kong is in now." Once it does happen, we can see a lot of severe cases."
It’s ironic that the G20s efforts to put lipstick on this pig of a global economy may all be derailed by a pig’s disease. Despite skipping testing and relaxing safety regulations (which will, of course lead to other problems) in order to get tens of millions of doses of vaccines out for mass-inoculation programs, the WHO estimates that China, at best, will be able to inoculate just 5% of the population (65M people). We went through our last major swine flu scare last April and, here at PSW, we turned it into a half-dozen very successful picks – so let’s look at a few more who should do well in this next round of the crisis:
- SVA is the primary vaccine maker in China and you can buy that stock for $8.88 and sell the Jan $7.50 puts and calls for $4.50, which is net $4.38 with a call away at $7.50 (up 71%) if they hold that level through Jan 15th and the break-even to the downside (where you would be assigned the puts) is $5.94, 33% lower than today’s price. I’m not one to jump on disaster plays usually but this one has pretty good odds.
- BCRX has Perimavir in late-stage trials and the FDA is considering a "pre-emergency use authorization review," of the drug, which would be great for BCRX if it goes through and bad if it doesn’t. As BCRX is already up a lot, the way I would play this one is buying the 2011 $10 calls for $4.10 and selling the 2011 $12.50 calls for $3.60, which is a net .50 entry with a 500% return if BCRX hits $12.50 in 15 months (now $10) and it shouldn’t cause too
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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 site