Bulls Eye Continued Rally For USEC Inc.
by Option Review - October 17th, 2011 2:11 pm
Today’s tickers: USU, EP & CHMT
USU - USEC Inc. – The supplier of low enriched uranium (LEU) for commercial nuclear power plants popped up on our scanners this morning after large blocks of Jan. 2012 contract call options changed hands on the stock. Shares in USU are flat on the day at $2.04 following the more than 60.0% pop in the price of the underlying at the tail-end of the previous trading week to $2.12 from $1.30. With shares at $2.04, the stock is down more than 65.0% year-to-date off a 52-week high of $6.35. The burst of call activity on the Bethesda, Maryland-based company appears to be nearly identical to a large call spread initiated this past Friday. The trader responsible for Friday’s transaction may have purchased a 10,000-lot Jan. 2012 $2.0/$3.0 call spread for a net premium of $0.35 per contract. The position may yield maximum potential profits of $0.65 per contract should shares in USU top $3.00 at expiration next year. Today’s sizeable call spread also cost a net premium of $0.65 apiece, but the investor purchased a wider 10,000-lot Jan. 2012 $2.0/$3.5 call spread. The trader responsible for the spread may make up to $1.15 per contract in the event that USEC’s shares surge 71.5% over the current price of $2.04 to exceed $3.50 at expiration in January. Shares in USU last traded above $3.50 in July. The company is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings after the final bell on November 2, 2011.
EP - El Paso Corp. – Kinder Morgan Inc.’s agreement to purchase El Paso Corp. for $21.1 billion saw shares in EP up 23.5% at $24.20 as of 12:30 pm in New York. The deal, which will create the largest operator of natural-gas pipelines and fourth-largest energy company in the U.S., spurred relatively heavy trading in El Paso options on Monday. Fresh prints in call and put options cropped up this morning, with investors favoring calls slightly over puts, and overall volume topping 32,700 contracts in early-afternoon trade. The overall reading of options implied volatility on the stock fell 49.5% to 20.3% today on news of the deal.
The huge rally in the price of El Paso’s shares overnight resulted in massive profits – at least on paper – for some investors who appear to have picked up November contract calls over the past few weeks. Open interest patterns in the Nov. $17 strike call suggests…
Wild Weekly Wrap-Up – August in Retrospect
by phil - August 29th, 2009 8:28 am
It has been a crazy few weeks!
I went back over our Long Shots list from August 9th, thinking all our picks must be doing great but really only C, with a 67% gain, is really outperforming. Long spreads on UYG and BHI are on target for nice gains but haven't moved much. Looking at our original picks in Pharmboys Phavorites from the same week, GSK is on track and up nicely already, our AZN cover is up 45% and MRK flew up 19% already. On the riskier Biotech side, ARIA's stock is up 16% and our spreads are all performing well, ONTY has been flat, OGXI is up 33% and the Jan $17.50s are up a rockin' 63% with that "cautious" spread up a surprising 75% already.
SPPI had a wild ride (as we predicted with TSCM's failed assassination attempt) and the buy/write is already up 24%, the Feb vertical is up 50% and the naked Jan put sale is up 27% and our Feb hedge play is right on track so all good there and a fine example of how following Cramer and his lackeys and and doing the opposite of what they say can be very profitable! Congrats to Pharmboy for a very fine set of picks, proving once again that there is room for research and fundamentals - not a single loser in the bunch in a choppy market! It was very timely as I had mentioned just that week in my interview with AOL Finance that XLV was my favorite sector and our IHI pick of 8/10 is up 28% on the naked Feb $45 put sale while the Feb $45 calls have already jumped 16%. It was a great call as IHI outperformed XLV and all our major indexes.
So our energy service pick (BHI) and overall financial pick (UYG) have not done much in 3 weeks and those were our leading sectors into my call to cash out our exposed long calls on Aug 13th, ahead of expirations. The Dow was at 9,400 on that day and now, a bit more than 2 weeks later, we've gained another 144 points but to listen to the MSM, you would think you are missing the rally of the century the past couple of weeks. This is one of the reasons I've gotten a bit more cynical about the…