Bearish Options Change Hands On Gap
by Option Review - August 5th, 2013 3:05 pm
Today’s tickers: GPS, TWX & FST
GPS - Gap, Inc. – Apparel retailer, Gap, Inc., popped up on our scanners this morning after a sizable trade was initiated in the August expiry put options. Nearly 5,000 of the Aug $46 strike puts changed hands close to the start of the session versus open interest of 778 contracts. Volume in the Aug $46 puts is more than twice the stock’s average daily options volume of around 2,100 contracts. Shares in GPS, up roughly 40% since the start of 2013, are off 0.30% on the day to stand at $46.33, hovering just below a multi-year high of $46.56 reached last week. Options changing hands on the retailer this morning suggest one trader is bracing for near-term weakness in the price of the underlying. It looks like the strategist purchased around 4,000 Aug $46 puts at a premium of $0.86 per contract. The trade starts making money if shares in Gap decline 2.6% from the current price of $46.33 to breach the effective breakeven point on the downside at $45.14 by August expiration next week. The long put position may be an outright bearish bet on the stock or a protective stance to hedge a long position in the shares. Gap, Inc. is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings on August 22nd, the week following expiration of the Aug 16 ’13 options.
TWX - Time Warner Inc. – Options changing hands on media and entertainment company, Time Warner, today look for shares in the name to potentially come off the multi-year highs highs hit earlier in the session. Shares in TWX earlier rose 0.70% to $64.72 ahead of the company’s second-quarter earnings release prior to the opening bell on Wednesday. Shares in Time Warner are up nearly 60% since this time last year. A sizable trade…
Sizable Call Spread Constructed On Pulte
by Option Review - September 13th, 2012 2:11 pm
Today’s tickers: PHM, GE & FST
PHM - PulteGroup, Inc. – Shares in the homebuilder are down 1.3% this morning ahead of the Fed’s decision regarding further quantitative easing to trade at $15.35, giving up some of Wednesday’s 7% rally that lifted the stock to a four-year high of $15.70, on an intraday basis. Pulte’s shares moved up sharply yesterday on an upgrade to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ with an increased target price of $17.00 from $13.00 at Williams Financial Group. Today, a large call spread initiated on Pulte suggests one big options market participant is positioning for shares in the homebuilder to extend their impressive run during the next 16 months. Since roughly this time last year, the stock has more than quadrupled, rising from a low of $3.29 on October 4th, 2011, to yesterday’s high of $15.70. The long-term bullish bet established in PHM options this morning yields maximum possible profits if the stock gains more than 60% by January 2014 expiration. The strategist responsible for the trade appears to have purchased 15,000 calls at the Jan. 2014 $15 strike for a premium of $3.75 each and sold the same number of calls at the Jan. 2014 $25 strike at a premium of $0.95 each. Net premium paid for the position amounts to $2.80 per contract and establishes an effective breakeven price of $17.80. Thus, the trader starts making money if the shares rally 16% to top $17.80, and could rake in maximum potential profits of $7.20 per contract in the event PHM’s shares soar 63% to top $25.00 by expiration.
GE - General Electric Co. – Options on General Electric are more active than usual this morning ahead of the Federal Reserve’s decision on whether to initiate a third round of bond buying to stimulate the economy. Heavy trading in GE Sep. 14 ’12 $22 strike weekly calls suggests one or more traders are preparing for shares in the name to potentially hit…
Monday Market Movement – Pattern Recognition
by phil - November 2nd, 2009 8:24 am
Here’s a scary chart pattern for you from our Chart School:
Elliot Wave Trends points out that the S&P has fallen into a fractal patten that may be repeating the behavior of the great drop of ’08, right here, right now. Of course patterns do SEEM to repeat themselves all the time – until they don’t – but it will be interesting this week and next to see if we follow-through with a flatline, followed by a drop to 1,000 from which we falsely back to 1,050 and then plunge to our doom as Santa foresakes us and we run all the way back down to our lows.
That’s where they lose me. Charts are fun and all but I see no basis for going back to our lows as our lows were ridiculous and caused by panic-selling in a doomsday scenario. Hard to imagine things will fall apart that badly between now and Jan earnings although I do believe we will have a rough time — just not that rough!
Barron’s surveyed Money Managers this weekend and they don’t seem to think things will be rough at all. 52% of those surveyed think there is NO WAY we will have a double dip recession. 76% believe that the decline in corporate profits has ended and 68% believe our GDP wil grow more than 2.5% in Q4 while just 10% believe it is possible for commodity pricing to fall in the next 6 months. You know what they say about when everyone is on the same side of a bet of course!
These are the people we give our money to – the biggest and "brightest" of hedge fund managers who control over $1Tn of assets under management. Favorite stocks in the group are: MSFT, ABT, BAC, BRK.A, CVS, GE, GS, LEG and QCOM. Stocks that are considered overvalued are: AIG, AAPL, GOOG, CAT, AMZN, C, GE, GMCR, VZ and YHOO. Ony 7% think Asian stocks are heading lowed, just 1% less than 8% who feel oil is going down; 92% don’t feel oil will go down.
Everybody likes Tech (just 0.9% think it will be the worst performing sector) and nobody likes the Financials (22.5% think it will be the worst performing sector) followed by Consumer Cyclicals (20.7%) and, oddly, Utilities (15.3%). The sectors picked as the best performers for the next 6-12 months are Tech (18.9%), Energy (17.1%) and Health Care (17.1%). Only…