Zale Options Active As Shares Pop After Earnings
by Option Review - August 28th, 2013 2:29 pm
Today’s tickers: ZLC, GCI & CHS
ZLC – Zale Corporation – Shares in jewelry retailer, Zale Corp., are soaring today, rallying as much as 23.6% during morning trading to touch a new four-year high of $11.08 after the company posted a narrower than expected fourth-quarter loss and its highest full year net income in six years ahead of the opening bell. Some options traders looking for the stock to rise after earnings initiated bullish trades on Zale two weeks prior to the report. Traders snapped up ZLC call options back on August 14th, for example, purchasing around 500 of the Sep $10 calls for an average premium of $0.86 apiece. The value of these calls has since increased substantially, with the asking premium up at $1.35 each as of 12:30 p.m. ET. Options traders also picked up the Sep $12.5 strike and the Nov $12.5 strike calls back on August 14th at premiums of $0.35 and $0.60 per contract, respectively. Today, it looks like traders are adding to bullish interest on the jeweler. More than 900 of the Nov $12.5 strike calls changed hands during morning trading versus open interest of 640 contracts, and it looks like most of the call options were purchased at a premium of $0.80 each. Buyers of the $12.5 strike calls stand ready to profit at November expiration should shares in ZLC rally 20% over today’s high of $11.08 to top the breakeven price of $13.30.
GCI – Gannett Co. Inc. – Trading in Gannet Co. put options today suggests one strategist is bracing for shares in the media company to potentially pull back in the near term. Shares in…
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Deal Announcement Spurs Action In Gannett Co. Options
by Option Review - June 13th, 2013 8:44 pm
Today’s tickers: GCI, KO & MYGN
GCI - Gannett Co., Inc. – Shares in USA Today publisher, Gannett Co., Inc., jumped nearly 30% at the start of the trading session to a five-year high of $25.69 after the company agreed to purchase Belo Corp. for $1.5 billion in cash and assume $715 million in existing debt. The merger will make Gannett the fourth-largest U.S. owner of major network affiliates, doubling the company’s existing broadcast portfolio from 23 to 43 stations, according to a press release issued by the companies. The announcement and subsequent double-digit percentage move in the price of GCI shares sparked heavier than usual options activity on the stock today. Upwards of 9,500 contracts have changed hands on Gannett as of 11:50 a.m. ET versus average daily volume of around 2,100 contracts. It looks like some traders are purchasing put options on Gannett today, perhaps positioning for shares in the name to surrender some of the gains in the near term. Front month put buyers looked to the Jun $25 and $26 strikes, picking up around $350 of the $25 strike puts for an average premium of $0.82 apiece, and buying 200 of the $26 strike puts at a premium of $1.15 each. Traders may profit at expiration next week should shares in GCI decline 5.9% and 3.3% from today’s high of $25.69 to breach average breakeven points on the downside at $24.18 and $24.85, respectively. Similar strategies were initiated in the Jul $24 and $25 strike put options in the early going on Thursday.
KO - Coca-Cola Co. – Mixed trading in weekly options on Coca-Cola Co. this morning suggests some traders are positioning for shares in the world’s largest beverage company to move ahead of the weekend. The stock is currently down 1.25% at $39.89 as of 12:10 p.m. ET, even as U.S. stocks rebound following three consecutive days of declines. One trader betting shares in KO reverse declines by expiration appears to have purchased around 1,300 calls at the Jun 14 ’13 $40 strike…
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Which Way Wednesday: Through the Roof or Smashed into a Thousand Pieces?
by phil - October 19th, 2011 8:08 am
GRANDPA JOE: But this roof is made of glass. It’ll shatter into a thousand pieces. We’ll be cut to ribbons!
WILLY WONKA: Probably.
Is today going to be the day? After pressing against our breakout levels for a week, today do we should finally have the gas to get over the top or will our Must Hold levels keep acting like a solid barrier? Oddly enough, I was asking the same question on August 30th, when I asked if we were "Breaking Higher or Dressing Windows?" My comment from that morning works for today as well:
No way to slow down. That line from Tull’s "Locamotive Breath" keeps playing in my head as I look at these rumor-driven markets and contemplate that we MUST keep going higher – or we will fall. On the whole, that’s not generally a winning long-term investing premise BUT – it does so happen to be the entire principal on which space travel is based so let’s not discount it entirely.
Willy Wonka understood stock market physics, there had to be enough power to get through that overhead resistance or it was going to be a very painful test of the top (like the one we had in August). Since our July dip, we’ve come back for another try at our Must Hold lines 4 times but the volume has been substantially lower than it was in July, leading us to believe it is only TradeBots, and not Oompa Loompas, who are buying this market.
Can TradeBots alone give…
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Options Player May Profit If FedEx Delivers By October Expiration
by Option Review - September 8th, 2011 4:45 pm
Today’s tickers: FDX, RRD, GCI & TLAB
FDX - FedEx Corp. – Sizable prints in call and put options on the provider of a range of shipping, transportation and business support services suggests one investor expects shares in FedEx Corp. to rebound substantially by October expiration. The stock today trades 0.50% lower on the session at $75.75 as of 12:00 pm on the East Coast. July and August were tough months to be long shares in Fedex, which fell nearly 28.0% from a 52-week high of $98.66 on July 7, down to a 52-week low of $71.33 on Tuesday. The three-legged options play could be a sign the investor expects monetary policy from the Fed to send shares higher, or perhaps for President Obama’s much-anticipated speech on jobs to inject some optimism into the market. Looking at a 2-year chart of FDX shares, it looks like the stock fell off a cliff in April 2010, bottoming out in July of last year, and ultimately spiking higher on the heels of Bernanke’s announcement of QE2. If the Fed ends up coming to the rescue, and markets believe the proposed actions will work, shares in FedEx could behave as they did around this time last year. The stock gained around 25.0% following the 2010 Economic Symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to top $98.00 a share in 2011. Speculation on possible Fed action aside, investors will surely be listening to Obama’s speech this evening to see if he says anything they don’t already expect to hear.
The trader appears to have sold around 5,000 puts at the October $67.5 strike, in order to purchase the October $77.5/$82.5 call spread 5,000 times, all for an average net premium of just $0.52 per contract. The transaction positions the trader to make money should FedEx’s…
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Dark Horse Hedge is Rocking On
by Sabrient - March 9th, 2011 2:42 pm
By Scott at Sabrient and Ilene
For those about to rock, we salute you – AC/DC
Dark Horse Hedge is Rocking On
With February and the most of earnings season passing, we decided to "stand up and be counted" with a summary article on the VIRTUAL Dark Horse Traders’ Hedge (DHH) virtual portfolio.
Our mission has been to generate absolute returns through the use of a tilted Long/Short strategy that remains market neutral, but with a partial bias towards momentum (as defined by measuring the S&P 500 relative to its 50 and 200 day Moving Averages). We have been tilted to the long side since October 2010.
Over the long term, reasons for using such a strategy include being positioned to take advantage of both bull and bear runs. As evidenced by the near zero returns of the market over the last 10 years, buy-and-hold strategies are majorly flawed. The market also teaches hard lessons to those who attempt to predict direction, and has forced many retail investors to reconsider their strategies after being pounded in 2001 and 2008.
Alpha is a measure of a return over and above a benchmark index’s return, and Beta is a measure of the virtual portfolio’s performance as it is correlated to movements of the market. With DHH, we strive to optimize Alpha while minimizing Beta to protect our virtual portfolio in up and down markets. Beta is reduced by holding both Long and Short positions and using a rules-based approach to determine which stocks have the best chacteristics to benefit when the market is rising, and conversely to determine which stocks are most apt to perform poorly when the market is falling. In other words, we want to be long stocks of the best companies and short stocks of the worst companies – we want to identify the "tails" of a market, index, sector or basket of stocks.
Once a virtual portfolio of Long and Short stocks is established, then it is a matter of gaining the desired exposure using the available…
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Call Options Fly Off the Shelves at Gannet Co.
by Option Review - October 8th, 2010 4:13 pm
Today’s tickers: GCI, XRT, GCI, JCP, TSN, GG & CVS
GCI - Gannett Co., Inc. – Call options on the publishing giant are in high demand today with shares of the underlying stock rising as much as 8.3% to an intraday high of $13.64. Gannett’s shares took off after the Wall Street Journal reported the company, along with the New York Times and News Corp., are looking to offer software apps for Samsung’s Galaxy tablet. Investors have thus far exchanged more than 6.25 calls on the stock for each single put contract in play as of 3:15 pm ET in New York trading. Near-term bullish players picked up some 5,300 now in-the-money calls at the October $13 strike for an average premium of $0.58 a-pop. Investors long the calls make money if the USA Today publisher’s shares exceed the average breakeven price of $13.58 by October expiration. Optimism spread to the higher October $14 strike where more than 6,100 call options changed hands. At least 1,500 of those contracts were purchased for an average premium of $0.42 each, while the bulk of the remaining volume traded to the middle of the market. Uber-bulls looked out to the November $15 strike to purchase approximately 2,500 calls at an average premium of $0.41 apiece. Call buyers at this strike are prepared to profit if GCI’s shares jump 5.645% over today’s high of $13.64 to exceed the average breakeven point at $15.41 by expiration day next month. Options implied volatility on Gannet Co. jumped 16.6% to 60.43% in late afternoon trading.
XRT - SPDR S&P Retail ETF – A sizeable put spread initiated on the XRT, an exchange-traded fund designed to replicate the performance of the S&P Retail Select Industry Index, could be the work of an investor bracing for a pullback in the price of the underlying fund ahead of January 2011 expiration. Shares of the fund increased 1.45% during the final trading day of the week to touch an intraday high of $43.02. The put player purchased…
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Homebuilder-Bull Constructs Colossal Call Position in XHB LEAPs
by Option Review - September 21st, 2010 4:04 pm
Today’s tickers: XHB, DHI, NVDA, RL, BSX, GCI, XRT & AMR
XHB – SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF – Long-term bullish trading in call options on the homebuilders sector jumped today on news housing starts in the U.S. rebounded in August. Shares of the XHB, an exchange-traded fund designed to track the performance of the S&P Homebuilders Select Industry Index, increased as much as 1.6% this afternoon to touch an intraday high of $15.83 as of 2:40 pm ET. One bullish trader expecting the price of the underlying fund to appreciate substantially over the next 16 months scooped up approximately 50,000 calls at the January 2012 $16 strike for an average premium of $2.56 apiece. The call options position the investor to accrue profits should shares surge 17.25% over today’s high of $15.83 to surpass the effective breakeven price of $18.56 by expiration day. Shares last traded above $18.56 back on May 13, 2010.
DHI – D.R. Horton, Inc. – In contrast to the outright bullish trading observed in XHB LEAPs, homebuilding company, D.R. Horton, received nearer-term bearish bets that shares are set to decline ahead of expiration in January 2011. DHI’s shares rallied as much as 2.6% on the positive new housing starts data to secure an intraday high of $11.34 this morning. But, by midday, a put option feeding frenzy initiated by traders who appear to expect shares to reverse course had already gained momentum. It looks like traders bought roughly 30,000 puts at the January 2011 $10 strike at an average premium of $0.73 a-pop. Put buyers are poised to profit should shares of the underlying stock plummet 18.25% from today’s high of $11.34 to slip beneath the average breakeven point to the downside at $9.27 by January 2011 expiration.
NVDA – NVIDIA Corp. – Shares of the manufacturer of chips used in computer graphics cards jumped 7.1% this afternoon to reach an intraday high of $11.47 as of 2:50 pm ET after analysts with Pacific Crest Securities said NVDA’s shares are likely to rally up to $13.00 as inventory declines and demand stabilizes. Investors hoping to see the bullish momentum continue purchased some 6,150 calls at the October $12 strike for an average premium of $0.32 per contract. Call buyers make money if the price of the underlying stock increases another 8.65% over today’s high of $11.34 to trade above the average breakeven point on the calls…
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DARK HORSE HEDGE – Any way the wind blows, doesn’t really matter
by ilene - September 1st, 2010 2:23 pm
Housing-keeping note: Thanks to WordPress’s destruction of Phil’s Favorites site (and replacement with an invite to sign up for its service!), I’ve been relocating my blog to TypePad. Benefits: it looks better, is very user friendly and offers an easy way to search archives for any topic. One unique feature is that while exploring the internet, I can simply click on a button to post an excerpt of an interesting article with a link to the full article. That ability allows me to post links to articles that are worth reading when I do not have reprinting permission, such as articles from major news sources.
The new Favorites site is here. I’ve also created a website for Dark Horse Hedge, here. - Ilene
DARK HORSE HEDGE – Any Way the Wind Blows, Doesn’t Really Matter
By Scott Brown at Sabrient & Ilene at Phil’s Stock World
Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality
Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see
I’m just a poor boy (Poor boy)
I need no sympathy
Because I’m easy come, easy go
Little high, little low
Any way the wind blows
Doesn’t really matter to me, to me
*****
Ilene and I started the Dark Horse Hedge on July 1, 2010 with the goal of helping self-directed investors weather any storm, no matter which way the wind was blowing. Today completes the second month of publishing the Dark Horse Hedge and we thought it would be a good time to review.
The…
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DARK HORSE HEDGE
by ilene - August 2nd, 2010 2:48 am
DARK HORSE HEDGE Weekend Catch-Up
By Scott at Sabrient and Ilene at Phil’s Stock World
Hedging into the week of August 2nd, the Dark Horse Hedge (DHH) is in a BALANCED tilt (long to short ratio) with 8 LONG and 8 SHORT positions. We used Phil’s BUY/WRITE strategy to enter two of our LONG positions (IM and GCI) at a 10-20% discount to the market. As you can see from the chart, the SPX wandered between the 50 and 200 day moving averages (MAs) all week before whimpering towards the bottom of the channel Thursday and Friday. The 12-26-9 MACD which is the faster of the 2 technical direction signals we follow has flat-lined at just above +6 and the slower RSI 14-day still remains just below 50.
Without some impressive economic reports coming this week or much better than expected earnings reports, we believe the market will drift down towards and test the 50 day MA. If a bullish tone sets back in, it is doubtful that it could easily push through the 200 day MA. Resistance points as well as the 50 and 200 day MAs all which fit into a fairly narrow trading channel.
[chart from FreeStockCharts.com]
We are happy with the positions we put on in DHH’s first 30 days of existence and we look forward to capturing more profit as the companies report earnings this week. We will continue to take profits "after the news" and rotate into newer, fresher positions while keeping an eye on the overall market to adjust our tilt for maximum Alpha*, which is why we all write and read DHH.
Summary of DHH positions in the virtual portfolio
LONG: XRTX, WDC, GCI, IM, DLX, GME, FRZ, and TEO
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DARK HORSE HEDGE’S BALANCING ACT II
by ilene - July 26th, 2010 3:37 pm
DARK HORSE HEDGE’S BALANCING ACT II
By Scott Brown at Sabrient and Ilene at Phil’s Stock World
How do we explain our shift towards Long/Short balance when the economic news appears so discouraging? There’s an interesting article in TIME discussing why multinational companies may be doing well their worldly operations, even though our U.S. economic appears terminally ill. As Zachary Karabell writes in "With Stocks, It’s Not the Economy:
Stocks are no longer mirrors of national economies; they are not — as is so commonly said — magical forecasting mechanisms. They are small slices of ownership in specific companies, and today, those companies have less connection to any one national economy than ever before.
As a result, stocks are not proxies for the U.S. economy, or that of the European Union or China, and markets are deeply unreliable gauges of anything but the underlying strength of the companies they represent and the schizophrenic mind-set of the traders who buy and sell the shares. There has always been a question about just how much of a forecasting mechanism markets are. Hence the saying that stocks have correctly predicted 15 of the past nine recessions. At times, stocks soar as the economy sours (in 1975, for instance) or sour when the economy soars (as with China’s stock market, the Shanghai stock exchange, in the past year).
Decoupling, of course is a matter of degree. In the long run, the world economy is affected by the economies of all the nations that make up the world, and businesses do not conduct themselves in a vacuum. Some special cases may thrive in the worst of conditions, but most companies probably will not, and eventually the world’s economies will have some impact on the multinational corporations. Thus, we have not changed our tepid view of the U.S. economy and the stock market’s prospects for the longer term. As David Rosenberg writes in his market thoughts earlier today, at Zero Hedge, "Ever Wondered How You Know You Are In A Depression?":
Everyone seems to be basing their view on the economic outlook from what the stock market is telling them – so one week it is a return to recession, and now that the market is surging, we must be in some sort of boom. Coincident indicators out of Europe has everyone convinced that the
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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