Estee Lauder Calls Active Ahead Of Earnings
by Option Review - August 9th, 2013 1:07 pm
Today’s tickers: EL, HAR & UBNT
EL - Estee Lauder Companies Inc. – Shares in Estee Lauder are bucking the trend today, up 0.85% at $66.57 as of 12:15 p.m. ET, amid a down day for U.S. stocks. Options on the manufacturer of skin care, makeup, fragrance and hair care products are more active than usual ahead of the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report next Thursday after the closing bell, with overall volume approaching 3,000 contracts as compared to average daily volume of around 650 contracts. EL shares have surrendered roughly 8.0% of their value since touching a 52-week high of $72.70 back on May 28th, but options changing hands on the stock today suggest some traders are positioning for the price of the underlying to recover in the near term. The Sep $70 strike calls are the most actively traded contracts thus far in the session, with around 2,200 lots in play against open interest of 389 contracts. It looks like much of the volume was purchased for an average premium of $0.80 apiece, thus positioning buyers of the contracts to profit at September expiration in the event shares gains more than 6.0% to surpass the average breakeven point at $70.80.
HAR - Harman International Industries, Inc. – Trading traffic in Harman International Industries options today suggests some traders are gearing up for shares in the name to push higher in the near term. The stock increased as much as 6.6% today to touch a new 52-week high of $69.16 after the maker of stereo and audio equipment reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue growth above analyst estimates. Traders positioning for shares in Harman to extend gains appear to be snapping up August expiry calls. The most actively traded front month calls as measured by volume are the Aug $70 strike contracts, with…
Perfect World Co. Options Active As Shares Drop
by Option Review - January 9th, 2012 2:01 pm
Today’s tickers: PWRD, HAR & AVL
PWRD - Perfect World Co., Ltd. – Options on Perfect World Co., Ltd. are more active than usual today with shares in China’s largest online game developer and operator down 27.0% at $8.77 this afternoon. The stock plunged after a report posted on Chinese blog Tianya alleged the Company is being investigated by Chinese and U.S. regulators. Short notes out on Bloomberg this morning suggest the report has been removed from the blog and that Perfect World has since denied the allegations. Options players snapped up both call and put options in the front month to prepare for either a rebound in the price of the underlying or further declines in the next two weeks. Investors bracing for further bearish movement in the shares purchased in- and out-of-the-money puts. Volume is heaviest at the Jan. $11 strike where some 2,415 deep in-the-money puts changed hands against open interest of 441 contracts. It looks like trader purchased the majority of these puts for an average premium of $0.58 a-pop. The Jan. $9.0 and $10 strike puts also drew buyers, and appear to have been purchased more than 1,000 times each at average premiums of $0.43 and $0.54, respectively. Finally, the Jan. $8.0 strike puts changed hands more than 500 times against open interest of just 52 contracts today. Investors purchased most of the volume, paying an average premium of $0.26 each. Put buyers targeting the $8.0 strike contracts may profit at expiration if shares in PWRD drop 11.7% from the current price of $8.77 to breach the average breakeven point on the downside at $7.74. Meanwhile, traders prepared to see the stock rebound picked up more than 1,350 calls at the Jan. $10 strike for an average premium of $0.51 per contract. Profits may be available to call buyers at expiration day if shares in the game developer rally 20.0% to top $10.51. Overall options volume on the name is greater than 12,400…
PSW Rewind of 2009 – The First Quarter
by phil - January 1st, 2010 2:42 pm
Thursday's close was very exciting, wasn't it?
Well it sure was for us as my 10:01 Alert to Members was a play on the DIA Jan $103 puts at .56. Thanks to the late afternoon dip, they finished the day at .90 (up 60%) after peaking out at .95, a very nice win to close off the year. That was the only Alert trade all week as this market has been too tough to call and we don't make trades just for the hell of it. I had been sniping at DIA puts all week expecting a pay-off but Thursday it finally came together.
Of course, I also strongly advocated hedging on Thursday morning and listed 4 trade ideas in the morning post to hedge ourselves against the possibility of just such a drop so don't say you haven't been warned. Whether there will be follow-through on Monday or a full reversal remains to be seen and, even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you here because this is a review – predictions are another article entirely.
We treaded very cautiously into last year because our PSW Holiday Retail Survey was not looking very pretty so it was no surprise to us, on Dec 26th, when we got some horrific retail reports. These are, of course, the same reports that we "beat" this year – but not by much. Dec 29th was Monday and Israeli jets attacked Hamas targets in the Gaza sending oil flying up to $48 a barrel. That gave us a nice commodity rally into the close of the year but January 2nd was a Friday and we decided (fortunately) to take the money and run on our long plays, holding open our main cover of SKF Jan $120s at $4.35, which hit $80 later in the month (up 1,732%) and USO Feb $32 puts at $3.40, which hit $10.50 in the Feb dip (up 208%) so, on the whole, not too differently positioned than we are now, coming into the new year. Visually 2009 looked a little like this:
January – Waiting for Obama, or Something, to Change
We began January much the same way we ended December with my Wed Jan…