Options Activity Suggests Tough Week For Halliburton, Clear Skies For JetBlue
by Option Review - December 6th, 2011 2:02 pm
Today’s tickers: HAL, JBLU, DELL & HL
HAL - Halliburton Co. – Shares in the Houston, Texas-based oilfield services provider dropped as much as 5.8% to $34.86 today on reports BP is accusing a unit of the Halliburton Co. of destroying evidence that could have shown the company is also at fault for the deadly explosion in the Gulf of Mexico last year. Options traders expecting the stock to remain under pressure this week placed short-term bearish bets on the stock. Weekly puts that expire at the end of the trading week attracted heavier-than-usual volume, with the Dec. ’09 $35 strike put trading more than 4,400 times against open interest of just 444 contracts. It looks like investor purchased the majority of the $35 strike weekly puts for an average premium of $0.53 each. In-the-money put buyers at this strike stand prepared to profit should the price of the underlying fall another 1.1% to breach the average breakeven point on the downside at $34.47 at expiration. Bears picked up put options at the lower Dec. ’09 $ 34 strike for an average premium of $0.31 each, as well. Approximately 2,700 puts have changed hands at the $34 strike as of 12:30 PM ET. Options implied volatility on Halliburton is up 5.7% at 50.55% in early-afternoon trade.
JBLU - JetBlue Airways Corp. – Investors initiating near-term bullish positions in JetBlue Airways this morning appear to have shown up relatively late to the party, however, late could be better than never as long as the price of the underlying stock continues to rise in the next couple of weeks. Shares in JetBlue Airways Corp. are up 1.7% today to stand at $4.78 as of 11:20 AM ET. The stock has rallied roughly 30.0% since AMR Corp. filed for bankruptcy on November 29. Some traders jumped into JBLU…
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Sharp Rally A Boon To Citrix Systems Call Buyer
by Option Review - October 27th, 2011 2:35 pm
Today’s tickers: CTXS, XOP & HL
CTXS - Citrix Systems, Inc. – Shares in Citrix Systems, Inc. rallied to their highest level since the end of July after the company reported third-quarter earnings and fourth-quarter estimates that beat expectations. The stock currently trades 15.2% higher on the session at $73.99, after soaring as much as 21.5% to an intraday high of $78.00. Huge gains in the price of the software maker’s shares appears to have worked out nicely for one options player who may be taking profits off the table today. Citrix call activity spiked in the first 30 minutes of the session after large numbers of deep in-the-money and out-of-the-money calls changed hands in the November contract. It looks like the investor may have snapped up around 4,875 calls at the Nov. $65 strike for a premium of $4.10 each back on October 18, when shares in Citrix closed the day at $64.50. The massive rally in the price of the underlying stock today more than doubled premium required to purchase Nov. $65 call options. The investor appears to have sold the batch of calls purchased on Oct. 18 this morning for an average premium of $11.07 per contract. Average net profits on the sale amount to $6.97 per contract. Finally, the sale of the call options was tied to the opening purchase of roughly 4,800 Nov. $75 strike calls for an average premium of $3.93 apiece. The fresh bullish stance may be profitable if shares in Citrix Systems extend gains through expiration next month. Profits are available on the new position if shares in CTXS increase another 6.6% over the current price of $73.99 to surpass the average breakeven point at $78.93 at expiration day. Options implied volatility on the stock fell 19.3% to a two-month low of 45.35% this afternoon.
XOP - SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF – The buyer of a large batch of put options on the XOP may have cut his losses this morning on the heels of a more than 8.0% rally in the price of the underlying since the bearish position was initiated. Shares in the XOP, an exchange-traded fund that tracks the performance of an index derived from the oil and gas exploration and production segment of a U.S. total market composite index, are up 4.9% today at $55.85 just before 1:00 pm EDT. On Tuesday, options volume at the Nov.…
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Bullish Strategists at Work Ahead of Arena Pharmaceuticals’ Earnings Report
by Option Review - August 3rd, 2010 5:03 pm
Today’s tickers: ARNA, GENZ, HL, CY, JCP, FR & XLB
ARNA – Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. – Options on the biotechnology company are active ahead of the firm’s second-quarter earnings report slated for release after the closing bell this afternoon. Shares rallied as much as 5.15% earlier in the session to an intraday high of $7.54, but are currently trading a lesser 1.95% higher on the day at $7.31 as of 3:35 pm ET. One optimistic investor hoping to see Arena’s shares appreciate ahead of October expiration enacted a bullish risk reversal. The trader appears to have sold roughly 9,000 puts at the October $7.0 strike for an average premium of $2.40 each in order to buy the same number of calls at the October $12.5 strike for an average premium of $0.60 apiece. The investor reels in a net credit of $1.80 per contract on the risk reversal, and keeps the full amount received on the transaction as long as Arena’s shares exceed $7.00 through October expiration. Additional, and potentially unlimited profits, start to accumulate for the trader if Arena’s shares surge 71% to exceed $12.50 by expiration day in October. The credit $1.80 credit pocketed by the investor provides limited protection against losses should Arena’s shares nosedive ahead of expiration. The trader starts to lose money if the price of the underlying stock falls 28.9% to trade beneath the effective breakeven price of $5.20 by expiration day. Options implied volatility on Arena Pharmaceuticals is up 5.5% to 197.15% ahead of earnings.
GENZ – Genzyme Corp. – The biopharmaceutical company, which is currently knee-deep in merger negotiations with Sanofi-Aventis, attracted bullish options investors during the trading session. It looks like one trader initiated a plain-vanilla debit call spread in the January 2011 contract to prepare for the sharp increase in the price of Genzyme’s shares that’s likely to occur if Sanofi-Aventis winds up purchasing – or at least confirming plans to purchase – the drug maker before January 2011 expiration. Genzyme’s shares inched up 0.25% this afternoon to $70.52 as of 3:15 pm ET. The options player picked up approximately 6,000 calls at the January 2011 $70 strike for an average premium of $4.42 each, and sold the same number of calls at the higher January 2011 $75 strike for an average premium of $1.72 apiece. The net cost of putting on the bullish transaction amounts to $2.70 per…
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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…
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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.