Apple Shares Reach New 52-Week High Ahead of iPad Release
by Option Review - March 29th, 2010 4:06 pm
Today’s tickers: AAPL, GDXJ, CEPH, LO, MHK, VRTX & MJN
AAPL – Apple, Inc. – Shares of the iPhone and iPod maker rallied to a new 52-week high of 233.87 in morning trading with just five days remaining before the firm’s newest product, the iPad, hits retail stores across the U.S. Bullish options trading patterns on the stock today indicate optimistic sentiment on Apple ahead of the iPad’s release on Saturday morning. One investor enacted a bullish put credit spread in the May contract in order to benefit from continued strength in the price of Apple’s shares through expiration. It looks like approximately 10,000 puts were shed at the May $210 strike for an average premium of $3.46 per contract, marked against the purchase of about the same number of puts at the lower May $200 strike for $1.95 each. The investor responsible for the spread pockets a net credit of $1.51 per contract, which he keeps in full as long as Apple’s shares trade above $210.00 through May expiration. Maximum potential losses faced by the trader amount to $8.49 per contract should shares of the underlying stock plummet 14.5% to $200.00 ahead of expiration day in May.
GDXJ – Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF – The GDXJ, which is an exchange-traded fund that seeks to replicate the price and yield performance of the Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners Index, realized a 1.25% appreciation in the value of its underlying share price to $25.82 today. The Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners Index tracks the overall performance of foreign and domestic publicly traded companies of small/medium-capitalization that primarily engage in gold and/or silver mining. Despite the move higher in shares today, one options trader initiated a bearish debit put spread in the May contract. It appears the investor purchased 10,000 in-the-money puts at the May $26 strike for a premium of $1.65 apiece and sold the same number of puts at the lower May $23 strike for $0.52 each. The net cost of the put spread amounts to $1.13 per contract. If the investor responsible for the trade holds no underlying share position, maximum potential profits of $1.87 per contract are available if shares slip to $23.00 by expiration day in May. However, the trader may be buying the spread to protect the value of an existing underlying share position, in which case protection kicks in beneath the breakeven share…
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Frightening Friday – Halloween Edition!
by phil - October 30th, 2009 8:30 am
Wheee what a day!
Who said we placed a spread bet on the Dow moving 200 points one way or another in yesterday's morning post? Me, that's who. And how much did the Dow move yesterday? 199.89 points. OK, so I was wrong by .11 but our plays worked out just fine and we flipped bearish again as we flew up and we'll see if my streak continues this week. We would have gone more aggressivley bearish but we were worried about end of the month (and end of the year for many hedge funds) window dressing that would keep things going for one more day.
Everything went according to plan and we got the bounces we were looking for but the RUT failed to retake 589, which was our canary in the coal mine's breakdown level from last week. As I alerted members at 12:15, that and the Qs failing to hold 42 into the close, which failed to confirm the Nas move over our 2,088 watch level. We have our DIA puts, we have our SRS longs, we have our DXD longs (which are half price as our DDMs paid off yesterday) and we shorted SPG into the close as Cap noted they had a ridiculous run-up ahead of today's earnings.
As I said to members in the afternoon, my gut said to go more bearish but we allowed ourselves to be spooked by Mr Stick in the afternoon and ended up about 55% bearish with a 1/2 cover of our long DIA puts but we already made a quick 20% on the sale of short puts in the morning so it's a position we had a little slack in going into the close. Our logic is, even if we have another up day today, we're still going to want some pretty serious coverage into the weekend unless the Russell and the Qs can confirm this move up today.
Bulls should be spooked by the fact that a blow-out GDP report, showing an economy with a HUGE turnaround and the President crowing on TV about how great things are going could ONLY erase 1/2 the losses we suffered since last week. Another market move I hit on the head yesterday was my prediction that, after 3 consecutive 1.8% down days in a row, the Hang Seng would jump…
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Brazil ETF Investor Employs Covered Call Strategy Through December
by Option Review - October 13th, 2009 4:03 pm
Today’s tickers: EWZ, XLF, RVSN, MHK, COST, AKAM, & LLTC
EWZ – iShares MSCI Brazil Index ETF – Shares of the Brazil exchange-traded fund edged 0.5% lower to $72.55, perhaps inspiring the put spread we observed in the November contract. It appears one investor purchased 3,000 puts at the November 71 strike for 2.70 apiece, and simultaneously sold 3,000 puts at the lower November 65 strike for 1.00 each. The net cost of the put spread amounts to 1.70 per contract, thus yielding downside protection beneath the breakeven point at $69.30 through expiration next month. Longer-term activity seen in the December contract looks to be a covered call. It seems 25,000 calls were sold at the December 90 strike for an average premium of 13 pennies each. The investor responsible for the trade probably purchased an equivalent number of shares of the underlying stock at the time the calls were sold today. If this is the case, the investor reduced the cost of buying the shares to approximately $72.18 apiece by selling the call options. The short call position serves as an effective exit strategy for the investor if the fund trades above $90.00 by expiration. Shares of the ETF must rally 24% from the current price for the investor to have the underlying shares called away. If this occurs by expiration, the trader will enjoy the 24% gains on the rally in the stock, and walk away with no outstanding position in the fund.
XLF – Financial Select Sector SPDR – Fresh options activity in the March 2010 contract on the financials exchange-traded fund looks like a bearish risk reversal using deep in-the-money put options. Shares of the XLF have slipped 1.5% during the trading session to $15.13. It appears 5,500 calls were sold short at the March 19 strike for a premium of 30 pennies apiece to partially offset the cost of buying 5,500 puts at the same strike for 4.30 each. The net cost of the reversal amounts to 4.00 per contract. The breakeven point on the trade resides at $15.00. Thus, if the investor holds a long position in the underlying fund, downside protection is provided by the puts if shares slip more than 13 cents from the current price to breach the breakeven price of $15.00 by expiration next year.
RVSN – RADVision Ltd. – Telecommunications equipment designer and developer, RadVision, experienced a 1.75%…
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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.