Petrobras Puts And Calls In Play As Shares Drop After Q4 Earnings
by Option Review - February 5th, 2013 2:14 pm
Today’s tickers: PBR, PLX & XLF
PBR - Petrobras SA – Options on Petrobras are more active than usual this morning, with shares in the state-run Brazilian oil producer down more than 7.0% on the day to stand at a new 52-week low of $16.74 as of 10:45 a.m. ET. The stock dropped after the company reported fourth-quarter EBITDA that declined in the period, missing analyst expectations, and said it will lower dividend payments to shareholders. Trading traffic in PBR options is mixed, as some traders position for shares to weaken further, while others bet on a near-term rebound in the price of the underlying. Fresh interest in weekly puts is greatest at the Feb. 08 ’13 $16.5 strike where upwards of 4,100 lots have changed hands against one contract in open interest. Time and sales data suggests most of the puts were purchased at an average premium of $0.22 apiece, thus positioning buyers to profit at expiration this week should PBR’s shares settle below the average breakeven price of $16.28. The Feb. 08 ’13 $17 strike puts are also in play, with around 2,000 in-the-money puts purchased in the early going for an average premium of $0.45 each. Meanwhile, weekly call buyers snapping up Feb. 08 ’13 $17 and $17.5 strike calls at average premiums of $0.15 and $0.05 each, respectively, may profit at expiration in the event that Petrobras shares rebound by the end of the week. Similar strategies appear to be in play across the Feb. 15 ’13 expiration call and put options, as well as in the March expiry options contracts. Traders bracing for shares to move sharply lower paid an average premium of $0.09 per contract to buy around 380 of the Mar. $14 strike puts. These contracts make money if shares in the oil producer plunge 17% from the current price of $16.74 to trade south of $13.91 by March expiration.
PLX - Protalix Biotherapeutics, Inc. – Upside calls on biopharmaceutical company, Protalix Biotherapeutics, are changing hands this morning, with shares in the name up better than 21% on the…
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Will We Hold It Wednesday – NOW It’s May
by phil - May 2nd, 2012 6:40 am
Yesterday did not count.
Until the end of day, the volume was low and, as you can see from Dave Fry's SPY chart, the morning pump was mostly erased by the end of the day. In fact, on the Russell and Nasdaq – it was entirely erased. What a friggin' joke, yet no one will investigate it and few will even question it.
As we often say at PSW – We don't care IF the game is rigged, as long as we know HOW the game is rigged and get to place our bets accordingly. In my Morning Alert to Members at 10:05, my comment on the move up was:
Not too many markets are open so super low-volume means we can pretty much ignore whatever's happening. Some wild gyrations at the open already with AAPL popping $10 to goose the Nas and they are spiking us up and down at will on this low volume.
At 12:02 we made our planned adjustments to our 4 active virtual portfolios, taking advantage of the big, bad spike to move to cheap June bear positions and cash out our long plays and just get generally more aggressively bearish at what we thought was going to be the top for the day. The most aggressive move was made in our most aggressive, $25,000 Portfolio (pictured here from its 10am status BEFORE many changes were made), where we flipped our protective TNA hedge from bullish to very bearish – shifting the balance of the portfolio much more bearish with a single move:
TNA – $60s are now $4 so let's take that and run on 5 (1/2), as that's more than we paid for the spread and we'll ride the $63s half-covered with a stop on 5 at $3 (now $2.25). Also, a stop on the 5 remaining $60s at $3, at which point we would reset the stop on the $63s, of course.
Needless to say, that trade worked out huge already as the $60s all stopped out at a $3.50 average ($3,500), which is $500 more than our max potential gain on the spread and the $63 calls already finished the day at $1.10 ($1,100) for a net of $2,400 (so far) off our $1,450 entry on 4/26 – so up 65% in less than a week on the trade we used to…
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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.