Investors Take to Research In Motion Options Ahead of Earnings
by Option Review - June 16th, 2011 4:42 pm
Today’s tickers: RIMM, ULBI, NABI & CX
Strong corporate earnings helped fuel the S&P 500 Index’s more than 30% rally since the end of last summer up to its highest point at 1370 at the start of May. A number of companies are scheduled to report earnings today, including beleaguered Blackberry maker Research In Motion Ltd. Will another spate of potentially strong corporate results inject renewed confidence into the market? Or, will earnings disappoint this quarter as companies struggle with higher energy and commodity prices? Even positive earnings surprises may not be enough to spur the return of risk appetite as less than palatable reports regarding the ongoing European debt crisis push global equities lower and leave investors with a sour taste in their mouths. Domestically, a gain in housing starts and building permits in May as well as a decline in jobless claims last week, give the market some good news to pocket today following Wednesday’s pullback.
RIMM - Research In Motion Ltd. – Options activity on the maker of Blackberry smartphones and PlayBook tablets suggests investors are harboring mixed opinions regarding the direction RIMM’s shares are likely to take following the company’s first-quarter earnings report after U.S. markets have closed for the day. Shares are off their highs of the day, but remain positive in early-afternoon trade. The stock currently trades 0.50% higher on the session at $35.35 just before 12:45pm on the East Coast. Options volume is pushing 110,000 contracts, with investors paying roughly equal attention to call and put options. Trading traffic is heaviest in options with only one trading day remaining to expiration. It looks like some investors are positioning for disappointment, with the majority of the June $32.5 strike puts trading purchased for an average premium of $0.54 apiece. June $30 strike puts…
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…