AMR Corp. Call Buyers Abound
by Option Review - May 5th, 2011 4:11 pm
Today’s tickers: AMR, TBL, XME & RJET
AMR - AMR Corp. – Options traders are picking up call options on AMR Corp. after the parent company of American Airlines and American Eagle Airlines reported increases in passenger traffic for the month of April. Shares in AMR are up 5.85% in early-afternoon trade to stand at $6.51. It looks like options strategists purchased more than 11,000 calls at the June $7.0 strike for an average premium of $0.25 apiece today. Traders profit if shares in the airline operator surge 11.4% over the current price of $6.51 to exceed the effective breakeven price of $7.25 by June expiration. Open interest patterns at the June $7.0 strike suggest traders started snapping up the calls as early as last Friday. Investors buying the calls ahead of today’s substantial move higher in the price of the underlying are being rewarded for booking bullish bets on the carrier in advance. Traders paid an average premium of $0.13 apiece for the calls during the past 6 days, while investors buying the contracts today paid more than two times that amount for the same options.
TBL - Timberland Co. – Shares in footwear and apparel maker Timberland Co. dropped faster than a felled tree following the weaker-than-expected first-quarter earnings report released ahead of the opening bell this morning. The stock declined as much as 30.7% to touch down at an intraday low of $28.81 after the company missed estimates for the first time in seven quarters, posting net income of $0.35 a share, against the average analyst forecast of $0.59 a share. In the days leading up to the earnings announcement some options traders picked up what used to be fairly deep out-of-the-money put options. The massive drop in TBL shares today sent premium on the now deep in-the-money…
Fickle Friday – Google Goes Down as Costs Inflate
by phil - April 15th, 2011 8:19 am
Well who’d have thunk it?
The cost of doing business is rising and GOOG happens to be one of those businesses that lacks pricing power as their rates are generally set through an auction process and their users have to VOLUNTEER to pay more money to advertise. Most advertisers on Google are on fixed budgets, like MSM advertisers and Google has done a great job of replicating that model. Why then, should it be surprising if a maturing Google begins to look more like a traditional media outlet than a dot com company with exploding growth?
Don’t get me wrong, we love Google long-term but we did short them as well as BIDU into Google earnings as we felt Google would disappoint enough to spook BIDU investors as well. We’re taking the short money and running and looking for some bullish plays now – the drop from $630 last month to $545 today is plenty of froth blown off the top for us to get long-term interested again. As you can see from the tag cloud of the Conference Call, growth is still there, especially in mobile display ads (Android a bit disappointing) and no major negatives. I’m not going to write a whole thing about GOOG though, there are thousands of people doing that and our Members know well enough where I stand. I’m more interested in examining the bigger picture.
We expected Q1 earnings to be rough and we’ve already seen FDX, NKE, ORCL, RIMM, FAST, FCS and AA struggle so hopefully you don’t have to be hit on the head with another whole week of earnings before you get a little more cautious. Next week we hear from C, HAL, LLY, TXN, BK, GS, INTC, IBM, SYK, USB, VMW and YHOO on Monday and Tuesday and then we’re off to the races with hundreds of companies reporting each week for the rest of the month. Our job in the first few weeks of earnings season is to get a feel for the quarter and, so far, that feeling is rough.
It’s all about inflation, of course and don’t say we didn’t warn you about that one! We went more bearish up at those 100% lines we’ve been watching and now the question really is – how bad was it? Inflation is, after all, our long-term BULLISH premise. We don’t think corporations…
Tenet Healthcare Receives Bullish Three-Legged Options Combo Play
by Option Review - March 22nd, 2010 4:09 pm
Today’s tickers: THC, F, TIVO, HIG, LVS, XME, AET & SHW
THC – Tenet Healthcare Corp. – Shares of the provider of health care services surged 9.39% today to $6.29 following the passage of health-care reform legislation through the U.S. House of Representatives. Intriguing bullish options trading transpired on Tenet Healthcare during the current session as investors secured positions that yield profits if the firm’s shares continue to appreciate through expiration in January 2011. One optimistic player enacted a three-leg options combination play by selling short put options to partially finance the purchase of a debit call spread. The investor picked up 10,000 calls at the January 2011 $7.5 strike for a premium of $0.65 apiece, and sold 10,000 calls at the higher January 2011 $10 strike for $0.10 each. Next, the trader shed 10,000 puts at the January 2011 $5.0 strike for $0.55 premium apiece. The investor’s combination play was essentially enacted at zero cost because of the financing provided by the sale of higher-strike calls and out-of-the-money put options. Maximum potential profits of $2.50 per contract are available to the Tenet-bull if shares of the underlying stock jump 59% from the current price to $10.00 by expiration next year. The short position in put options implies the trader is willing to have Tenet’s shares put to him at $5.00 each should the put contracts land in-the-money ahead of expiration day in January. Options implied volatility on the stock slumped 20.9% this afternoon to 46.67% following the passage of the health care bill in the House.
F – Ford Motor Co. – Bullish options activity on the automobile manufacturer picked up as the trading day progressed amid a 4.5% rally in the price of the underlying stock to $13.90. One optimistic individual initiated a bullish risk reversal transaction in the June contract to position for continued upward momentum in the price of Ford’s shares through expiration. The investor sold 5,000 puts at the June $10 strike for a premium of $0.23 per contract in order to partially offset the cost of buying the same number of call options at the higher June $16 strike for $0.44 apiece. The net cost of the reversal play amounts to $0.21 per contract. Thus, the investor responsible for the trade stands ready to accrue profits if Ford’s shares surge 16.60% over the current price to surpass the breakeven point at $16.21 by expiration…
Western Digital in the Hot Seat
by Option Review - July 27th, 2009 5:24 pm
Today’s tickers: WDC, XLF, EEM, RRI, MYL, XHB, ROK, IACI, & XME
EEM – A mess of deep in-the-money put purchases were initiated on the emerging markets fund today amid a 0.5% increase in the price of the underlying shares to $35.60. The greatest volume was seen at the March 2010 38 strike price where about 7,400 puts were picked up for 5.70 apiece. The March 40 strike appears to have had 2,700 puts purchased for 7.00 each while the higher March 41 strike had 1,200 puts bought for 7.71 per contract. Put-buying continued at the March 42 strike price with 1,600 lots lifted for a premium 8.46 each. The higher March 43 strike had 2,300 puts purchased for 9.22 apiece while the March 44 strike had 1,000 puts coveted for a whopping 10.01 per contract.…