Zynga Weekly Calls Active
by Option Review - October 25th, 2013 5:24 pm
ZNGA – Zynga Inc. – A narrower than expected third-quarter loss on higher than expected revenue reported by the social game developer on Thursday lifted shares in Zynga on Friday, with shares in the name rallying as much as 14% to a new 52-week high of $4.04.
Trading traffic in weekly calls on the maker of Farmville and other games suggests some options players are positioning for the price of the underling to extend gains next week. More than 9,000 calls have changed hands at the Nov 01 ’13 $4.0 strike as of 11:30 a.m. ET against open interest of 1,926 contracts, with much of the volume purchased in the early going at a premium of $0.19 each. Buyers of the $4.0 weekly call options on ZNGA stand ready to profit at expiration should shares in the San Francisco, California-based company rally another 3.7% to exceed the breakeven price of $4.19.
Overall options volume on the stock is well above average today, with roughly 72,500 contracts in play versus Zynga’s average daily options volume of around 29,000 contracts.
ELY – Callaway Golf Co. – Shares in the maker of golf equipment and apparel are soaring on Friday, up better than 14% to hit a new 52-week high of $8.32 after the company reported third-quarter results after the close on Thursday and raised its full-year revenue guidance. Callaway was raised to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ with a 12-month target share price of $11.00 at DA Davidson following the quarterly earnings report.
Options traders who purchased upside calls on the stock prior to the company’s earnings release are enjoying sizable gains in the value of bullish positions. Yesterday, one or more traders snapped up more than 800 of the Nov $8.0 strike calls at premiums of $0.10 and $0.15 each. The sharp move in the price of the underlying today now finds the $8.0 strike calls trading at $0.40 each as of the time of this writing.
Today, it looks like traders are purchasing in-the-money call options on Callaway, buying roughly 760 of the Nov $7.0 strike calls at an average premium of $1.23 apiece during morning trading. Options players long the $7.0 strike calls stand ready to profit at expiration next month should shares in ELY settle above the average breakeven price of $8.23.
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Bulls Snap Up Wal-Mart Weeklies As Shares Extend Gains
by Option Review - May 25th, 2012 2:28 pm
Options brief will resume June 4, 2012.
Today’s tickers: WMT, GNOM & ZNGA
WMT - Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. – Wal-Mart weeklies worked out well for some bullish traders this week. For example, buyers of the May 25 ‘12 $62.5 strike call on Monday paid an average premium of $0.64 apiece for options that are now worth more than four times that amount on their final day of trading ahead of expiration. Trading traffic in call options that expire next Friday suggests some traders anticipate this same strategy could pay off next week as well. The sharp rally in Wal-Mart’s shares since the New York Times published a report regarding a cover up of alleged bribery in the company’s Mexico operations indicates investors have largely shrugged off the news for now, with shares in the world’s largest retailer currently trading at their highest level in more than a decade. The stock has posted double-digit gains since mid May, and added another 0.65% today to touch an intraday high of $65.50. Bullish players positioning for further gains in WMT shares stepped in this morning and purchased more than 1,500 calls at the June 01 ’12 strike for an average premium of $0.69 apiece. Call buyers profit at expiration next week if shares in the retailer exceed the average breakeven price of $65.69. Wal-Mart’s annual shareholders’ meeting is scheduled to take place next Friday.
GNOM - Complete Genomics, Inc. – Options on biomedical company, Complete Genomics, Inc., have been humming with activity this week as shares in the name move sharply higher. The stock soared 42.5% to an intraday high of $3.32 this morning, taking gains in GNOM up to 101% since Monday. Call open interest levels in Complete Genomics have been on the rise this week, and some traders appear to have landed overnight paper profits on bullish positions established in the front month options. The number of open positions in the June $2.5 strike call increased more…
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Friday Finale – This is the End – But for Who?
by phil - February 17th, 2012 8:19 am
A day late and a point short on the S&P.
Our senior index finished the day at 1,358.04, just 0.96 under our 10% line at 1,359. Oddly enough, it never actually crossed the line that we had predicted would be the top of this run in April of 2009. It's a simple 2% overshoot of the 100% run from the S&P bottom at 666.
If the S&P can get over the line and hold it – we will be THRILLED to finally redraw our Big Chart but, if not, then this is just the blow-off top of the range, reeling in the suckers ahead of the big reversal that no one could have possibly seen coming (except this guy but he's like 100 and just got divorced, so he's bound to be in a bad mood).
Is there anyone who was born SINCE radio who is willing to still be bearish? As you can see from David Fry's chart, since December 19th, other than a few red days out of over 40 – it's been tough to be a bear. This is what it was like in 1999, when the experienced market players would be well-hedged and missing the rally while some kid who works for him quits because he bet his student loan money on Yahoo and now drives a Porsche.
Sure 9 months later the Porsche was repossessed and the kid was flipping burgers but WE WANT TO BE THAT KID – IT'S FUN TO BE THAT KID – until it isn't again. The funny thing is, we only gave those dot com companies Millions when they IPO'd – now we give out Billions because, of course, this time is different, it's a new paradigm, this changes everything, you have to understand the new metrics, sock puppets rule….
McDonald's was founded in 1940 by two brothers actually named McDonald. Ray Krok bought the chain from them and created the World's greatest franchise which now has over 26,000 franchise operations and over 6,000 company stores employing about 1.7M people worldwide selling $24Bn worth of food a year with a $5Bn net profit. Facebook has 3,200 people but they generate $1.2M in revenues per employee ($3.8Bn) and drops $1Bn to the bottom line. Facebook's assets are mainly IP and those are about as valuable as MySpace's assets now…
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Heavy Action In BP Call Options With Earnings On The Horizon
by Option Review - February 2nd, 2012 2:31 pm
Today’s tickers: ZNGA, UPS & SXC
ZNGA - Zynga Inc. – Options on the social game developer behind wildly popular games such as Words with Friends and FarmVille continue to trade at a Facebook-IPO-induced fever pitch today. Investors exchanged roughly 45,000 option contracts on Zynga by 12:30 p.m. in New York, while the price of the shares reached new heights one day after the highly-anticipated Facebook filing became a reality. Shares in ZNGA rallied as much as 21.8% in the first half of the trading session to an all-time high of $12.91. Out-of-the-money call buying in the front month suggests some traders are positioning for the price of the underlying to extend gains in the near term. February $13 strike call options that cost around $0.15 apiece at the beginning of the week, are now more than five times as expensive given the current asking price of $0.80 per contract. Traders looked to the Feb. $14 and $15 strikes, buying calls this morning at average premiums of $0.35 and $0.22 each, respectively. Call buyers may profit at expiration if Zynga’s shares continue to post strong gains in the next few weeks, but only risk losing the premium paid for the options should the stock’s run-up reverse course. Meanwhile, buyers of some 5,000 puts at the Feb. $12 strike stand to profit in the event that Zynga’s shares pull back off their highs ahead of expiration. Investors that bought into Zynga call options weeks ago when shares in the game developer were down sharply off their December-IPO price of $10.00 saw, in some cases, the value of their positions sky-rocket this week. Traders that paid an average premium of $0.85 apiece for Feb. $8.0 strike calls back on January 9 now find those call options cost $4.30 each as of 1:00 p.m. in afternoon trade.…
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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.