Option Bulls Buy Calls to Celebrate New Coverage of NuVasive Spinal Treatment
by Andrew Wilkinson - February 26th, 2010 5:49 pm
Today’s tickers: NUVA, TRE, FXE, BBY, DECK, LEN, AA, ESRX, JDSU & UNH
NUVA – NuVasive Inc. – The spinal surgery equipment maker’s shares are up sharply today by more than 32.50% to $39.38. NuVasive’s shares surged on news health insurance company, Aetna, is changing its policy to allow reimbursement for surgical spine treatment know as lateral interbody fusion. Bullish posturing in call options was observed today following the news about extended coverage for the treatment, which was previously excluded for being an experimental procedure. Plain-vanilla call buyers picked up nearly 2,000 contracts at the March $40 strike for an average premium of $1.34 apiece. Investors long the calls are prepared to pocket profits if NUVA’s shares rally above the effective breakeven point on the calls at $41.34 by expiration day next month.
TRE – Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corp. – British Columbia, Canada-based gold mining company, Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corp., attracted heavier than usual two-way trading traffic in put options today. The firm, which explores and acquires gold properties in Tanzania, realized a 2.30% rally in its shares during the session to $4.05. More than 25,000 in-the-money put options changed hands at the October $5 strike with the majority of the volume trading to the bid. Approximately 14,200 puts were sold for an average premium of $1.31 per contract, while 5,200 put contracts were purchased at that strike for roughly the same amount of premium. In-the-money put sellers are perhaps anticipating continued bullish movement in the price of the underlying by October expiration. Investors short the puts keep the full $1.31 premium per contract if TRE’s shares rally above $5.00 by expiration day. Put sellers stand ready to have shares of the underlying stock put to them at an effective price of $3.69 apiece in the event that the put contracts remain in-the-money through expiration day.
FXE – CurrencyShares Euro Trust – Shares of the FXE exchange-traded fund, which reflects the price of the Euro, are up 0.45% to $135.88 in afternoon trading. A decent-sized put butterfly spread on the fund indicates one investor does not expect the current rally to continue. On the contrary, the parameters of the spread benefit the trader most if shares decrease roughly 2.25% in value by April expiration. To enact the bearish butterfly play, the investor purchased 5,000 puts at the April $134 strike for a premium of $1.50 apiece [wing 1], and picked…
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PetroBras Bear Braces for Aftershock – Buys Ratio Put Spread
by Andrew Wilkinson - February 10th, 2010 5:01 pm
Today’s tickers: PBR, HOG, BMY, FXE, KFT, YHOO, MOS, NTGR, BIDU & DIS
PBR – Petroleo Brasileiro SA ADR – Shares of Brazil’s state-owned oil and natural gas company rose 1.20% to $40.02 this afternoon, adding to the nearly 8% recovery in shares since Friday February 5, 2010, up to an intraday high of $40.25. But, painfully recent memories of the nearly 30% decline in the price per PBR-share from $52.88 on December 1, 2009, to a six-month low of $37.31 on February 8, 2010, have one investor casting doubts that this week’s rebound in shares will last. The investor initiated a ratio put spread to hedge against further share price erosion through February expiration. The trader bought 10,000 puts at the February $39 strike for a premium of $0.50 apiece, and sold 20,000 puts at the lower February $36 strike for a premium of $0.10 each. The net cost of the pessimistic play amounts to $0.30 per contract. Thus, the investor is positioned to amass profits should PBR’s shares slip beneath the breakeven price of $38.70 by expiration day. Maximum potential profits of $2.70 per contract are available to the trader if PetroBras’ share price falls 10% from the current price of $40.02 to reach $36.00 by expiration next Friday.
HOG – Harley-Davidson, Inc. – The motorcycle manufacturer’s shares declined 0.25% to $22.67 today prompting pessimistic options trades in the March contract. Investors purchased put spreads to position for potential share price erosion through expiration next month. Approximately 12,500 puts were picked up at the March $22 strike for an average premium of $1.08 apiece, spread against the sale of 12,500 puts at the lower March $19 strike for a premium of $0.25 each. The debit put spreads cost traders a net $0.83 per contract. Maximum potential profits of $2.17 per contract accumulate for put-spreaders if HOG’s share price plummets more than 16% from the current value of the stock to reach $19.00 by expiration.
BMY – Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. – Pharmaceutical company, Bristol-Myers Squibb, attracted bullish options traders today despite the 1.25% decline in the price of its shares to $23.94. One investor is optimistic that BMY’s shares will rally approximately 9% in the next five months to June expiration. The trader purchased a debit call spread to position for potential bullish movement in the price of the underlying stock. It appears the investor purchased 5,900 calls at…
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Option Implied Volatility on JPM at Lowest Level Since Oct. 2007 Following Q4 Earnings
by Andrew Wilkinson - January 15th, 2010 4:21 pm
Today’s tickers: JPM, MNKD, CHK, BIDU, PFE, FXE, AA, SHFL, IBB & INTC
JPM – JPMorgan Chase & Co. – Profit-taking measures employed on the banking institution today show keen foresight by one investor who walked away from the table today with a nice chunk of change in his pocket. Shares of JPMorgan are currently trading 1.80% lower this afternoon to $43.89 even though the firm posted fourth-quarter earnings of $0.40 per share, which exceeded average analyst expectations by a margin of $0.13 a share. It looks like the investor banked gains on a previously established short put position in the February contract today by buying back the contracts at a discounted premium. The trader originally sold 20,000 puts at the February $42 strike for an average premium of $1.02 per contract this past Wednesday January 13, 2010. Today the same individual appears to have purchased-to-close the position by paying a lesser premium of $0.67 per contract. Net proceeds on the transaction amount to $0.35 apiece. The decline in shares of the underlying today certainly cut into the trader’s available profit, but the significant reduction in option implied volatility perhaps benefited the investor by weighing down option premiums. Option implied is 17.94% lower to stand at 25.13% – the lowest level since October of 2007 – as of 2:45 pm (EDT).
MNKD – MannKind Corp. – Shares of the biopharmaceutical company increased 7% in the first half of the trading day, but reversed direction in afternoon trading, falling 2.5% to stand at $10.10. Options activity in the May contract indicates lower volatility in the price of the underlying through expiration. It appears one investor initiated a short straddle play on the stock by selling 5,000 calls at the May $10 strike for a premium of $2.41 apiece, in combination with the sale of 5,000 puts at the same strike for $3.22 each. The straddle-seller pockets a gross premium of $5.63 per contract, which he keeps if MNKD’s shares settle at $10.00 by expiration. The transaction could be the work of an investor selling volatility. Implied volatility is currently up 8.4% to 122.16% with 90 minutes remaining in the session. The investor need not hold the short straddle through expiration in order to profit. Perhaps the trader is looking for a reduction in option implied volatility, which would likely result in lower premiums on both the calls and the puts. Lower…
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Stock Market Crash – Year One in Review – The Gathering Storm
by Phil - September 7th, 2009 7:13 am
Happy anniversary market crash!
One year ago, in September, the market started falling in earnest. A lot of people were caught by surprise by that drop as many thought we had just had a major correction and the worst was over. We had bounced off 10,800 on July 14th and had made it all the way back to touch 12,000 on August 14th but that day I warned my members in the morning post:
We’re really through the looking glass when you see investors stampede right back into oil and other commodity stocks at the first sign of a bounce off a 20% drop. I guess they’ve never seen a pullback off 20% before so it makes sense that Cramer would hit the BUYBUYBUY button on anything that smells like crude. I wish I had access to the tapes of all these same idiots telling you to BUYBUYBUY housing stocks and mortgage companies when they made their first bounce on the way to 80% losses.
It’s not just oil that is expensive, now it has to compete for consumer dollars with food and airline fares and tobacco prices and consumer goods etc. Oil was able to bubble up because people were enjoying a robust economy and it was the ONLY thing that was rising out of control. Metals began to follow it as that didn’t affect the average person but then companies had to start passing on the increased costs and the banks stopped lending money and the consumers were forced to stop using their home’s equity (if there was any left) like a piggy bank and *poof,* suddenly there isn’t enough money for oil. This isn’t going to change because there’ s a hurricane or a shut down pipeline or anything else.
Oil was trading at a still ridiculous $115 a barrel that day, down from $147 on July 1st but still choking the life out of the economy. We were very bearish on oil and natural gas ($14 at the time) as the fundamentals simply didn’t support the price of oil at $115 as much as they didn’t support $147 a month earlier. I had gone negative on oil too early though, as we thought $120 was surely the top back in May. Sometimes fundamentals can get you too ahead of the market. Our man Ben was between a rock and a hard place as he HAD to do something to…
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Weekly Wrap Up
by Phil - April 5th, 2009 7:32 pm
Another week, another 5% gain – isn’t the stock market easy?
We’ve gained 1,400 points in 4 weeks from our March 9th low of 6,600 – pretty impressive on the whole - but we have suffered a serious decrease in upward momentum since March 23rd, when we finished at 7,775. That’s 1,175 points in 10 sessions followed by just 225 over the next 9. It’s a little hard to reconcile this very toppy sort of action with the "bull market" mania that has swept the media this past week. We’ve been bracing ourselves for a slap of cold water all week that never really came although this weekend the WSJ ran this nasty unemployment graph along with an article titled: "Time to Brace for Trouple as Profits Debacle Starts" which reminds us why we went into the weekend 55% bearish.
In last weekend’s post I warned: "Don’t forget I was looking for something like a 5% pullback and "all" we got was 2.5% so far" and it only took minutes out of the gate on Monday morning to give us the rest of that 5%. I reposted our target levels on Monday morning of Dow 7,636, S&P 805, Nas 1,525, NYSE 5,075 and Russell 420, which were well tested Monday and Tuesday until we got a proper breakout on Wednesday morning.
I was actually more optimistic on Monday than I am today as Monday our plan was we were hoping to hold our pullback levels and form a base we could build off. The problem was the way we did rally made no sense – we didn’t climb a wall of worry – we climbed a wall of ACTUAL bad news that gave us brand new reasons to worry. While the difference may sound subtle – it’s actually a big deal! As a UBS economist I quoted in Monday’s post said: "he housing market isn’t about to start booming, but the intensity of the pain will probably recede." This is the result of our abusive relationship with the markets as they declined over 50% in 6 months – the mere absence of pain is treated as pleasure.
We had 4 new trade ideas from the Weekend Reading post in HIG, ING, FXE and BLK with all but HIG solidly performing already. As with most of our stock entries, we have been hedging with puts and calls sold against 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. She manages the Favorites backup site
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