Investor Plants WFC Short Straddle – Set to Bloom in April 2010
by Andrew Wilkinson - November 20th, 2009 4:24 pm
Today’s tickers: WFC, IYT, RYL, YHOO, XLE, MU, ADCT, KBH, DELL, NE & GPS
WFC – Wells Fargo & Co. – Shares of the financial holding company surrendered 1.5% today to stand at $27.88. One investor initiated a sold straddle on WFC in the April 2010 contract. The trader sold 10,000 calls at the April 32 strike for 1.59 apiece in conjunction with the sale of 10,000 now in-the-money puts at the same strike for 5.81 each. The gross premium on the transaction amounts to 7.40 per contract. The investor will retain the full premium if shares settle at $32.00 by expiration. The premium received acts as a buffer against losses in the event that shares swing in either direction away from the $32.00-level. However, the trader will accumulate losses if shares breach the upper breakeven price of $39.40, or if shares decline beneath the lower breakeven point at $24.60, by expiration in April.
IYT – iShares Dow Jones Transportation Average Index ETF – The exchange-traded fund, which measures the performance of the transportation sector of the U.S. equity market, appeared on our ‘hot by options volume’ market scanner this afternoon after one investor initiated a bearish put play. Shares of the fund moved 0.5% lower to $70.53 during the session. The trader established a put spread by purchasing 5,000 puts at the December 70 strike for 1.80 each, and by selling the same number of puts at the lower December 65 strike for 40 cents apiece. The net cost of the trade amounts to 1.40 per contract and provides downside protection beneath the breakeven price of $68.60 down to $65.00 through December’s expiration.
RYL – The Ryland Group, Inc. – Shares of homebuilder and mortgage-finance company, Ryland Group, declined nearly 4% this afternoon to stand at $18.86. Investors exchanging options on the stock today spread pessimistic sentiment through to expiration December. Traders sold 10,000 calls at the December 19 strike for an average premium of 1.10 apiece. The full 1.10 premium pocketed by investors is retained in full as long as shares of RYL remain below $19.00 through expiration day. Call-sellers do not seem to expect that shares of Ryland will recover before the start of 2010.
YHOO – Yahoo!, Inc. – We observed two different option strategies in play on Yahoo this afternoon. A large-volume sold strangle in the January 2011 contract suggests shares are likely to remain…
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All-Time High for Amazon has Option Traders Raising the Bar
by Phil - October 27th, 2009 6:17 am
Today’s tickers: AMZN, MU, ETH, AMR, WYN, TBT, BAC, PCS, DE, ING, RSH & BCRX
AMZN – Amazon.com, Inc. – Shares of the online retailer surged to an all-time high of $125.44 during the trading session. Investors exchanged approximately 241,000 option contracts on AMZN by 3:00 pm (EDT), which represents about 41% of the total existing open interest on the stock of 591,993 lots. Bullish investors expecting Amazon to rally even higher purchased 7,000 calls at the November 135 strike for an average premium of 1.84 apiece. Optimism spread to the higher November 140 strike where 2,800 calls were picked up for 1.05 each. Super bullish traders looked to the highest available strike price in the front month – the November 150 strike – to purchase 1,000 calls for an average premium of 31 cents per contract. Shares of Amazon.com rallied 36% to reach today’s intraday high of $125.44, climbing up from an intra-week low of $91.98 on Thursday October 22, 2009. Investors holding calls at the November 135 strike will profit by expiration if shares of AMZN gain 9% over the high of $125.44 to breach the breakeven price of $136.84. Finally, near-term put options were also in demand by investors looking to lock in gains enjoyed during Amazon’s recent run-up. Traders shelled out an average of 6.92 per contract to buy 3,100 puts at the November 125 strike.
MU – Micron Technology, Inc. – Option traders invested in April contract call options on the semiconductor manufacturer despite the 0.5% decline in shares to $7.41. It appears some 9,200 calls were purchased by MU-optimists at the April 8.0 strike for an average premium of 1.08 per contract. Call-buyers apparently expect shares to rally significantly within the next six months. Investors holding the call options will profit by expiration if shares of MU rally at least 22.5% to the breakeven point at $9.08.
ETH – Ethan Allen Interiors, Inc. – Home-furnishings retailer, Ethan Allen, experienced a more than 14% decline in shares today to $14.30 after the firm forecast a wider-than-expected loss of 21-23 cents for the first quarter. Analysts predicted an 8 cents per share loss before the firm lowered guidance last week. Long-term downside protection is in demand as traders picked up some 5,500 puts at the May 12.5 strike for an average premium of 1.76 apiece. Investors holding long positions in the underlying stock will find protection…
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Chunky Put Play Hits Natural Gas ETF
by Andrew Wilkinson - September 28th, 2009 4:42 pm
Today’s tickers: UNG, QCOM, PXP, XRX, ALL, AMAT, MU & CMCSA
UNG - Shares of the natural gas exchange-traded fund are currently off by more than 1% to $11.80. One investor has picked up some serious downside protection on the fund today by purchasing a large chunk of put options in the April 2010 contract. We believe the trader is likely holding a long stock position in the UNG. It appears the trader purchased 31,000 puts at the April 9.0 strike for a premium of 75 cents per contract. The net cost of the put options amounts to $2,325,000. Shares of UNG would need to decline 30% from the current price before downside protection kicks in beneath the breakeven point at $8.25. Perhaps the put buyer expects the fund to reach a new 52-week low by expiration in April. The current 52-week low of $8.94 was attained on September 3, 2009. We note that it is always possible the trader is essentially shorting the stock and placing a large bearish bet on the ETF in order to profit from downward movement in the share price. – United States Natural Gas ETF –
QCOM - A tech-sector rally fueled by an analyst upgrade of Cisco Systems (CSCO) this morning helped boost shares of QCOM 2.5% during the trading session to $45.82. The manufacturer of wireless network products attracted optimistic option traders to the November contract. We observed plain-vanilla put selling at the November 42 strike where it appears 5,000 lots were sold short for an average premium of 92 cents apiece. Investors shorting the contracts will retain the full 92 cent premium as long as shares of QCOM remain higher than $42.00 through expiration. But, if the November 42 strike puts land in-the-money, investors short the contracts will have shares of the underlying put to them at $42.00 each. Finally, a sold strangle was initiated through the sale of 1,200 puts at the November 43 strike for 1.07 apiece, in combination with the sale of 1,200 calls at the higher November 50 strike for 81 pennies each. Investors ‘strangling’ QCOM receive a gross premium of 1.88. The full premium is retained by these individuals as long as the stock trades within the confines of the strike prices described through expiration in November. Traders face losses in the event that shares swing 13% higher to surpass the upper breakeven point at $51.88, or if…
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Monday Morning – 6 Unemployed People Per Job?
by Phil - September 28th, 2009 8:26 am
The number of unemployed people per job opening has climbed to 6:
Six is a lot, as you can see from the above chart. 6 means that if you get a job, 5 people absolutely will NOT be able to get a job because you just took the last one. Notice Job Openings are still falling and people without jobs are still rising – this is not a good combination, despite how great you hear things are getting on TV. In the first 6 months of this year, there are half as many manufacturing jobs available, 17% less Government Jobs, 21% less Professional Jobs and 21% less Educational Jobs.
Call me old-fashioned but I still think you need people to work in order to have a strong economy. If we have 10% unemployment (the "official" number) and only 1 in 6 people COULD get jobs if they filled every single available opening tomorrow. That still leaves us with 8.5% unemployment. We are miles and miles away from creating jobs and that is very scary.
As I predicted in the Weekend Wrap-Up, Merkel won her election in Germany and the new "Pro-Business" coalition is making investors happy but Germany has some silly rule about balancing their budget so it will be a long time before you see the massive tax cuts that investors are salivating over. Also, one would think people would sober up and short the Euro if their plan is to start running the German printing presses in a US-styled Spendocracy but no action in the currency markets so far. I wrote some extensive commentary on the German situation in Member Chat so I won’t get into it again here.
This weekend, I also posed the questions "Are Fundamentals Making a Comeback," or are we just resting before the next big push to 10,000? We’ll be keeping a very close eye on our 5% rule levels next week, especially the retrace levels from the 20% run-ups since early July:
| Dow |
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Mylan Rebounds After FDA Report Signals All Clear
by Andrew Wilkinson - August 13th, 2009 5:07 pm
Today’s tickers: MYL, MU, ACAD, PAAS, PALM, KLAC, LDK, OIH & SM
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Penn Gaming joins casino-movers – put options in action
by Andrew Wilkinson - May 26th, 2009 5:59 pm
Today’s tickers: PENN, CIT, EXPE, RF, XRT, FITB, UNH, UNG & MU
PENN – Shares of the gaming and racing company have lifted 8% to $30.79 amid gains experienced by a number of casino operators today. PENN edged onto our ‘hot by options volume’ market scanner after one investor initiated a put spread in the October contract. The spread was established through the purchase of 6,550 puts at the October 25 strike price for 2.02 each against the sale of 6,550 puts at the lower October 20 strike for a premium of 79 cents. The net cost of the transaction amounts to 1.23 and yields a maximum potential profit of 3.77 if shares declined to $20.00 by expiration. Such a trade could represent downside protection by an individual who is long the stock. Or, it could potentially represent a medium-term bearish position by a trader hoping to profit in the event of a 22% decline in shares through the breakeven point at $23.77 by expiration. – Penn National Gaming, Inc.
CIT – The bank holding company’s shares have rallied nearly 7% to $3.38 today, attracting some bullish option players seeking to benefit from further gains in the stock. Call-volume at the near-term June 5.0 strike price ballooned upward by more than 48,000 as investors purchased at least 37,200 contracts for an average premium of 23 cents each. The calls will begin to yield profits to investors if the underlying shares can increase 55% from the current price and surpass the breakeven point at $5.23 by expiration. Optimism spread to the July 5.0 strike where 5,500 calls were coveted for 40 cents apiece. Finally, the October 5.0 strike attracted some bullish action as well as some 2,000 calls appear to have been bought for 65 cents per contract. Option implied volatility climbed as high as 192% during the trading day up from Friday’s closing value of 151%. – CIT Group, Inc.
EXPE– Shares of the online travel company have climbed more than 6% to $15.88 amid renewed takeover chatter reported by one source. Option traders on EXPE have braced themselves for bullish movement in the stock as some 2,300 calls were purchased at the near-term June 17.5 strike price for an average premium of 35 cents per contract. In order to profit from a long-call position by expiration shares of Expedia must double today’s rally in order to breach the…
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Retail investors paint mixed picture through options
by Andrew Wilkinson - March 26th, 2009 7:02 pm
Today’s tickers: XRT, EXPD, RIMM, EWJ, GM, STP, MU, WFC, XLF, JPM & ASH
XRT Retail ETF SPDR – Shares of the retail ETF were on the rise today, gaining more than 3.5% to arrive at $23.58. Some traders established bearish bets using options, while one bullish trade stood out like a sore thumb in the June contract. At the June 22 strike price one investor purchased 17,200 in-the-money calls for a sizeable premium of 3.12 apiece. The rest of the notable trades were decidedly looking for downside movement in shares. At the near-term April contract a credit spread was initiated by purchasing 3,000 calls at the 24 strike price for 85 cents and selling 3,000 calls at the 22 strike for 2.00 apiece. The net credit enjoyed on the trade amounts to 1.15 and will be retained in full if shares fall below $22.00 by expiration. Another pessimistic investor crafted a put spread in the June contract by purchasing 5,000 puts at the 24 strike price for 2.40 each and selling 5,000 puts at the 20 strike for 90 cents. The net cost of the trade amounts to 1.50 and yields a maximum potential profit of 2.50 if shares can fall to $20.00 by expiration. Profits will begin to amass on the downside if shares fall below the breakeven on the trade at $22.50. Finally, some 5,000 puts were traded at the May 22 strike where there had previously been no open interest. The bulk of the smoke-signals from traders today suggest that the rally XRT experienced today will be short-lived.
EXPD Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. – The global logistics services company has experienced a share price rally of 6% to $29.64. EXPD appeared on our ‘high option volume put/call ratio’ market scanner with a put-to-call ratio of 190. One investor looks to be taking profit today from the short sale of 20,000 puts at the May 20 strike price, which may have originally been sold for a premium of between 0.88 cents and 1.18 per contract. The purchase of those 20,000 puts for 30 cents closes out the short position and leaves the investor with a profit of between 0.58 cents and 0.88 cents. Further along in the August contract it looks like this same investor is reestablishing a short put position. With no existing open interest at the May 22.5 strike price, 15,000 puts were…
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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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