Whole Foods Strangled; Enormous Prints in Technology SPDR Put Options
by Andrew Wilkinson - October 7th, 2010 4:40 pm
Today’s tickers: WFMI, XLK, LCC, POT, BMC, TGT & BKE
WFMI - Whole Foods Market, Inc. – Shares of the operator of natural and organic foods supermarkets slipped 2.40% lower this afternoon to $35.31 as of 3:05 pm ET. The stock popped up on our ‘hot by options volume’ market scanner after one strategist initiated a short strangle in the November contract. It looks like the investor responsible for the trade expects shares in Whole Foods remain range-bound through expiration day next month. The trader sold 5,000 puts at the November $33 strike at a premium of $1.00 each, and shed 5,000 calls at the November $38 strike for premium of $0.92 a-pop. Gross premium pocketed by the strangle-seller amounts to $1.92 per contract. The trader keeps the full premium received as long as WFMI’s shares trade within the boundaries of the strike prices described through expiration. Short stances taken in both call and put options expose the investor to losses, however, should the price of the underlying stock fly upward or fall substantially in the next six weeks. The options strategist starts to lose money if shares rally above the upper breakeven price of $39.92, or should shares trade below the lower breakeven point at $31.08, by expiration day in November.
XLK - Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF – A massive debit put spread utilizing a total of 224,000 contracts on the Technology fund went through electronically this afternoon just after 2:00 pm in New York trading. The spread is perhaps the work of one big options market participant positioning for the price of the underlying shares to slide lower ahead of December expiration. Shares of the XLK, an exchange-traded fund designed to provide investment results that correspond to the price and yield performance of the Technology Select Sector of the S&P 500 Index, edged 0.17% lower to $23.14 by 2:50 pm ET. Companies represented in the Technology Select Sector Index are engaged in industries such as information technology, consulting, semiconductor equipment and products, as…
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Thursday: Through the Roof or Smashed into a Thousand Pieces?
by Phil - October 7th, 2010 8:16 am
GRANDPA JOE: But this roof is made of glass. It’ll shatter into a thousand pieces. We’ll be cut to ribbons!
WILLY WONKA: Probably.
Is today going to be the day? After pressing against our breakout levels all week, today do we should finally have the gas to get over the top or will our 7.5% levels keep acting like a solid barrier? Oddly enough, I was asking the same question (with the same title post) on August 5th, when we were trying to break out over our 5% lines of Dow 10,710, S&P 1,123, Nas 2,310, NYSE 7,140 and Russell 666. At the time I concluded that the only way we were going to do that was if the Fed gave us more Quantitative Easing.
We were, at the time, at the top of a very bogus-looking, low-volume rally that had taken us up 10% from 9,700 in early July to 10,680 on August 4th. The Dow and the Nasdaq were our leaders but the Russell kept flashing warning signs as it failed to hold it’s satanic 666 target and, on Aug 2nd, just like on October 5th, we had a big, silly jump up to what we were pretty sure was a blow-off top. Despite being dead right to call a top at the time – it took the market another week to drop but we fell off a cliff on Wednesday, August 10th and we were back at 10,200 on the 11th so better a week early than a week late with these calls.
Willy Wonka understood stock market physics, there had to be enough power to getthrough that overhead resistance or it was going to be a very painful test of the top (like the one we had in August). Since our last dip, we’ve come back for another try but the volume has been substantially lower than it was in Aug, leading us to believe it is only TradeBots, and not Oompa Loompas, who are buying this market. Can TradeBots alone give us enough "thrust" to break through this time? It shouldn’t be THAT hard, in April we had highs of Dow 11,258 (5.6% higher than 10,680), S&P 1,219 (7.5% higher), Nas 2,535 (9.2%), NYSE 7,743 (7.2%) and Russell 745 (11.1%) so it’s not like we’re asking for a lot with our little breakouts, are we?
SOX were 404, now 345 (down…
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Thrill-Ride Thursday – Retail Sales and Maybe Some Jobs?
by Phil - January 7th, 2010 7:50 am
Beware the data!
The first thing you will hear this morning is that COST had a 9% rise in sales, with International sales up a whopping 25%. What you are less likely to hear is that COST sells a lot of gasoline, which has doubled in price since last December and, excluding inflation in gas prices, same-store sales are up just 2%, a tremendous miss of the 7.9% expected. Out of the 25% increase in International sales, 15% is attributable to currency exchange so up 10% is the real number.
This is nothing against Costco, I like that company, but it’s a caution sign to look carefully at the retail numbers we’re going to be seeing today as there are several outside factors that are skewing the results drastically – to the point where the numbers, whether good or bad, are almost meaningless. It’s also good to keep in mind that we are comping sales to the WORST CHRISTMAS EVER so anything less than double digit gains over last year is still pretty sad.
Mish did a good job yesterday of pointing out the statistical nonsense known as the Non-Farm Payroll Report, where "Birth/Death" model revisions that were as much as 356,000 a month last year (January) make the data beyond useless for any kind of serious analysis. Nonetheless, analyze it they will and if we manage to avoid posting our 24th CONSECUTIVE month of losses, surely they will be pouring champagne on CNBC and acting like Capitalism has once again triumphed over evil (evil being people without money who still want to live with dignity).
Speaking of dignity – if you know 100 people in Nevada then, statistically, 3 of them went bankrupt this year, up 61% from last year as our economy "recovers". In Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama, just 2 of your 100 friends filed while California, surprisingly "only" had one in 66 households file for bankruptcy so you can go almost a whole day and not run into someone who lost everything in California – too bad the same can’t be said for the State overall! California needs $21Bn over the next 18 months to keep the lights on. This doesn’t seem so bad, GMAC is losing $13Bn this quarter and we’re bailing them out but if we bail out CA then NY, NJ and 47 other states will come knocking to the tune…
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Brocade Options Hyperactive
by Andrew Wilkinson - October 8th, 2009 4:34 pm
Today’s tickers: BRCD, WYN, CAR, TGT, CBST & KMB
BRCD - Shares of the telecommunications equipment provider continue to rally today. The stock gained more than 6.5% during the session and reached a new 52-week high of $9.65. The BRCD ticker symbol catapulted to the top of our ‘most active by options volume’ market scanner as investors exchanged more than 235,000 option contracts on the stock by lunchtime. It appears one investor executed a massive bull call spread in the November contract. The transaction involved the purchased of about 65,000 calls at the November 12 strike for an average premium of 37 cents each, spread against the sale of approximately 65,000 calls at the higher November 13 strike for 20 pennies apiece. The net cost of the trade amounts to 17 cents per contract for an approximate total price tag of $1,105,000. The investor stands to make 83 cents per contract for maximum potential profits of $5,395,000 if shares of BRCD rise 35% to $13.00 by expiration in November. – Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. –
WYN - Shares at the hotelier broke nicely to the upside earlier in the week and stand 3% ahead of a congestion zone at $18.00. Yesterday Goldman Sachs raised the stakes with an upgrade and a 12-month price forecast of $26 per share. With earnings scheduled for October 28, it appears that one investor has used a call option combination to target a move higher in WYN today. Option implied volatility remains high at 67% but is not rising as the shares surge. There was an outright buyer of 15,000 November 22.50 strike calls purchased for 45 cents, while the 20/25 call spread traded about 9,000 times at a net of 75 cents. To break even the share price needs to accelerate by a further 15% to $20.75 ahead of expiration. – Wyndham Worldwide –
CAR - The global car rental company’s share price contracted 4.5% this morning to $11.93 after firm announced the pricing of its offering of $300 million of 3.50% convertible senior notes due 2014. Despite the decline in shares, one investor utilized options in the January 2010 contract to take a bullish stance on the stock. It appears the trader financed the purchase of a call spread by selling out-of-the-money put options. The three-legged transaction involved the sale of 2,200 puts at the January 10 strike for 1.15 apiece, spread against the purchase…
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Stock Market Crash – Year One Review III – March Madness!
by Phil - September 10th, 2009 5:51 pm
We left off in Part II with our Feb 23rd Big Chart Review.
Even though I said: "Once again we are in a market that environment that reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer jumps over a gorge, crashes, is taken up by a helicopter (Ben) smashing against the wall along the way only to fall all the way from the top again. Pain, pain and more pain every time we try to get long" – we still weren’t fully prepared for the devastation that was to follow as the Dow fell from 7,500 to 6,500 in the next 10 days. My commentary on the environment the next day was:
According to Cap, someone on the YHOO message board was counting the number of times CNBC talking heads said "nationalization" this morning and, as of 8:15, they were up to 300 times. Sadly, this is the fear-mongering that is driving the markets to new lows while Cramer continues to keep his sheeple out of protective ETFs like SKF. So you have the man’s network telling you financials are going to zero while dog and pony boy tells his minions to sell ALL the financials, causing them to go to zero - even though they could hold on and protect themselves with conta-funds, if Cramer didn’t spend 3 days a week convincing his viewers contra-funds are poison. I’ve never seen anything like this outside of a racketerring investigation. Speaking of racketeering - Dennis Kucinich nailed it when he pinned that charge on Paulson and company back in November.
Our wall of worry continues to be a steep one. After yesterday’s failure we do not expect too much out of today, we’ll be happy to just see a bottom at this point but it’s looking a little more likely that we’re heading into a capitulation event that can take us down to frightening levels. The 60% line is a line the markets dare not cross but, as I pointed out yesterday, we already lost the SOX and the Nikkei, with the Hang Seng and the BSE hanging on by a thread. Let’s take these levels very seriously, if the administration can’t turn it around this week – the downward momentum can easily pick up steam.
I’ll spare you the details other than to say we DIDN’T turn it around that week and the downward momentum DID pick up steam. I was at war with…
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Commodity Reversal Sees Bulls Charging in Potash
by Andrew Wilkinson - August 19th, 2009 5:50 pm
Today’s tickers: POT, LVS, WYE, TGT, WMT, HGSI, AXL, SBUX & GDX
POT – Shares of the fertilizer and feed products company have rallied 2.5% during the trading session to arrive at the current price of $96.06. Bullish investors rushed in to establish optimistic positions on the stock. A bullish reversal play was established in the near-term September contract by a trader anticipating significant gains by expiration. The reversal involved the sale of 10,000 puts at the September 80 strike price for 75 cents each, which were employed to finance the purchase of 10,000 calls at the higher September 105 strike for 1.80 apiece. The net cost of the trade amounts to 1.05 per contract. The investor responsible for the transaction will begin to amass profits if shares of POT surge approximately 10% through the breakeven price of $106.05 by expiration. Bullish sentiment spread to the December contract where it appears that another trader shed puts to finance the purchase of bull call spread. The December 90 strike had about 2,000 puts shed for 7.90 apiece. Premium received on the sale was put toward the purchase of 2,000 calls at the December 100 strike for 9.25 each, which was offset by the sale of 2,000 calls at the higher December 130 strike for 2.15 per contract. The investor received an 80 cent credit for his trouble and stands ready to add to his gains if shares breach $100.00 by expiration. – Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, Inc. –
LVS - Profit taking in the January 2011 contract caught our attention this afternoon after one investor “made it big” by utilizing call options on the casino operator. Shares of LVS had attained upward gains earlier in the trading day but are currently lower by more than 0.5% to $12.81. It appears that the trader originally purchased 20,000 calls at the January 15 strike price for 1.70 apiece back on July 9, 2009 when shares closed at $7.42. At that time implied options volatility read 97%. Today he sold the lots to close out the position for 4.35 per contract. If this is indeed what took place, he will have banked gains of 2.65 per contract for a grand total of $5,300,000. This assumes no attached interest in the underlying shares. Implied option volatility has declined during this time to stand at 87% today, negatively impacting the premium of these options, which likely helps…
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Option Traders Remain Skeptical Over Real Estate Shares
by Andrew Wilkinson - August 18th, 2009 4:07 pm
Today’s tickers: IYR, CIEN, FXI, MTB, TGT, MTW & HURN
MTBShares of the bank holding company…
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Call Buyers Flock to Cisco After Broker Upgrade
by Andrew Wilkinson - July 20th, 2009 5:50 pm
Today’s tickers: CSCO, TGT, LVS, DISCA, HGSI, OREX, EWJ & GE
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NetApp option implied volatility jumps as call demand surfaces
by Andrew Wilkinson - April 8th, 2009 5:01 pm
Today’s tickers: NTAP, AXP, MOS, SEPR, GM, JNPR, ROK, VIX, TGT & TCK
NTAP NetApp, Inc. – Option implied volatility has skyrocketed from yesterday’s value of 56% to the current reading of 74% as merger fever has set its sights on the company. Shares have jumped more than 10% to $16.47 today, attracting many a bullish option trader hungry for some hot call action. Option volume has risen above 103,000 contracts on the day, with 3.65 calls traded for each put in action. The April 17.5 strike price saw some 10,700 calls purchased for 32 cents each while calls as high up as the April 22.5 strike were coveted for 5 cents per contract. More volume was seen building on the call side in the May contract with 9,100 calls bought at the May 17.5 strike for an average premium of 79 cents. Again, the most bullish traders selected the May 22.5 strike and picked up 3,700 calls for 16 cents apiece. Shares would need to continue to rally by 38% in order for the 22.5 strikes to land in-the-money by expiration. When looking for downside protection, investors clustered at the April 16 strike price and scooped up 7,400 puts at an average premium of 58 cents per contract.
AXP American Express Company – The global payments and travel company has enjoyed a 3.5% share price rally to $15.54 after it received an upgrade from Citigroup yesterday following Goldman Sachs’s decision to remove AXP from its ‘conviction sell’ list on Friday. Investor bullishness was apparent at the April 17 strike price where about 5,200 calls were purchased for an average of 20 cents apiece. Other optimists were observed picking up 1,000 calls at the April 19 strike price at a price of 5 cents per option contract. Volatility on the stock is on the rise, up from the low for the day of 82% to the current value of 89%.
MOS The Mosaic Company – The producer of potash and animal feed has made a comeback since this morning with its shares currently up 5% to $45.15 after having fallen 4% in pre-market trading. Shares started down due to disappointing third-quarter results, which revealed that profits declined dramatically to just 13 cents a share as compared with $1.17 per share one year ago. The company’s CEO, James T. Prokopanko, is looking for Mosaic’s financials to improve in the fourth quarter.…
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Put sellers back General Electric
by Andrew Wilkinson - April 3rd, 2009 4:21 pm
Today’s tickers: GE, TGT, XLI, CBST, HAL, DELL, XRT, CAL & JAVA
GE General Electric – Shares have enjoyed a 2% rally to $10.98. GE jumped to the top of our ‘most active by options volume’ market scanner after one investor took a bullish stance on the stock. The trader sold 82,800 puts at the April 10 strike price for a premium of 33 cents per contract. This implies that he does not think that shares are going to fall beneath $10.00 by expiration in a few weeks. He pockets 33 cents in exchange for bearing the risk that shares fall beneath the strike price, which would see him breakeven by $9.67 at which point his premium will have fully eroded. Should the 10 strike land in-the-money by expiration, this investor could have 8,280,000 shares of the underlying stock put to him at $10.00. Established open interest at the 10 strike is 77,000 lots and so this would appear to be the work of fresh interest in the contract today.
TGT Target Corp. – The retailer has had a slight share price rally of less than 0.5% to $36.18. Despite the modest rise today, a couple of investors were observed looking for a significant jump in shares heading into January of 2010. The first of two bullish trades was a sold straddle at the January 45 strike price. The sale of 2,600 puts for a hefty premium of 12.48 coupled with the sale of 2,600 calls for 3.08 yields the investor a gross premium of 15.56. He will retain the full 15.56 if shares can rally by 24% and settle at $45.00 by expiration. The second of the two trades was even more bullish. This investor established a bull call spread by purchasing 7,500 calls at the January 45 strike price for 3.10 each and by selling 7,500 calls at the January 55 strike for a premium of 1.02 apiece. The net cost to get bullish in the January contract amounts to 2.08 and yields a maximum potential profit of 7.92 if shares can rise to $55.00 by expiration. Shares would need to rally by 30% to the breakeven point at $47.08 in order for this investor to begin to garner profits.
XLI Industrial Select Sector SPDR – Shares of the industrials ETF have risen just under 0.5% to $19.93. The XLI ticker jumped onto our ‘most active by options…
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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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