Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Options Flow Recap August 2nd


Macro / Thematic

TLT iShares Barclays 20+ Yr Treas.Bond  – 4500 of the December 100 / 95 put spread was bought for $2.52.

SPY SPDR S&P 500 ETF: buyer 63,700 Nov 118/124 put spreads for 1.55, 
SPY (qrtly): buyer 30,000 Sep 128 puts to sell 25,000 Sep 132 puts, collecting 1.29, 
SPY: seller 20,000 Aug 128 puts at 2.27, 
SPY: seller 15,000 Aug 125/130 put spreads at 2.30, 
SPY: buyer 10,000 Oct 110/120 put spread vs 128.28, 15 delta for 1.43
(tough to read since they could be hedges on an overall portfolio, profit taking, or rolls) 

UUP PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish – 5000 of the January 22 calls were bought for $0.39.

XLF Financial Select Sector SPDR – 45,000 of the December 13 puts were bought for $0.44.

XOP SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Explore & Prod. – 3000 of the August 60 / 65 strangles were sold at $1.95.

GLD SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) - buyer 5,730 Oct 170 calls for 2.28, opening



Largest IV Increases: CEDC, ETP, NYB, CEPH, SFSF, DEPO, HBAN, ATPG, RMD, TIN
Largest IV Decreases: HLF, OMX, NRGY, KFN, CTRP, EXPD, TAP, PPO, CTSH, HS

VIX saw 142% the normal volume with 487K calls and 144K puts traded.  Some large trades in the pit:
·         Buyer 20,000 Aug 35 calls for .30
·         Buyer 12,000 Aug/Sep 30 call spread for .65
·         Buyer 11,500 Oct 35 calls for .975
·         Seller 10 ,000 Sep 35 calls at .70
·         Buyer 10,000 Aug 22.5/32.5 call spreads for 1.025
·         Seller 10,000 Aug/Oct 24 put spread at .40
·         Buyer 10,000 Aug 25/30 call spreads for .475
·         Buyer 7,000 Sep 17/21 2:1 put spread to sell 7,000 Sep 25 calls, paid .20
·         Seller 6,100 Aug 27.5 calls at .575
·         Buyer 5,000 Aug 22.5/30 call spreads for .90
·         Buyer 5,000 Aug 18 puts for .45
·         12 way: sld 5000 oct 30 - 20 c/sprds - sld 5000 oct 32.5 - 22.5 c/sprds - sld 5000 oct 35 - 25 c/sprds -- sld 5000 nov 30 - 20 c/sprds - sld 5000 nov 32.5 - 22.5 c/sprds - sld 5000 nov 35 - 25 c/sprds   collects 9.50   , xx-2000 



Consumer

BBY Best Buy Co., Inc.  – 8500 of the August 25 puts were sold at ~$0.20. The puts were sold to open.

DAL Delta Air Lines, Inc. – 5500 of the January 9 calls were bought for $0.61. The calls were bought to open.

GM General Motors Company – 4900 of the September 29 calls were sold to buy September 31 and 32 calls collecting $0.25. The trade could be a roll down in strikes as the September 29 calls appear to be opening.

JWN Nordstrom, Inc. – 5000 of the September 50 calls were bought for $1.28 versus stock at $47.28.

LINTA Liberty Media Corp  – 5000 of the October 15 / 18 bearish risk reversal was bought for $0.70. The October 15 puts were bought for $0.90 and the October 18 calls were sold at $0.20. 

FCFS - First Cash -a $1.3B retail pawn and consumer finance operator in the US and Mexico, traded up to its 52 week high today with 16 times the normal options volume traded.  The company has a very low PEG ratio around .98 (Peter Lynch must love this one) and a P/E ratio of 19.74.  The company has a history of earnings surprises and last period they reported .48/share compared to estimates of .469/share.  They will report 3rd quarter on October 19th and are expected to come in at .55/share.  Today, option traders were focused on hitting the offer in the 50 calls over the next few months.  There are only 3K contracts outstanding across the board and over half of that traded in call options today.  This one seems worth watching as they’ve been on quite the upward trajectory.  ATM vol is about 33% compared to historical levels of: 32% (20 day), 29% (60 day), 31% (120 day).

SWY Safeway Inc - traded 7.5 times the usual options volume after traders picked up more than 12K August 19 puts for .20 across the exchanges.  Over 80% of the trades were executed on the offer implying these were buyers. 


Energy

HES Hess Corp. – 7500 of the September 67.5 calls were sold at $3.15. The calls were tied to stock.

SLB Schlumberger Limited.  – 2500 of the August 95 calls were bought for $0.37.


Industrials / Materials

ANR Alpha Natural Resources, Inc. – 10,000 of the August 40 puts were bought for $1.125. The puts were bought to open.

MT  ArcelorMittal (ADR) – 7000 of the September 35 calls were bought for $0.26. The calls are nearly 18% out of the money.

PLL Pall Corporation – A total of 4000 of the September 50 calls were bought for $1.50. The calls were bought in two blocks but appear to both be to open.

STLD Steel Dynamics, Inc. – 27,000 of the November 14 puts were sold at $0.60. The trade was traded delta neutral tied to 783,000 shares at $15.50

TKR - Timken - $4.1B machine tooling company, traded 24 times its usual options volume after a customer buyer traded over 4500 Sep 45 calls for 1.25 and 1.20.  The trade represented over 57% of already open interest and it will now be the largest position in the name.  The August 50 calls will be the next largest position (2.6K) followed by the Sep 50 calls (1.1K).  ATM vol is up around 38% compared to historical vols of: 24.7% (20 day), 29.6% (60 day) and 31.8% (120 day).


Tech

INTC Intel Corporation  – 44,000 of the September 21 / 22 strangle traded at $1.20. The trade was tied to 660,000 shares at $22.02 and appears to be to open.

VMED Virgin Media Inc. – 4600 of the March 40 calls appeared to be bought to open for $0.30. The trade was an opening transaction.

COGO Cogo Group- a Chinese digital media and telecommunications company, traded 4 times the normal volume just before earnings on Thursday, August 4th.  Analysts are expecting 221/share versus the .20 share they reported last quarter.  Traders executed 4K puts versus 97 calls and the vast majority trade on the offer.  The August 2.5 puts were the most active followed by the Aug 5 and 7.5 puts.  The stock has traded between 4.06 and 9.55 over the past 52 weeks and hasn’t traded above $10 since June of 2008.


Financials

BAC Bank of America Corporation – 10,000 of the September 9 puts were sold to buy the September 10 / 11 call spread collecting $0.07 on the trade.

BSBR  Banco Santander (Brasil)– 5000 of the December 9 / 8 1x3 put spread trade with the investor collecting $0.10.  The investor anticipates a 12.3% decline over the next 136 days.

ITUB Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ADR) – 5000 of the March 18 puts were sold at $1.60. The puts were sold to open.


Healthcare

BAX Baxter International Inc. – 3500 of the January 47.5 puts were bought for $1.20. The puts were bought to open.

TEVA Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd  – 3000 of the December 35 puts were sold to buy the December 45 / 50 call spread for $0.63.

THC Tenet Healthcare Corporation – 6100 of the August 8 puts were bought for $2.75.




http://seaofopportunity.blogspot.com/ 


 *Special thanks to Option Radar, BMO Capital, MEB Options, Bloomberg, Reuters, Optionistics, LiveVolPro, CBOE, AMEX, Option Monster, T.O.P. group, and all of the options desks and traders we work with to provide the option flow! 


 No position at this time. Position declarations are believed to be accurate at time of writing but may change at any time and without notice.

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