Derivatives Flow Recap

Macro / Thematic

IWM - 50,000 March 77 puts were bought and 100,000 March 73 puts sold, setting up a 1X2 put ratio spread for a $0.07 net debit. A bit earlier, a March 72 - 75 - 78 put fly was bought for $0.26, 20,000X. Both look like downside hedges through the March expiration, with the vertical spread offering a max pay-off if shares fall below $73 (9.4%) and the fly bracing for a move towards $75, (or 6.9%).

XLB - Size put buyers to open: 30k June 38 puts for 1.37.

XLF - September 16 puts 18,000 bought to open.

XOP - March 50 Puts 8000 sold at .19

Consumer

DF – 14,000 puts traded in Dean Foods today with the February 10 and March 10 puts seeing the most volume. The company reports February 16^thbefore the market open.

GCI – Bullish flow in Gannett today with over 28,500 calls and 3400 puts trading today. The relative strength and bullish flow in the newspaper publisher is possibly in reaction to AOL's move to buy news web site Huffington Post.

F - 4,170 Feb 16 calls were apparently sold at $0.45 to buy the June 16 / 20 call spread for $1.16, 4170x. The three-way spread looks like a roll of a bullish position from February to June.

K – Bullish flow: 2000 of the June 50 / 55 risk reversals traded today with the June 55 calls being bought and the June 50 puts being sold.

EK – Almost 7900 of the February 4 calls traded today including a bullish multi exchange sweep of 2158 for $0.07.

SLE - Pre-earnings bullish trading with someone buying  ~5000 February 17 calls for .40 and the July 17 puts have been sold a total of  ~2000x.

Energy

HAL – Bullish flow: 1750 January’12 55.0 Calls were bought for $2.78

SLB – Bearish flow: 4000 May 65 puts were bought for $0.49

Financials

BPOP – 20,000 July 3 / January 3.5 put spread were sold at $0.34. This is likely a roll of 20,000 July 3 puts that were sold early in December.

ETFC – 1800 of the April 16 / 17 put spreads were bought for $0.34.

TMT

STX - Large bearish trade as someone buys Feb 13 calls CLOSING, sells Mar 14 calls opening and buy Mar 12 puts opening... paid .72 for 10k

CSCO – More bullish flow in Cisco ahead of the earnings report on Wednesday (after the close) 225,000 calls and 72,000 puts traded today.

Industrials / Materials

MAS – 8500 calls traded today with the March 15 trading 5170x (64% on the offer).

IP – Bullish roll: 3000 February 29 / March 31 call spreads were bought for $0.34. The March calls appear to be bought to open.

Healthcare

BAX – 25,000 August 55 calls were bought for $0.70. The position, which looks opening, is tied to 450,000 shares at $48.53.

CBST – 2000 March 23 calls were bought for $0.75 to open.

DEPO – 3800 September 10 calls were sold at $1.80 to open.