Cerner (CERN, news, chart, volatility) shares are up 70 cents to $38.95 and June options are actively traded Wednesday. 10,000 June 42.5 calls recently hit on the bid for $3.30 while two blocks (5,000 ea.) June 32.5 puts traded offerside for $2.55 and $2.60. A block of 700K shares traded at the same time for $39.25. Looks like a substantial collar trade (70 delta) on the Kansas City, MO-based healthcare information services company.

Qualcomm (QCOM, news, chart, volatility) Feb 32.5 calls are active, after 5,000 contracts recently traded on the bid for $4.40. It’s possibly closing. Or it’s possibly a buy-write, as a block of 305K QCOM shares traded for $35.56 at precisely the same time. If so, the strategist might be willing to face assignment since the calls are already in the money. Assuming 100 shares called for each contract, the return after assignment is 4.3 percent. Feb contracts expire in 51 days.

Hits New 37-Year Low

Dayton Power & Light (DPL, news, chart, volatility) options activity picked up to its best levels of the year yesterday. July 20 puts saw most of the action. 10,000 traded, firm-to-firm, for $2.00 to $2.05. Implied volatility rose 2 points and an exchange-floor contact confirms the activity was a buyer-initiated trade. With DPL’s average daily volume of only 850,000 shares, the new open interest of 11,680 represents a significant position if DPL moves towards that strike. DPL is up 38 cents to $22.68 Wednesday morning.

NetApp (NTAP, news, chart, volatility) January 15 and 17.5 calls have seen a flurry of interest in recent trade. Shares showing relative strength as well, up 71 cents to $14.10. Apparently, the action is in response to an Amtech research note that said a large IT company might be interested in acquiring NTAP.

Interesting flow in Quality Systems (QSII, news, chart, volatility) this morning, with hundreds of small lot trades in the Jan 45 and 50 calls. Flow suggests a vertical spreads being sold for $1.

Rohm & Haas (ROH, news, chart, volatility) shares rose 11.9 percent to $59.20 Tuesday amid revived hopes for a merger with Dow Chemical (DOW), albeit at a price below the initial offer of $78 per share. Action in the options market seemed to mirror that sentiment, as January 70 calls led the order flow. 23,788 traded and open interest increased by almost 16,000 to 31,670. Since these calls trade for $2.00, buyers need to see ROH above $72 in 16 days to breakeven.

Stock index futures point to a mixed open Wednesday morning, as investors hope to wrap up the year 2008 on an upbeat note, but find very little news to guide the market one way or the other. Read More.

ADBE Calls on Adobe Systems have traded nearly 9x their normal volume several large spreads suggesting a roll of short calls from Jan to Feb expiry. Around 1pm a customer collected 92.5 cents by selling 4400 Feb 22.5 calls against a buy of the same qty of Jan 25 calls. An hour later a trader sold 6072 Feb 22.5s for $1 and bought April 45s for 4cents. Net suggests a short-call player locking in some gains and rolling into nearly 10,000 short Feb 22.5 calls. Shares near 20.88 and the initiator appears to believe upside in the name is limited well into next year.

Transocean (RIG, news, chart, volatility) January 2011 calls at the $120 strike are actively traded. 17,500 have traded for $3.40. The bid-ask is $3.10 to $3.50 and open interest is only 75 contracts. It looks like opening buys with shares down $46.15. It isn’t clear why an investor would put nearly $6 million on the line given that these calls are 160 percent out-of-the-money. Shares have been under pressure since the company was ousted from the S&P 500 due to its recent reincorporation to Switzerland (See accompanying video).