Buckle Up! Bulls Take Charge, Stocks Close at Session Highs. Read More.

Potash (POT) is up $4.87 to $74.18 and rallied to a high of $75.49 per share today. In the options market, the top trades of the day: 4900 April 80/100 call spreads for $4.55 on the AMEX. This was apparently a buyer initiated trade and tied to shares at $73.

Nokia (NOK) is seeing a second day of bullish order flow. Yesterday, our scans picked up heavy trading in the April 9/11 call spreads, which traded 14000X. Today, shares are up 85 cents to $9.61 after Morgan Stanley named NOK as its long Research Tactical Idea. In the options market, focus is on the Mar 10 calls, with 25K traded, compared to open interest of 1,975.

The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) is off $2.42 to $88.15 after gold fell $21 to $897. The top trades of the day in the ETF hit early in the trading session when a strategist bought the GLD Jan-10 150/200 call spread 15000X for $1.65 on the CBOE, perhaps using today’s weakness as an entry point for a bullish position in the gold fund.

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Discover Financial Services (DFS) is up 75 cents to $5.96 after Stifel upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold, saying the company passed their “stress test”. In the options market, volume is running 2X the usual, with 6,650 puts and 1,138 calls traded. Most of the activity appears to be part of a position adjustment, where a strategist sold 2,050 April 10 puts and bought 2X as many October 5 puts, possibly closing a position opened late last year when DFS was above $10 and opening a similar bearish position in lower strike puts.

B of A shares are up 25% today, near 4.72, making it the best performing largecap as well as the option volume leader in the sector. 200,000 calls and 123,000 puts have traded at 1pm, with the largest block a customer buyer of 20,000 March 4 puts for 25cents vs a $4.77 hedge, possibly closing to take advantage of the rally and corresponding drop of nearly 15points in implied vols.

SEC Uptick Rule Could be Restored in a Month

Flectronics (FLEX) is up 19 cents to $2.05 and options volume is ruuning at 40X the usual. Most of the action is in the April 2.5 puts after an investor sold 17K contracts for 68 cents on the PHLX.

Cardinal Health up 5% today, near 31.28 and option volume 3x normal with a block of 5000 Mar 35 calls bought by cust for 9 cents with shares near 30.55. Likely closes short part of the 30-35 cspd that was bought in Nov for 2.77.