Bullish trading in an oil and gas company, bearish ETF trading, two ratio spread ideas.


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Some less actively traded names seeing bullish order flow: Petroquest Energy (PQ), Terramark Worldwide (TMRK), American Dairy (ADY). Bearish order flow: TRW Automotive (TRW), Synopsys (SNPS), Assured Guaranty (AGO). Ex-Div Activity: Bristol Meyers (BMY), Raytheon (RTN), Chesapeake (CHK), Kimco Realty (KIM), Essex Property Trust (ESS), Air Products (APD), Republic Services (RSG).

*Scanning all single-stocks subject to 2500 contracts minimum call or put volume

Bullish trading in a leveraged bear fund Tuesday. Shares of the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Fund (TZA) are up a penny to $9.44 and more than 35K Jan2010 calls at the $9 strike traded. Open interest is only 4,171 contracts and ISEE data at (5724 contracts or 90 percent of calls traded on ISE) suggest that customers are dominating the action and opening new positions. The top trade is 560 contracts at the offer, 85 cents.

Big Prints in Ford Motor (F) after an investor buys 17K Feb 7 puts at 7 cents apiece and 12K Feb 8 puts at 12 cents each. Shares are down 6 cents to $14.16. The action stands in contrast to yesterday, when shares hit a new 52-week high, settled up 7 cents to $10.20, and 62K calls and 19K puts traded on the automaker. However, open interest data suggest that less than 7,000 of yesterday’s calls were opening trades (compared to +8652 puts). No headlines yet on Ford this week. Earnings expected late January.

*Scanning all single-stocks subject to 2500 contracts minimum call or put volume

Hearing that the Philadelphia Stock Exchange [PHLX], one of the largest options exchanges, is being evacuated because of fire. Developing….

Follow up (12:00): From Dow Jones: NASDAQ OMX confirmed that trading on the NASDAQ OMX PHLX trading floor was halted at 11:05 a.m. due to smoke in the building on 1900 Market Street in Philadelphia, PA. All employees were safely evacuated by The Fire Department and essential staff is being relocated. The origin of the smoke has not been identified at this time. All other NASDAQ OMX trading systems are operating normally.

Update (12:49): PHLX is back! I guess the old adage “where there’s smoke there’s fire” doesn’t always hold true.

Avalon Bay shares are flat at $85.25 but left a small bearish spike off a 52-week high of $87.80 yesterday. Today option volume is 3x the daily average being driven by buying in the April $80 puts as a block of 2,800 was purchased at the $4.60 asking price. Total of 3,100 have traded