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

Yahoo (YHOO) shares made a run to $14.56 in morning trading, but the gains were lost and shares are now down 23 cents to $14.21. Meanwhile, options on Yahoo have seen brisk trading, with 42,000 calls and 16,000 puts traded on the Internet giant so far. The top trades of the day are part of a ratio spread, in which the strategist sold 2,700 Sep 14 calls at 74 cents and bought 5,400 Sep 16 calls at 20 cents — possibly closing out a bullish 1X2 ahead of next week’s expiratoin. The next biggest trade in Yahoo options is an Apr 16 – 20 call spread apparently bought at $1, 500X. Most of the other action has been in smaller lots. Sep 13, Sep 15 and Oct 15 calls are seeing interest as well. Oct 13 and expiring Weekly 14s are the most active puts. YHOO moved higher in morning trading on talk the company had hired a strategic advisor – Briefing. The chatter comes just two days after the company ousted its CEO Carol Bartz. However, the speculation might be twist on a Dow Jones report that Yahoo has hired Director Kenny to form a Strategy and Transactions Committee. WSJ Deal Blog has more details in a piece titled “Yahoo Begins Lining Up Its Bankers”, which was published earlier today.

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

Barrick Gold (ABX) loses 17 cents to $55.01 and a Jan 48 – Jan13 52.5 put spread is sold on the gold miner at $5.97, 7500X. It’s possibly a roll, and closing out a position in the Jan 48s while selling-to-open a new position in Jan13 $52 puts. If so, it might roll a position from Jul 22 when the Oct 45 – Jan 48 put spread was sold at $2.15, 10000X. At that time, Barrick Gold shares traded around $50.19 and the Jan 48 puts traded at $3.10. They’re being bought at $1.98 today and a new position in the 2013 52.5 puts opened at $7.95. So this appears to be part of an ongoing short put strategy, in which the strategist is rolling positions out and up in strike prices as shares of the gold miner move higher. ABX is up 21.4 percent since June.

KB Homes (KBH) is off 16 cents to $5.91 and 20000 Oct 8 calls are sold on the homebuider at 13 cents per contract. Open interest is 20,310 and so this might be a closing trade. If so, it exits a position accumulated from Aug 29 to Aug 31 when open interest increased by 19,831 to 20,433 contracts over those three days. At that time, the largest trade was a 3,652-contract block at 21 cents. Shares are down 13.5 percent since Aug 30 and today’s call write seems to reflect diminishing expectations for a move beyond $8 (~35.4%) in KBH through the Oct expiration (42 days).