A couple of silver mining names see bullish order flow today. Silver Standard (SSRI) is flat at $14.36 and options volume on the ticker is 8,600 calls/840 puts. The flow includes a multi-exchange sweep of 3000 Dec 14 calls at the 70-cent asking price. Sentiment data is hinting at an opening buyer for a customer account. 3,295 now tradd. Jan 14 and 15 calls on SSRI are seeing interest as well. Meanwhile, Pan American Silver (PAAS) is unchanged at $24.45. 5,300 alls and 630 puts traded on the stock, being led by a buyer of 2000 Dec 24 calls for 95 cents per contract on ISE. It’s an opening buyer. 2,322 traded. Another 1524 Jan 25 calls traded on PAAS. Overall flow seems to reflect expectations for gains in the silver miners, even as the white metal loses $1 to $31.62 on the day.

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

iStar Financial (SFI) loses 33 cents to $5.85 and options volume on the stock is running 9X the daily average after 6,500 puts and only 35 calls traded on the NY based REIT so far today. The top trade is a 3440-lot of Apr 5 puts for 70 cents per contract when the market was 55 to 75 cents. It appears to be an opening buyer. 4,000 now traded against no contracts of existing open interest. Today’s flow in SFI also includes a multi-exchange sweep of 1,030 Apr 4 puts at the 40-cent asking price. 1560 now traded. Apr 3 puts are seeing interest as well and implied volatility in SFI options is up 14 percent to 64.5, as some investors appear to be bracing for a decline in the share price between now and mid-April. Shares jumped 16.7 percent on no news and increasing call volume Monday, but the stock is down 41.6 percent since February. The company has been operating at a hefty loss – 71 cents per share in the most recent quarter.

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

BofA (BAC) loses 12 cents to $5.76 and the top options trades in the bank today: BAC Jan 4 – 5 put spread bought for 19 cents, 20000X. While open interest is sufficient to cover, this might be an opening position on concerns about additional losses for BAC shares through the Jan 2012 expiration (43 days). The position delta is -.16 and the downside breakeven at expiration is at $4.81 (~16.5%) and 4.4 percent below the 52-week low of $5.03 set intraday on 11/29. The best payoff, of 81 cents (excluding transaction costs), happens if shares fall to $4 (~30.6%) or less during that time.