Archive for April 20th, 2012
Option Volume Leaders as of 4:21 PM
Symbol Name Contracts Calls Puts Spot (Delayed) Spot Chg AAPL Apple Inc 1,528,491 56.0% 44.0% $572.98 -14.46 BAC Bank of America Corporation New 782,133 71.6% 28.4% $8.36 -0.41 MSFT Microsoft Corp 485,162 77.1% 22.9% $32.42 +1.41 GE General Electric Company 179,158 77.7% 22.3% $19.36 +0.22 CHK Chesapeake Energy Corp 173,710 53.0% 47.0% $17.44 -0.56 C [...]
Near Term Weekly Option Straddle Snapshot
Symbol Expiry Strike Straddle Bid Straddle Ask Total Volume Total OI BAC Apr 27 8 $0.51 $0.53 27,861 1,354 BAC Apr 27 9 $0.70 $0.73 27,791 14,217 MSFT Apr 27 33 $0.82 $0.85 18,552 3,818 RIMM Apr 27 14 $0.93 $0.96 16,702 2,545 MSFT Apr 27 32 $0.77 $0.80 13,214 4,738 NFLX Apr 27 105 [...]
PowerShares QQQ Trust Series 1 (QQQ) $65.68 -0.27%
The top options trade so far today is in the PowerShaes QQQ (QQQ), which is down 20 cents to $65.66 and underperforming for a second day due to weakness in Apple shares. AAPL is on a two-day 5.9 percent losing skid. Afer notching a new high of $644 intraday on Apr 10, it fell in [...]
Progressive Corporation (PGR) $21.41 -4.33%
Progressive (PGR) loses $1 to $21.37 on high volume of 20.5 million shares after the company’s CEO sent a letter to shareholders stating that profit margins might face pressure as claims costs increase. Options action in the insurance company includes 13,000 puts and 1,300 calls. The top trade is a 5000-lot of Aug 20 puts [...]
Harley Davidson Inc (HOG) $51.27 +3.43%
Harley Davidson (HOG) sees an afternoon spike to $51.96 and is up $1.92 to $51.48 on increasing volume of 2.7 million shares. Options action is heating up as well. 9,470 calls and 2,955 puts traded on the motorcycle-maker so far. May 55 calls, which are 7.2 percent out-of-the-money and expiring in one month, are the [...]
Put/Call Ratio Leaders* as of 3:01 PM
Symbol Name Puts Calls RealTime P/C Avg P/C VPHM ViroPharma Inc 9,607 48 200.15 3.93 AAMRQ AMR Corp 2,552 22 116.00 15.83 SEE Sealed Air 4,087 92 44.42 0.83 SFD Smithfield Foods 6,834 186 36.74 1.27 VTR Ventas Inc 10,852 441 24.61 9.49 CECO Career Education Corp 3,449 180 19.16 1.51 KERX Keryx Biopharmaceuticals Inc [...]
Kodiak Oil and Gas Corporation (KOG) $8.71 +1.87%
Kodiak Oil and Gas (KOG) sees bullish trading, being led by a 5000-lot of Jan 7.5 calls for $1.35 on ISE. ISEE is reporting an opening buyer. KOG is up 17 cents to $8.72 on increasing volume of 9.2 million shares and more than 7,500 of these in-the-money calls have traded on the Denver, CO [...]
Watson Pharmaceutical (WPI) $69.71 +2.35%
Watson Pharmaceuticals (WPI), which was the subject of a substantial May 70 – 75 (1X2) call ratio spread Wednesday (see 4/18 color), is seeing interest again today. Shares are up $1.54 to $69.65 and the same May 70 – 75 (1X2) trades for 87.5 cnts, 6000X, and probably adds to Wednesday’s position — which was [...]
Ford Motor Company (F) $11.65 -0.04%
Ford (F) is flat at $11.66 per share and one player bought 26,000 Jan 15 calls on the automaker for 24 cents per contract. The position looks tied to 468K shares at $11.70 and might close, as open interest is 217,296 and currently the largest position in the options on the Ford. Shares are down [...]
Ventas Inc (VTR) $57.09 +2.16%
Ventas option flow is 12x normal today with a put/call ratio near 30 as a trader waited until the last day to roll the half of the largest block of open interest in the name out a month and down $5 in strike. Buyer paid 17.5 cents for the Apr 55 – May 50 diagonal [...]
