Etrade Financial (ETFC) adds a dime to $9.20 and a 10000-contract block of Jan14 $10 call trades on the broker at the $2.10 asking price. Looks opening and tied to 600K shares for $9.17. A Dow Jones article today mentioned (register to read more …) [...]

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Etrade Financial (ETFC) adds 19 cents to $8.10 and one strategist sells 20,000 Jan $14 calls on the online broker for a penny per contract. It’s likely a closing trade. Open interest in the Jan $14s is 22,259 and the (register to read more …) [...]

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Morgan Stanley (MS) adds 68 cents to $14.84 and recent options trades on the investment bank include a Jan 17.5 – Feb 17 call spread, bought for 45 cents, 10000X. It appears to be rolling activity, and possibly closing out (register to read more …) [...]

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Schwab (SCHW) shares hit a morning low of $10.83 and are down 37 cents to $11.16 after the discount broker reported November trading statistics and also lowered guidance for fourth quarter earnings. Shares sank on the news and some players (register to read more …) [...]

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Legg Mason (LM) adds 35 cents to $26.62 and one player intiates a Jan 26 – Feb 22 put spread on the firm for 60 cents on ISE. Sentiment data indicate Jan 26 puts were bought and Feb 22 puts (register to read more …) [...]

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43,000 puts and 9,650 calls traded on Morgan Stanley (MS) through midday. Shares are down 7 cents to $14.20 and the top trade is a 10000-contract block of Jan13 $13 puts for $3.55 on ISE. Data indicate an opening customer (register to read more …) [...]

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Apart from the burst of excitement in Jefferies this morning, overall volume is relatively slow today and on pace for 15.6 million contracts, or 83% of the recent adv. Financial services are one sector that is busy, and Morgan Stanley (register to read more …) [...]

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Puts on SLM are busy for a second day. Shares are down $1.16 to $13.02 after the WSJ reported that the Obama adminstration is looking to cut student loan interest rates. SLM puts saw a flurry of activity yesterday in (register to read more …) [...]

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Schwab (SCHW) loses 18 cents to $12.47 and morning trades on the discount broker include a multi-exchange sweep of 5447 Nov $11 puts for 25 cents. Data indicate an opening buyer for a customer account. 6,320 now traded. Oct 13 (register to read more …) [...]

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Goldman Sachs (GS) adds 45 cents to $96.59 and Oct 105 – 110 call spreads were being bought on the investment bank multiple times this morning on ISE. 2500 traded for 57 cents about 9 minutes after the opening bell. (register to read more …) [...]

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