In Goldman Sachs, a buyer of 8k December 110 calls for .30
In Citibank, a buyer of 50k December 29 calls for .23
In JP Morgan Chase, a buyer of 75k December 35 calls for an average of .135
In Morgan Stanley, a buyer of 25k December 16 calls for .22
This to me seems like a play that there will be some sort of grand intervention by the ECB in the coming weeks. If that were to occur, the bank stocks would be the place to be for the biggest move higher on the news. Earlier today the Germans had a fairly unsuccessful bond auction. The thinking has been that the Germans are the ones holding back the ECB until the the peripheral countries finalize their austerity measures. The reasoning behind that is the longer the Germans wait the better terms they will get on these credit writedowns. The fact that the bond madness is coming inside their borders now could speed up this entire process. Something to keep an eye on.