Too Many Options: Calls Much More Active Than Puts

by Enis November 19, 2012 8:39 pm • Commentary

In a highly correlated +2% up day, calls dominated options action, sending the CBOE put/call ratio down near its lows of the past 2 months.  .

  1. XLF – Heavy call volume (more than 4x as many calls as puts traded), with the most traded line the Feb 17 calls, which caught a buyer in the morning, paying 0.11 for about 10k, and paying 0.12 for 19k
  2. XHB – Customer sold 15k of the Jan13 20 / 24 put spread at 0.52 to close, taking off some protection on today’s rally
  3. VIX – Very high volume in the VIX considering the lower options volumes in the SPX and SPY.  Looks like a very large 3 way traded, more than 100k, with trader buying the Dec 24 calls for 0.60, selling the Jan13 17 puts at 1.30, and buying the Feb 22 calls paying 2.40
  4. GLW – Largest single stock print of the day, someone buying to cover the Jan13 15 calls for 0.015, 60k times.  Stock is actually lingering near 3 year lows.
  5. BAC – Calls were active as the stock was up 4% off the back of an upgrade and general market strength.  The Dec 10 calls traded almost 60k, and the Jan13 7.5 calls had a buyer in the morning, paid 2.03, 33k times.
  6. TEA – Stock was up 50% last week after Starbucks offered to buy it.  Today, protection buyers were active, looking to protect gains, as the Dec 15 puts traded almost 40k times on the day, closing at 0.20
  7. PG – Traded 4 times normal volume, with a huge skew to calls (more than 5 times as many calls as puts).  Main trades were the Jan13 / Apr 67.5, Jan13 / Apr 60, and Jan13 / Apr 65 call calendar, all trading more than 10k, as someone rolled their position from Jan13 to Apr
  8. JPM – Calls again very active, with the weekly Nov 40.5 calls trading almost 20k, and the Jan14 45 and Jan14 55 call lines both trading more than 10k (the Jan14 45 line was a seller)
  9. EA – Active call buying in Jan13 15 calls, which traded more than 13k on the day.  EA finally seems to have based in the past few months, after a very steady downtrend from Nov 2011 to Jul 2012.
  10. AAPL – Traded 1.5 more calls than puts, so still not an excessive ratio.  For an up 7% day, I would have expected a more skewed ratio to calls.  Top 17 lines were all weekly options.