YHOO was very active today in Jan13 and Jan14. The strength in the VIX (up 3 straight days now) on an otherwise quiet day was also notable.
- YHOO – Some big YHOO prints went up around 1:45-2pm. The Jan’14 20 and 30 calls and 15 puts traded 39,481 times each, looks like 30 calls bought, 20 calls and 15 puts sold. Also 40K Jan’13 15 calls look like they were bought and 33K Jan’13 11 puts sold. Only notable news of the day (and unlikely affected trading) – Business Insider announced YHOO’s purchase of OnTheAir to compete with Google Hangouts.
- NFLX – NFLX moved higher in the afternoon on a new, exclusive deal with DIS to show Disney movies starting in 2016. Stock finished up 14% on the largest volume since the Icahn announced his stake. Stock closed at 7 month highs. Options volume was led by weekly calls, with the weekly 85 and weekly 90 calls both trading more than 8k.
- VIX – VIX options had plethora of call spreads happening. The Dec19 25/24 call spread traded 20K, the 20/21 traded a number of separate times for a total around 18K, looks like it was bought. The Dec 17/20 call spread traded with the Dec 16 puts 3000 times. The May22’13(W) 37.5/42.5 calls (why do these exist?) traded 2900 times. The VIX has been creeping up since Friday moving steadily from the low 15’s to low 17 today. VIX option implied vol has been moving up as well. IV30 is up almost 10 points.
- GPS – ten times normal option volume today. Stock is down 10% and IV30 is up over 30%. Nomura made negative comments regarding the affects of KSS discounting, more difficult comps heading into 2013, and management’s comments that they will not issue a special dividend, according to Street Account. Stock had been up after earnings on the 15th. Piper Jaffrey mentioned them positively today.
- SAN – Banco Santander SA, close to 10K of the Jan’14 7 calls traded, looks like they were sold. Open interest on the line is 22K+. 2355 of the Dec/June 12 deep put spread traded. They are known for complex and surprising dividend programs.
- NOK – 30K jul 1.5 puts and 20K July 2.5 puts traded, both at 12:59. It looks possible that both were bought. Nokia will sell and lease back its primary headquarters in Finland to raise cash.
- BAC – Trader bought 15k of the Jan14 10 / 15 call spread for $1.21, as the bullish BAC bets continue this week
- FXI – Large bullish 3-way traded, trader selling 10k of the Jan14 33 puts at $2.40 to buy 20k of the Jan14 40 / 45 call spread for $1.225 (almost zero cost)
- PCS – Stock was down 7.5% after a Reuters report that Sprint was unlikely to make a counter offer. Someone bought 34k of the Feb 9 puts for 0.45 in the morning
- AAPL – A bit more active today than yesterday, and call to put ratio down to 1.35, as the weekly 575 puts were the most traded line, trading more than 40k. The 20 day moving average around 563 is the next important support.