On a quiet day, calls and call spread buyers dominated trading, with BAC and AAPL leading the way again.
- AAPL – Panic was evident on the open from the options market, as more puts were trading than calls. By the close, call to put ratio had moved back above 1, up to 1.25, though still lower than the past couple weeks. Weekly 550 and 545 calls were most active.
- BAC – Large bullish structure traded. Someone sold 10k of the Feb 9 puts at 0.16, 10k of the Feb 10 puts at 0.43, and bought 20k of the Mar 11 calls for 0.48, and 60k of the Mar 13 calls for 0.09. Trading was much lighter than yesterday overall.
- GLD – Buyer of 5k of the Feb 170 / 188 call spread for 1.34, playing for a bounce back in gold after its 5% selloff since last week.
- FXI – 30k of the Jan13 39 /42 call spreads were bought for $0.56, playing for further Chinese upside.
- EWZ – Buyer of 16k of the Jan13 54 calls paying 0.85, playing for a rebound in Brazil, which has been a weak market this year (down 10% in local currency terms).
- PG – 27k of the Jul 72.5 calls traded at 1.51, was buyer initiated, but likely bought to close based on open interest.
- C – Seller of 3k of the Dec 36 / 39 call spread at 1.03 to close, taking gains after the stock’s 7.5% rally in the past 2 days.
- MU – Buyer of 7k of the Jan13 6 calls ahead of the earnings report on Dec. 19th.
- SD – We had a question on SD in our Your Questions Answered section. The stock is up 8 straight days, and call volume was high today, with around 20k of the Dec 8 calls, and around 15k of the Dec 7 calls trading.
- NXY – The Dec 27 calls traded more than 48k, and the Dec 25 calls have traded more than 30k, almost surely risk arbitrage players, potentially buying calls, selling stock to protect themselves on a break of the deal.