Financials broke out to new highs, and options volumes in single stocks and the ETFs were most active, mostly buyer initiated.
- XLF – The Dec / Jan13 16 call spread traded 25k times in the afternoon, likely rolling long. The Jan13 17 calls traded over 50k at an average of 0.084. There was also a buyer of 40k of the Mar 16 puts for 0.42.
- BAC – The Dec 11 calls traded more than 100k for the second straight day. 730k calls traded vs. 220k puts, with the Jan13 12.5 and Jan13 10 calls the 2nd and 3rd most traded lines.
- C – The Jan13 40 calls traded over 30k, with 26k sold at 1.06 in the morning. Likely same trader was rolling C calls up to the Jan14 50 calls, buying 26k paying 1.72 for that line.
- MSFT – The Jan13 28 / 30 call spread traded 49k, in what looked like someone selling their long Jan13 30 calls to close, and buying the Jan13 28 calls to open, rolling down their long strike, paying 0.34 for the privilege.
- F – With stock back near its recent highs, call activity picked up again. The Jan13 12.5 calls traded more than 35k.
- NOK – Stock closed at 9 month highs, up 6%. There was a morning buyer of about 35k of the Jan13 4.50 / 4.00 put spread for around 0.325.
- SIRI – Someone sold 35k of the Jan13 3 straddle at 0.28 to open, betting on the stock staying around its closing level for the next month.
- JWN – Normally light options volume name. Someone sold 4k of the Jan14 45 puts to buy 4k of the Jan14 52.5 / 62.5 call spread as a bullish play for next year, paid $0.07 for the three-way structure.
- GMCR – Stock was up 5%, back near the recent highs, and someone bought 5k of the June 43 / 55 call spread for $3.35 to open.
- AAPL – The call to put ratio was up to around 1.6 today, the highest it has been in a few weeks, as the top 4 most traded lines were weekly calls.