Too Many Options: $ORCL and $GM Calls active

by Enis December 19, 2012 5:43 pm • Commentary

On a day when the VIX was up more than 10%, a lot of single stock call trading continued.

  1. ORCL – Someone rolled their short Dec 33 calls out to the June 35 calls, paying $0.60 to buy Dec and sell June, 39k times.  Likely a long holder rolling out their overwrite.
  2. GM – 3 times as many calls traded as puts.  The Jan13 30 and 39 calls were the most active, trading more than 13k each.
  3. HLF – Stock was down 12% after news came out that Bill Ackman is short the stock.  The Dec 35 puts traded more than 10k, closing the day at 1.15, as vol exploded.  The weekly 37.5 straddle with stock closing at 37.34 closed around $3.50, implying almost a 10% move in the next 2 days.  Ackman lays out his short thesis tomorrow morning at a conference in NYC.
  4. ANR – Trader sold to open 42,800 of the June 11 calls at 1.30 in the afternoon, likely overwriting to lock in gains as stock is up more than 30% in the last 3 weeks.
  5. PCS – 10k of the Jan13 11 calls traded at 0.15, as stock remains stuck to $10.
  6. WMB – Looks like a risk reversal traded in Feb.  Someone sold 25k of the Feb 26 puts at 0.05, and bought more than 30k of the Feb 40 calls around 0.08.
  7. BAC – Much calmer day today, as the call to put ratio was closer to 2.  The Dec 11 and Feb 11 calls traded more than 20k
  8. DFS – Options traded 6 times normal volume ahead of earnings tomorrow morning.  The Dec 40 calls and puts were most active.  Implied move is about 5%
  9. BBBY – Options traded 5 times normal volume ahead of its earnings report this evening.  The Dec 60 puts were most active.  Implied move around 6.5%, and stock is down 4% in the after-market.
  10. AAPL – Call to put ratio was around 1.4 in light trading.  The weekly 530 calls and puts both traded about 31k.