Too Many Options – Usual Suspects, $AAPL, $BAC, $FB

by Kristen January 18, 2013 4:47 pm • Commentary

On Jan options expiry, the usual suspects dominated single stock options volume – AAPL, BAC, FB.

  1. AAPL – It did indeed pin 500.  The 500 calls and puts expiring today traded 120k and 80k respectively.  Interestingly, next week’s 500 straddle price moved lower by $1.50 in the last hour of the day.
  2. BAC – Rough start to 2013 for BAC, down 4% to start the year.  The Jan 10 calls traded more than 90k, and the Jan 11 calls traded 58k on the day.
  3. FB – the Feb1/Feb8 weekly 34 calls spread traded 46,673 times for 0.15. Earnings are January 30th.  The vol skew between the two is currently 6 points.
  4. GLD – the Jun28 QTRLY 175/185 call 1×2 spread traded 18,000 times opening.  This is a bullish trade.
  5. SPLS – the Jan’14 10/15 risk reversal (selling 10 puts, buying 15 calls) traded 5,000 times. There was sufficient open interest on both lines.
  6. MS – A large diagonal call spread traded midday.  Trader bought 30k of the Apr 24 calls, sold 30k of the Jan14 30 calls, paid 0.10 for the diagonal, playing for continued upside.
  7. IYR – A large put spread buyer, buying 10k of the Feb 66 / 64 put spread for 0.20, a rare put trade on a day dominated by calls.
  8. DELL – The Feb 14 calls traded over 40k over the course of the day, at an avg. price of 0.1274.  Obviously more LBO speculation.
  9. JPM – The Feb 50 calls traded around 40k at an avg. price of 0.1225, playing for a move to 5 year highs in the next month.
  10. SHLD – The Jan15 60 / 70 call spread traded 40k, around 2.45, looks like a buyer.  Quite a large trade (about $10 million in premium) for a rarely traded name.