Quiet stock volumes again, but financials calls were active on a strong day in the sector.
- BAC – over 150% average volume. The most active line was the Feb 12 calls with over 120K trading.
- XLF – higher than average volume today with some big trades. There was a buyer of 9500 each of the Apr 18 and 19 calls and a buyer of 9000 Mar 16 puts.
- WU – with earnings after the close, just under 27K options traded. The highest volume was in the Feb 14 puts with 9600 trading, primarily buying. IV30 was at 52-week highs at over 40.
- IWM – the Mar 28 weekly 90/85/80 put butterfly traded 20,000 times (so 20K x 40K x 20K), yesterday we mentioned the 88/85/82 same week put butterfly traded in size. The Feb16 91/ Mar16 90 put spread traded about 30K times. And the Mar16 94/96 call spread was bought over 22K times.
- KO – large looks like opening trade in the LEAPs. A buyer of 6000 Jan ’15 37.5 calls.
- BBY – some interesting end of day activity in June. At 3:56 20K Jun 12 puts and 10K Jun 16 calls traded. I also see a print of 33,750 Jun 18 calls at 3:58. Open interest in small in all those lines.
- NWSA – a big call spread went up in the Jan’14 calls. Looks like a buyer of 22,500 Jan’14 22/25 call spreads. There is 50K open interest on the 25 line and 1 on the 22 line.
- SPWR – has had continuous big volume days since their earnings last Thursday with over 28K options trading hands today versus an average around 2,500. There is some excitement about how green energy with the state of the union tonight.
- DELL – Apr 14 and May 14 calls active again, trading around 35k and 28k respectively as bets increase for a higher bid.
- AAPL – Call to put ratio still high, around 1.7, despite the stock’s weakness today. Weekly 480 calls by far the most active line, trading more than 46k.