Another quiet day in the indices, with earnings related flow dominating the options market.
- BAC – Stock broke through 14, at its highest level since early 2011. More than 800k calls traded (over 1m options total), and the weekly 14 and August 14 calls were the most active.
- FXI – Jan15 55 calls were bought 50k times for 0.16 to open, a long shot with an expiry a year and a half away.
- AMT – Over 170k puts traded after Muddy Waters’ negative report, but the stock ended up only down 1% on its largest volume day since 2007.
- YHOO – Almost 300k calls traded (380k total options). The most active line was the Jan14 30 calls, possibly to close, at 1.925, 25,500 times. The Oct 31 calls were also likely sold throughout the day to close, about 16k times.
- PHM – The Jan14 15 puts and Jan14 22 calls both traded at the same time at 0.69 and 1.42 respectively, about 20k times. Could be a seller of a strangle in the name to collect extra premium.