Too Many Options: $JCP, $MSFT, $LNG, $BRCM, $YHOO

by Dan September 5, 2013 4:07 pm • Commentary

Single stocks ruled the large options block trades today, on what was a generally sideways day.

  1. JCP :  stock is up more than 10% this week, the options flow has been fairly mixed but heavy.  In the morning there was a seller of the Sept 14 calls, almost 40k traded on the day, with most of them looking like they were sold.  This afternoon there was a buyer of the Feb 12/10 put spread, paying .62 for 10,750.  The second most active line in the name was the weekly Sep06 14.50 call, where 15k traded on the day, expiring tomorrow.  There was also a buyer in the morning of the Nov 10/12 put spread paying .34 for 4000.
  2. MSFT: stock has given back all of the gains since the Ballmer resignation announcement, but might have found a near term bottom with today marking the first up day in 5 days.  There was a decent size risk reversal in Apr, where the trader sold the 28 put to buy the 32 call for .28, 7000x and then again 6500x for .25.  This trade gets the trader long on Apr expiration at 28.28 or 32.28.
  3. LNG:  The company announced that they were canceling a previously scheduled analyst meeting for Sept 18th, which caused a 4.5% rally in the shares.  There was a large buyer of the Oct 34 calls, 24k being bought untied to stock in the morning for .23, almost 33k traded on the day.  Someone is likely speculating that there maybe some significant positive news in the near future.
  4. BRCM:  Not sure what to make of the very high volume aside from options traders saying uncle on a short term bounce in the stock.  Sept calls were very active today with nearly 40k of the 26 calls trading, many looking to be sold to close, while 31k of the Sept 27 calls trade, many of them looking bought, also closing.   Early in the afternoon there was a sell of 6k of Sept 26 calls to buy 10k Sept 27 calls, this looked to be part of a closing trade in some form of a ratio.
  5. YHOO:  In the morning there was an opening buyer of the April 23 puts, buying 8k in 2 lots of 4k for 1.10 each, while in the afternoon there was a seller to close in the Jan14 31/36 call spread, 12,000 trading at .84 to close.