Too Many Options – $AAPL, $X, $VALE, $FXI, $GE

by Enis September 12, 2013 4:58 am • Commentary

AAPL dominated single stock volumes on its big down day.

  1. AAPL – Call to put ratio at 1.9, quite high for such a precipitous drop in the stock.  The weekly 470 and 475 calls were the most active lines.  The Oct 500 calls were the most active line outside of September.
  2. X – Looks like a trader rolled up the Jan14 17 puts up to the Jan14 20 puts 41k times in the morning, paying 1.20 for the privilege.  X traded cleanly above its 200 day moving average for the first time since February.
  3. VALE – Trader sold 22,500 of the Sept 17 calls at 0.20, likely to close.  Likely same trader bought 20k of the Oct 18 calls for 0.24.  VALE reversed off its 200 day moving average to close lower on the day.
  4. FXI – Trader bought 35k of the Oct 40/42 call spread paying 0.36 to open.  FXI has not traded above 40 since February.
  5. GE – Buyer of 25k of the Dec 25 calls for 0.37 to open.  24.95 is the high of the year in GE.