Too Many Options: $SPY $VIX $XLF $GLD $AVP $ABX

by CC December 11, 2013 4:18 pm • Commentary

Here are some of the large options trades that caught our attention today:

 

 1. SPY – there was a buyer of the Feb 170/162 Put Spread 35,000x paying .85, trade breaks-even down at 169.15 or down 5.5%. Around 50k Feb 170 puts total traded on the day.

2. VIX – there was a buyer of the Jan 16/30 call Spread paying 1.02 to open for 24,000, VIX has not traded above 22 all year.  Around 30k Jan 16 calls total traded on the day.

 3. XLF – buyer of the Jan 20 puts paying .17 for 140,000, this could have been someone throwing in the towel on a bullish bet. Under 150k total traded on the day, so the block trade was nearly the entire volume on the day.

4. GLDa trader closed a bullish trade this morning buying the Jan15 160/180 1×2 call spread 3,000 by 6,000 paying .05, sold 3k of the 160 calls and bought back 6,000 of the 180 calls.

5. AVP – AVP got nailed today, down almost 5%, a trader bought 28,000 April 18 calls paying 1.29 vs. selling 1,288,000 shares at 17.15, could be stock replacement.

6. ABXthere was more call buying again today, a trader bought 17500k of the Jan15 20/25 call spreads for an average price of .94.