Too Many Options: $XLF, $BBRY, $GM, $DOW, $AMAT, $GLW, $TSO

by Enis December 23, 2013 7:11 am • Commentary

Calls in Jan14 expiry dominated flows as the S&P 500 index closed at another record.

1.  XLF – Seller of more than 150k of the Feb 19 puts at 0.06 in the afternoon.  A buyer of over 150k of the Jan 22 calls for 0.19 average price, likely same trader.  XLF has not traded below 19 since late June.

2. BBRY – BlackBerry struck a 5 year deal with Foxconn group to manufacture its devices.  BBRY is focusing on its corporate software and services operations, and outsourcing the rest of its operations, including manufacturing.  The stock rallied 15% on Friday on the news on its highest volume day since January.  The weekly 7 calls traded almost 100k, while the Jan18th 8 calls traded over 40k.

3. GM – Buyer of almost 20k of the Jan18th 42 calls for 0.73 early in the day.  GM’s high last week was $41.85.  The company reports earnings in February.  Here was our roll into a vertical call spread from Friday.

4. DOW – Call volume was more than 3x the 1 month average.  The Jan14 40/45 call spread traded 20k times in the afternoon at $3.39, likely to close after DOW’s strong run last week, up more than 5% and hitting a new 5 year high.

5. AMAT – Buyer of 20k of the Jan15 20 calls for 0.80 in the afternoon.  AMAT has not traded above $20 since 2008.  The stock’s high in 2013 is $18.18 from October.  You can read our Deep Dive look into AMAT in mid-November.

6. GLW – Seller of 18k of the Jan 17 puts at an average price of $0.23 throughout the day.  We are currently long GLW stock and short a strangle in our investment portfolio, which you can read here.

7. TSO – Buyer of 9k of the Jan18th 60 calls for 1.00 near noon.  TSO has not trade above $60 since early June.  Its high in 2013 was $65.75, which was just a touch away from its all-time high of $65.98 set in October 2007.