Here is a list of some untied options activity/trades that caught our eye on an otherwise quiet day in the equity markets.
1. GLD – gold had one of its worst weeks in a very long time, down almost 3.5%, one trader rolled down a bullish view by selling to close 24,000 July 129 calls at .22 and bought 24,000 July 124 calls for .91 to open when the etf was 119.99.
2. EEM – saw a repeat of some divergent options action as it did on Wednesday with a repeat buyer of 5k Dec 43/47/52 call butterflies while selling 5k Dec 35 purs paying .53 for the bullish structure. As was also the case with Wednesday there was a large buyer of puts, rolling up and out, selling 50k July 39 puts at .23 to close and paid 1.04 for 50k September 40.5 puts to open. Put volume outnumbered calls 3 to 1 at 300k to 100k.
3. NOK – calls were active today as total options volume ran almost 6x average daily volume with the large block a purchase of 35k Aug 9 calls for .17 when the stock was 8.
4. FFIV –Interesting trade in the internet security stock where a trader sold the July 100/
5. PVH – not a name that sees a whole heck of a lot of options volume with only 14,500 of total open interest coming into today. The trade that caught my eye looked like a put spread collar where a trader sold 5k June 140 calls at .90 to open and paid 1.85 for 5k June 130/125 put spreads when the stock was 131.84. This structure is likely protecting long stock and would have the stock called away at 140 or higher, and offer protection between 129.05 and 125.
6. DIS – made a new intra-day all time high today and options volume ran more than 2x average daily volume, with the largest block of the day a seller of 6200 July 87.50 calls to open at .75 when the stock was 84.12. This trade was likely a long-holder overwriting, possibly setting a limit order above the all time highs or looking to add a little yield as the stock remains in its recent consolidation.