Tuesday’s Notable Options Activity: $EBAY, $AAPL, $GPRO, $EXPE, $NTAP, $LEN, $CORN

by Enis October 1, 2014 6:53 am • Commentary

Options volumes were concentrated in the technology sector yesterday, which also happened to be the best performing sector in the market.

1.  EBAY – The announcement of the Paypal spinoff gave a boost to shares.  Dan sold his long stock position for a profit yesterday morning after the pop in the stock.  Calls traded more than 5x the 1 month average.  The Jan15 60 calls were the most active line, with one buyer of 13k for 1.68 in the afternoon. EBAY’s all-time high is $59.70 from February.

2.  AAPL – A large bullish roll traded in AAPL midday.  Trader sold 32,000 of the Oct18th 100 calls at 2.43 to close and bought 36,000 of the Nov 105 calls for 2.09 to open.  AAPL has flirted with its 50 day moving average for much of the past 2 weeks.  The 50 day ma is now around $99.  Earnings is scheduled for Oct 20th.

3.  GPRO – GPRO closed at another new high and traded its highest volume since early July (trading more than the total float of 20.5 million shares for the second straight session).  We detailed the difficulty of trading GPRO options in a NTT post yesterday.  Options traded about 4x the average 1 month volume, with calls trading nearly 2.5x as actively as puts.  The Jan15 60 and Jan15 55 calls both traded over 25k on the day, likely related to traders looking for short exposure to GPRO given the high borrow cost.

4.  EXPE – Aggressive call buyer in the morning, with around 15k of the Nov 92.50 calls trading for 2.89 early in the session.  EXPE made a new all-time high in early September.  The company is scheduled to report earnings on Oct 30th.

5.  NTAP – Trader paid 1.17 for 10,000 of the Jan15 40 puts to open when stock was 42.90.  NTAP has rallied about 30% from its May low, and has not traded below $40 since its gap higher on earnings in mid-August.

6.  LEN – A bullish roll where a trader sold 25,000 Nov 40 calls at 1.25 to close and bought 25,000 Jan 40 calls for 2.10 to open.  LEN has struggled along with the rest of the homebuilders over the past 2 weeks, and is now down 2% year-to-date.

7.  CORN – This ETF tracks the price of corn futures.  It’s rarely traded, but there was a buyer of over 25k of the Jan15 25 calls for an average price of 0.536 throughout the day.  CORN is down nearly 40% since May.