A new closing high for the S&P 500 index yesterday. While overall options volumes were light, there was aggressive buying in one line in SPY options.
1. SPY – The Dec20th 215 calls traded over 350k at an average price of 0.14, the large bulk of it from one large buyer around 12:30 pm EST. The break-even on that trade is with SPY up another 6.5% from yesterday’s close.
2. XLU – Utility stocks are the best performing sector in the U.S. market after yesterday’s 2% move higher to a new all-time high. There was a seller of 30k of the Nov22nd 44 puts at 0.14 in the afternoon. XLU is now up more than 22% year-to-date.
3. XLE – Strength in energy stocks yesterday was driven by the bounce in crude oil on heavy volume. Dan discussed the largest XLE options trade in a NTT post yesterday afternoon:
When the etf was $85.53, a trader bought the XLE Dec 90 / 95 / 100 Call Butterfly 10,000 by 20,000 by 10,000 to open for .63, or $630,000 in premium.
See the full post for detailed thoughts.
4. CBS – Trader rolled a call position, with 59k of the Dec20th 55 calls trading for 1.30 to close vs. 59k of the Nov22nd 53 calls trading at 1.60 to open. That was ahead of yesterday afternoon’s earnings report in CBS, which was a slight beat. The stock is currently indicated up 2.5% in the pre-market.
5. UPS – UPS broke out to a new all-time high this week. The Jan15 110/120 call spread traded 20k times at 1.42, looks like a seller to close. Those lines saw open interest drop for the first time in 2014, as the trade was initiated last year.