Thursday’s Notable Options Activity – $CMCSA, $AMZN, $RIG, $SLV, $JCP, $TTWO

by Enis November 14, 2014 6:45 am • Commentary

No major theme in options volumes yesterday.  Earnings season is nearly over, which has led to lower single stock options volumes in the past week.

1.  CMCSA – Comcast shares have bounced back rapidly in the past 3 days after touching $52 support.  I discussed the bull case for CMCSA in a CotD post on Monday.  The Jan15 57.5 / 60 call spread traded 50k x 70k in the afternoon, with the Jan15 57.5 calls trading at 0.60 and the Jan15 60 calls trading for 0.23.  CMCSA’s all-time high is $57.49 from mid-September.

2.  AMZN – Buyer of 7k of the Jan 2017 300 strike calls for $72 to open when the stock was $315.50.  That trade is over $50 million in premium spent, a very significant options trade, though it does have more than 2 years until expiration. AMZN’s long-dated (1 and 2 year maturities) volatility rose more than 1 point as a result.

3.  RIG – RIG hit a new 10 year low.  Buyer of 22k of the Jan15 25 / 20 put spreads for $1.275 to open in the afternoon.  RIG’s 5 year CDS has moved from around 200 in mid-September to around 425 as of yesterday, reflecting the increasing concerns of bondholders in RIG as oil prices continue to decline.

4.  SLV – Buyer of over 30k of the Apr 18 calls for 0.27 in the morning.  $18 was prior multi-year support in SLV before the metal broke down to new lows in September.

5.  JCP – The stock declined 8.5% on heavy volume yesterday after it missed sales forecasts.  Options were active, with the Nov22nd puts trading over 20k and the Jan15 5 puts trading over 14k on the session.

6.  TTWO – Buyer of 15k of the Mar 20 puts for 0.45 to close.  Those puts were originally sold as part of a bullish Mar 20 / 24 risk reversal trade on September 9th.  TTWo is up 48% year-to-date, and is within 20% of its all-time high of $29.60 from June 2005.