Here is some untied, generally directional options activity that caught my eye during Tuesday’s trading. One theme that seemed clear among the large blocks of single stocks was rolling out bullish views:
1. MCD – when stock was 93.43 early in the trading session a trader rolled a bullish view, selling 35,000 Jan 95 calls at .90 to close and bought 35,000 Feb 95 calls for 2.27 to open. The company is confirmed to report their fourth quarter results on Jan 23rd, prior to the market open.
2. DD – when stock was 71.20 a trader rolled a bullish view down and out, selling 28,500 Jan regular expiration 74.50 calls at .16 to close and buying 28,500 Jan 23rd 72 calls for 1.06 to open. What’s interesting about this roll is that the company has confirmed their q4 earnings will be Jan 27th (here) so the roll does not catch the event.
3. JPM – saw a large call purchase,. When stock was 58.
4. GM – stock saw a huge reversal on the day, up more than 3% from the lows. When the stock was 35.04 a trader rolled out a bullish view, selling 25,000 Jan 36 calls at .28 to close and bought 15,000 Feb 6th weekly 38 calls for .28 to open. GM is confirmed to report Q4 results Feb 4th prior to the open.
5. QLIK – a $
6. CS – European bank stocks continue their nasty year to date decline with the EuroStoxx Bank Index down 5% year to date. In the afternoon when Credit Suisse was trading 23.81 a trader bought 10,000 of the March 25 calls to open for 75 cents.