Here is some untied, generally directional options activity that caught my eye during Wednesday’s trading:
1. TLT – closed down about 1% from the mid day highs, a fairly sizable intra-day move for the bond etf. When TLT was 133.65 around 11am a trader sold 40,000 Feb 123 puts to close at .18 and bought 40,000 Feb 128 puts for .76 to open,that’s $3 million in premium, break-even at 127.24, down about 5%. Detailed the trade last night on CNBC’s Fast Money:
2. GLD – the gold etf also had a fairly siza-eble intra-day reversal, opening at the highs of the session, up nearly 1%, then spending the rest of the day making lower lows and closing on the low of the day, down 1% from the highs. When etf was 118.71 a trader paid .47 for 10,000 June 145 calls, these were marked closing against 22,000 open interest, so could have been closing an overwrite against long stock
3. USO – another day, another bearish roll, when etf was 17.57 trader sold 31,500 March 19/16 put spreads at 1.42 to close, and bought 35,000 March 17/14 put spreads for .86 to open. Interesting that this trade occurred right before the commodity made its first intra-day reversal higher in a very long time, closing up 7% from the morning lows.
4. SPY – when etf was $200 around noon a trader paid 1.23 for 43,000 Jan 23rd (next week) 195 puts to open, about $5.5 million in premium for a break-even at $193.77, down about 3%,.
5. LEN – saw a large pre-earnings bullish roll. When stock was 45.13, a trader sold to close 22,000 Jan 42 calls at 3.00 and bought 22,000 Feb 43 calls for 3.45 to open, the implied one day move is about 5.5%