Tuesday’s Notable Options Activity: $BABA, $BBRY, $FAST, $GOGO, $XOM

Here is some generally directional, untied options activity that caught my eye during Tuesday’s trading:

1. BBRY – total options volume ran 2x average daily volume, with calls outweighing puts by about 10%. But it was the accumulation of 25,000 April 11 puts that attracted most attention as the single largest active strike on the session.  These puts were bought in blocks trading between .77 and .95 when the stock was between 11.28 and 10.96. BBRY is scheduled to report Q4 results on March 26th. In mid January after the Samsung takeover rumors were shot down by both companies, and the stock gave back most of its gains, we placed a longer dated, somewhat speculative bullish trade on in the stock (read here) with the thought that the rumors were too specific to be totally false.

2. BABA – The stock closed at a new all time low, but still well above its $68 September 18th IPO price, as investors remain concerned about the impending ipo lock up expiration of 429 million shares on March 18th. Total options volume ran 2.5x average daily volume, with calls outnumbering puts nearly 1.5x to 1.  When the stock was $81.67 a trader paid 2.47 for 2,000 April 80 puts to open, 9500 ended up trading on the day, making it the second most active strike on the day. There was also a large opening call purchase. When the stock was $81 a trader paid 1.18 for 5800 April 87.50 calls to open, 13,500 ended up trading on the day, making it the single most active strike on the day.

3. XOM – a day before the company’s annual analyst meeting put volume was slightly more than 2x that of calls.  When the stock was 87.30 a trader sold to close 15,900 March 90 puts at 3.15 and bought 15,900 March 88 puts for 1.8 to open, rolling down a bearish view.

4. FAST – when the stock was 41.27 a trader rolled a bearish view down, selling 10,000 of the March 43 puts at 1.75 to close and bought 11,000 of the March 41 puts .70 to open.  The company is scheduled to report Q1 April 14th, but will issue February sales this morning.

5. GOGO – options volume ran 3.5x avg daily, with calls outnumbering puts almost 4 to 1.  April calls were being bought to open with 4300 of the April 19 calls and 2700 of the April 20 calls bought to open.  The stock is already up 18% in 2015, quickly approaching new 7 month highs and a fairly formidable resistance level at $20: