Monday’s Notable Options Activity – $SPLS, $ADSK, $ESV, $XRT

SPLS – There was a large print in the September 20 calls. The trade was reported as a buy-write meaning they were sold vs. shares bought in the stock. The curious thing is that the options were printed at .45 on a market that was .35 x .45 at the time. The stock was higher today following a morning upgrade at UBS who said the shares will likely trade based on the Office Depot deal. A deal that UBS analysts believe is “more likely than not.”

ADSK – A trade went up in ADSK where 2600 of the April 62.5 calls were sold while 5200 of the April 67.5s were bought. That looks like someone closing a 1×2. A ratio spread like this one is often placed as leverage against a long position where the trader is willing to sell their stock at a certain level but often it can be taken off for a profit before expiration. It’s unclear if this was closed for a profit or a loss but the entire spread was out of the money when closed so there was risk of it expiring worthless if the stock did not go higher than 62.5 before April expiration.

ESV – A pretty big put spread went up in ESV. A trader bought the June 20/16 put spread for 0.95, 10,000 times. That’s either a big hedge against a new long or someone thinks this stock has farther to break. The chart is super ugly down here, a break below 20 could mean trouble. This trade breaks-even at 19.05 and has a maximum potential profit of 3.05 at $16 or below. It is 25 deltas as of now.

XRT – Right before the bell (and possibly corrected afterwards) was a mess of a trade in XRT to try to sort out. It looks like a 1×2 put spread was bought where a trader bought 5000 of the April 101 puts. (there was also a print of nearly 15k that was cancelled). The 5000 print had a price of 1.14 when the market on that strike was 1.20 x 1.23. The April 97 puts were printed at .26 10,00 times when the bid on that strike was .25. The cancelled trade of nearly 15k of the 101 puts was originally printed at 1.15. Who knows what was going on here but I assume the 5000 x 10000 prices are correct and it was perhaps agreed upon on price and the market moved before it could be printed within the current spreads on the screen.