Here is some generally directional, untied options activity that caught my eye during Mondays trading:
1. GE – after Friday’s 10.8% gains, the stock continues to see bullish flow in the options market, when the stock was $28 a trader sold to open 2k Dec 26 puts at .85 and bought to open 2k Dec 30 calls for .65, collecting 20 cents.
2. XOM – with the stock basing between 85 and 86 for the last few weeks, and oil doing its best to find a bottom a trader closed a prior bearish bet, when the stock was 86 a trader sold to close 6,000 July 90 puts at 5.60 and bought to close 12,000 July 80 puts for 1.24. The stock also saw a good size call purchase, when the stock was 85.62 a trader paid .32 for 42,000 May 90 calls to open. Friday afternoon I detailed a way to play for an a bounce back towards 90 looking at June expiration (read here).
3. CLF saw some opening call buying,when the stock was 4.78 a trader paid .34 for 20,000 July 6 calls, the company is slated to report earnings April 24th. The stock has been banging along multi-year lows for the last month and shockingly down 95% from the all time highs made in 2011, and short interest sits at 52% of the float. As always with unusual options activity, it is impossible to know a trader/investor’s intent of a trade, and while some my consider this call purchase a bullish play but could also be a way to protect a short position.
4. SPY – saw a large buyer of way out of the money calls, when the etf was 210.32 a trader paid .95 for 30,000 Jan 235 calls to open. These calls break-even up 12% on Jan expiration.
5. BABA saw bullish flow yesterday as calls outnumbered puts more than 4 to 1. When the stock was just $85.34 a trader paid 1.00 for 10,000 of the May 90/95 call spreads, this spread breaks even at 91 with a max gain of 4 if stock 95 or higher on May expiration.
6. MSFT – saw a closing seller of 25,000 May 42 puts at 1.15 when the stock was 41.84, fiscal Q3 results are April 23.