Wednesday’s Notable Options Activity: $GE, $JPM, $QQQ, $VIX

by Dan May 7, 2015 9:10 am • Trade Ideas

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

1. VIX – call volume exploded yesterday, 2x avg daily. The largest trade on the day is a buy of 25,000 may 18 / 24 call spreads for .43

2.  QQQ – total options volume ran 1.7x average daily, with puts outnumbering calls 1.5x to 1.  There was a large block of out of the money puts bought to open when the etf was 106.62, a trader paid .69 for 65,000 May 29th weekly 103 puts.

3. JPM – saw out of the money call buying yesterday when the stock was 64, a trader paid 1.57 for 20,000 Jan 2016 70 calls, but they are marked closing vs 47,000 open interest, likely closing an overwrite of long stock

4. GE – since announcing the plan to sell off financial assets and use the proceeds to buyback stock, shares of GE have held some of the initial gains, but now threaten to fill in the gap.  It appears that a trader who had originally positioned bullishly for a ramp above the 52 week highs has closed out this view. Yesterday when the stock was 26.79 a trader closed out of a bullish risk reversal, buying to close 4,000 Dec 26 puts for 1.38 and selling to close 4,000 Dec 30 calls at 33 cents.