BGEN And BTY Options Active And Unusual…
Options
activity has been muted, except in Cisco Systems
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), which has already traded over 88,000 contracts. Calls and puts for
the networking giant occupy the lead position in both categories. Players seem
extremely interested in the May 20 Straddle, especially the call portion of
that, as despite the relatively small bounce in CSCO shares, we’re seeing real
buying interest in the calls.
News this morning from British Telecom
(
BTY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
that they will take ”serious financial actions” to help clear debt pushed
traders into shares of the ADR and its options. In fact, if you take a look at
the BTY options, you may think the world turned upside down. That’s because
part of the spinoff of BTY’s mobile biz will entail rights to purchase shares
at some discount in the future. This uncertainty and spinoff has pushed put
volatility as much as 60 points higher than the calls, although arbitrageurs
have moved in and out to narrow that disparity.
The Morgan Stanley upgrade of a number of semiconductor issues has pushed
institutional call buyers into Advanced Micro Devices
(
AMD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Micron
(
MU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).
| Symbol
|
Call
Volume
|
Put
Volume
|
$W
Call Vol
|
$W
Put Vol
|
| AMD
|
2,866
|
2,568
|
12,859
|
2,919
|
| INTC
|
20,680
|
11,461
|
119,227
|
29,374
|
| MU
|
10,914
|
3,178
|
58,467
|
13,342
|
Lastly,
shares and options of biotech giant Biogen
(
BGEN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
are active. One very large player sold 2000 May 60 calls and bought 2000 June 65
calls. Clearly, this is not a bullish spread, so perhaps the investor was
spooked that the results from BGEN’s European competitor could put a cap on
the upside for at least the next 30 days.
| Symbol
|
Call
Volume
|
Put
Volume
|
$W
Call Vol
|
$W
Put Vol
|
| BGEN
|
4,763
|
334
|
26,308
|
1,271
|
(1010WallStreet.com
has licensed the use of Hamzei Analytics proprietary options analytics)