Bullish Action In ALTR Options…
Tech stocks have held gains for most
of the session, as the Nasdaq is trading higher by 50 points at 1973 (1:20 pm
CST). The institutional put selling we spoke of yesterday was once again a
very accurate harbinger of market movement. One thing that hasn’t smelled
right about today’s action was the narrowness of today’s rally. However, the
reaction of the money center banks and brokerages has helped us put the lack
of breadth out of our minds and instead focused us on the opportunities
created by the panic.
On the bullish side, Philip Morris
(
MO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) traded down to $47 7/8 as investors dumped out of defensive issues that
had done well over the past few sessions. Just as we saw MO bottom out, a
flurry of March and April calls sent our computers whirling. You might note
the nearly 9:1
$ weighted call to put ratio seems
out of line with the actual volume and indeed it is! Likewise bullish action
in ALTR options has us looking for some bullish strategies in the programmable
logic device maker.
 Apparently, some pretty big
players are betting that Altera Corp.
(
ALTR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is ready to bounce from the low end of its
trading range. Our computers tracked three one thousand lots orders of APR 20
calls print on the AMEX, PHLX and CBOE virtually simultaneously. If one wanted
to piggy back on this institutional buying, we liked buying the JUN 25 — 35
bull call spread for $3 ½. Prices that worked were buying the JUN 25s for $5
½ and selling the JUN 35s for $2. Limited risk trade that is intrinsically
worth 1 ½ right now, as ALTR is trading 26 ½.
 Bullish $ Weighted Call
Action:
|
Â
|
 Call
|
 Put
|
 $W
|
 $W
|
|
Symbol
|
Volume
|
Volume
|
Call
|
Put
|
|
MO
|
11,322
|
5,189
|
35,819
|
4,432
|
|
GMST
|
8,704
|
861
|
46,540
|
2,880
|
|
ALTR
|
5,321
|
1,390
|
40,987
|
1,579
|
 Bearish
$ Weighted Put Action:
|
Â
|
 Call
|
 Put
|
 $W
|
 $W
|
|
Symbol
|
Volume
|
Volume
|
Call
|
Put
|
|
|
9,237
|
4,780
|
54,936
|
345,982
|
|
EMC
|
14,066
|
20,831
|
39,621
|
291,570
|
|
AMCC
|
2,779
|
20,099
|
4,287
|
141,366
|
|
GLW
|
7,454
|
2,809
|
14,163
|
94,806
|
|
CSCO
|
61,827
|
50,073
|
98,911
|
503,449
|
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has licensed the use of Hamzei Analytics proprietary options analytics)