Bank of America Bet to $16 by August

Today’s tickers: BAC, FXI, JWN, WFC, XHB, CNQ, ANF & PEP

BAC– And finally today, one investor apparently sees a 60% improvement in the prospects for shares over at BAC having placed a 60,000-lot trade on the PHLX to lock-in to the bank’s shares at $16.00 apiece come August. The trader bought 60,000 call options at the strike while selling the same amount of 20 strike calls for a net premium of 46 cents. Ordinarily the speculation would have cost the investor 72 cents, but the use of the premium at the 20 strike eroded the cost significantly. Currently the premium associated with securing rights to buy BoA shares at twice the current cost is a staggering 28 cents! With shares trading around $10.73 and down more than 5% at the end of trading today, this investor is taking a very bullish perspective on the company and allowing only a pretty tight schedule. The same tried in November might have cost around 60 cents instead but would have provided three more months to come good. – Bank of America Corp.

FXI – Shares of the China ETF are down 1% to $33.44, but one covered put strategist sees further bearish movement in the stock through expiration in June. It appears that this individual sees Chinese stocks giving back some of the gains made in the rally that followed the release of the stimulus package by the Chinese government. He established the covered put by selling short the stock in conjunction with the simultaneous short sale of 33,955 put options at the June 32 strike price for a premium of 1.13 apiece. This strategy was transacted when shares were at $34.09, just three cents off of the high for the day. The investor is likely looking to have shares put to him at $32.00 when the underlying price falls low enough for the puts to wind up in-the-money. The premium received for writing the puts today effectively lowers the price he must pay, should shares be put to him by expiration, to $30.87. Should this scenario come to fruition, he will have gained 9% on the stock. – iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index Fund

JWN – The fashion specialty retailer attracted bearish option plays despite a significant bullish move in the price of the underlying stock which is currently up more than 7.5% to $22.56. The department store-chain reported yesterday that first-quarter profits fell less than…