As of today Monday October 12, 2009 the top ten most active option contracts were:
- Financial Select Sector (NYSE:XLF) November 16 Call Options
- Citigroup (NYSE:C) October 5 Call Options
- Citigroup November 5 Call Options
- PowerShares QQQ (NASDAQ:QQQQ) October 42 Put Options
- Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) October 47 Call Options
- Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) October 22 Call Options
- S&P 500 SPDR (NYSE:SPY) October 108 Put Options
- S&P 500 SPDR October 107 Call Options
- Abbott Laboratories November 42.50 Call Options
- Intel October 20 Call Options
It looks as if someone is extremely bullish on the financial sector going into November. We can also see that some speculators may be betting on Intel to move higher, as it looks as if 20/22 vertical call spreads were opened today. I took part in purchasing the SPY 108 put options today, and will hopefully trade out of them on weakness tomorrow morning. I believe we may see the DOW get to 10,000 tomorrow but it must pass it and hold, otherwise I believe we will see a sell off going into the October expiration. Abbott labs trading among the most active options is most likely due to the dividend of 40 cents they will be spinning out tomorrow, but note they also report earnings Wednesday. I was selling puts on Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) today as I watched it reverse after a huge block of almost 15 million shares trade around 1:30 PM. When the stock began ticking up on up volume I began selling the October 17 strike put options (for $80 per contract) and completely closed the position within half an hour for a 62.5% gain (sold at $80, bought at $30). I will likely use the increase in implied volatility tomorrow to open a ratio put spread on Intel for the 20/19 or 21/19 depending on where the stock trades. Happy trading!
