Sunday, November 17, 2019
This week, the options trade of the week concerns the consumer staples sector. A trader took a large bearish position on the Consumers Staple Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLP). XLP covers the sort of goods consumers buy regardless of economic conditions like toothpaste and soda. It also includes the places where most people buy those goods like Walmart […]
This week, the options trade of the week is all about emerging markets. More specifically, there was a lot of major bullish activity in iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM). EEM is one of the most popular ETFs on the market and often a popular component of long-term portfolios. Recently, quite a bit of substantial […]
Even heavily traded options on stocks can show unusual activity, especially after earnings. For example, there was a lot of options activity in Twitter (TWTR), where the shares got hammered this week after a technical bug hurt ad revenue for the quarter. However, a majority of the options traded were calls, suggesting that investors may […]
MGM Resorts (MGM), the major casino operator, is seeing some unusual options volume ahead of its October 30th earnings. MGM normally trades about 11,000 options per day, but that number recently spiked to over 36,000. A big player looks to have rolled forward 4,500 calls which make money if MGM shares moves higher during earnings […]
The iShares MSCI South Africa ETF (EZA) doesn’t normally have a lot of options traded on it. However, a 1,500-lot of puts recently traded, which is 10 times the normal daily volume of options (all in one trade). This trade makes money if EZA drops below $50, and the stock was trading around $50.50 at […]
An unusually large amount of calls were bought in WisdomTree Investments (WETF), nearly 5 times the average daily volume. It looks like someone believes the stock could be going higher by January and is buying lots of calls at the 6 strike. WETF is an ETF provider, so the commission battle between online brokers could […]
Invesco (IVZ) is an asset management company which typically doesn’t have a lot of options trade on the stock. However, just recently double the amount of regular volume traded in IVZ options, with 100% of the activity occurring in calls. It looks like a trader may be rolling up some April calls which will make […]
A large trader made a moderately bullish, medium-term trade on Ford (F) this past week. The trader bought 1.6 million shares of Ford while selling 16,000 January 10 calls at the same time. This is a covered call trade which can make money up to $10 a share in Ford, while earning an additional yield […]
A couple large covered call trades in Financial Sector Select SPDR ETF (XLF) imply smart money is taking a moderately bullish position on financial stocks. There is likely a cap to how high financial stocks can go due to lower interest rate expectations. However, covered calls are mostly considered bullish trades because they generally make […]
Unusual options activity can provide an inside view of what the smart money is doing. A recent string of large bullish trades suggests the iShares MSCI Saudi Arabia ETF (KSA) may be due for a rebound by the end of October. A large trader bought several blocks of October KSA calls, which make money if […]
