U.S. Options-LightPath calls busy, vols edge off
CHICAGO, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Implied volatility edged off on
Friday but stayed fairly high, with calls still busy into
expiration, in options on optical fiber telecommunications
company LightPath Technologies <LPTH.O>.
Implied vols for near-the-money February 25s stood at
around 155 percent, and the stock's one-month historical vol
stood at around 195 percent.
"Implied volatility is a little bit down," said a floor
source at the Chicago Board Options Exchange. "It seems to be
normal expiration-type activity."
"Yesterday they (implied vols) were still pretty high,"
said Sage Douglas, research assistant with McMillan Analysis
Corp. "They were still in the 94th percentile (and) still
pretty expensive."
By Friday's close, roughly 1,600 calls and 330 puts had
changed hands on the four U.S. options exchanges combined. That
remained well above the average daily turnover during the last
month of roughly 635 contracts, using Track Data figures.
On Thursday and Wednesday about 1,720 and 1,260 options
traded, respectively.
"It seems to be some customers unwinding some positions"
into expiration, the CBOE source added.
January stock options stopped trading at Friday's close and
will expire on Saturday.
Douglas noted that implied vols in LightPath options have
only edged off their peaks and still stayed high during the
last couple of weeks as the stock has more than doubled in
price.
Stock of the New Mexico-based company, which closed at
10-3/4 on January 9, finished on Friday at 24-3/8, down 3/8, on
Nasdaq market volume of about 1.5 million shares.
((Laura Jacobs, Chicago Derivatives Desk(312)408-8750
chicago.derivatives.newsroom@reuters.com))
REUTERS
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