US OPTIONS FOCUS/Rolls and spreads feature
CHICAGO, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Individual equity options trading Thursday continued to be spiced with rolls, or investors moving
positions from one series or strike to another, traders said.
Many of the rolls crossed as spreads, which were also a feature, traders said.
Some of the rolls were done out of the November series, which expires at the end of the week, but some other sizable ones were
seen in later-dated options.
For example, the Fleet Financial Group (NYSE:FLT - news) January 55 call and April 55 call each traded about 3,000 contracts
and the Kellogg Co (NYSE:K - news) December 35 call and June 35 call traded about 2,840 contracts each.
''They're going further out,'' said Michael Schwartz, a managing director at CIBC Oppenheimer. ''It makes you start to wonder if
they're doing it for tax purposes.''
''It may be economical for them to roll out for a few extra months,'' he said, adding that this type of strategy is usually seen around
this time of the year.
A similar move was seen in options on Safety-Kleen Corp (NYSE:SK - news), where the December 25 call and March 25 call
each traded around 3,300 contracts.
The stock was up 1-1/8 at 27-3/16 on heavy volume of 2.86 million shares in consolidated trading.
The industrial waste handler said today it agreed to be bought for $1.9 billion by a new company formed by Canada's Philip
Services Corp [NYSE:PHV - news] and two investment firms.
The biggest spread seen Thursday was in Telebras (TEL.SA) (NYSE:TBR - news) January options. The January 135 call traded
a total of 10,865 contracts and the January 155 call traded 20,065.
Open interest in the January 135 call was 30,075 contracts and 21,704 in the January 155.
The stock rose 1/4 to 101 on more than 5.3 million shares.
Another spread was seen in options on Vivus Inc (Nasdaq:VVUS - news), where the June 30 and June 40 call each traded 3,575
contracts. |
