On Friday, Jan 15, 1999, there were strong buys on the offer during the last half hour of trading. There was a 50,000 share block where the buyer paid $17, approximately 1/8 point above the asking price. Earlier during the week, on Thursday, three 25,000 share blocks were purchased at the close of the market, again above market prices. There was also two earlier buys in two single blocks of approximately 260,000 shares, again above the bid/ask spread. Is there a deal? Who the heck knows. But on Friday there was enormous option volume in the Feb 17 1/2 calls and the Feb 20 calls. Someone also sold 100 of the Feb 10 puts, suggesting to me that someone isn't at all concerned about the stock going back down there and could have used the put sale to finance, in part, the option purchases. The option volatility bumped up to about 105 from the mid 80's. The increase in volatility in the call options is indicative of either a real stupid buyer who paid up for the options and had money to burn or that there was a compelling reason to make the purchase. That's all I know for the moment. I use AT Financial's Nasdaq Level II software, so the information is reliable.
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