biz.yahoo.com
Tuesday January 26, 8:26 pm Eastern Time
U.S. OPTIONS/Equity call buying continues unabated
CHICAGO, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Investors continued to bid equity calls higher on Tuesday after International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news) set a stock split.
Calls on IBM were especially active on the Chicago Board Options Exchange, where the February 185, 190 and 200 calls topped the most active list, registering combined volume of 12,750 contracts. The stock was up 3-5/16 at 184-1/4.
Overall equity call volume on the CBOE, the biggest options market, outpaced put volume 228,871 contracts to 78,981 as of 1130 CST/1730 GMT.
''The smart money is currently selling extremely expensive calls to the public,'' said Jerry Hegarty, chief analyst with Cape Market Research and editor of Hegarty's Options Navigator.
''Look for call option writers to clean the pockets of call peculators over the next few months,'' he added. ''The euphoria swirling around stocks virtually insures little overall upside progress in prices.'' |
