GMGC news--Monday May 3, 4:22 pm Eastern Time
biz.yahoo.com
U.S. OPTIONS - General Magic calls
bid
CHICAGO, May 3 (Reuters) - Call options on General Magic
Inc. attracted speculative buying on Monday amid vague rumors
that one of the big high-tech firms might be interested in acquiring
the voice recognition technology firm, traders said.
''For the last three, four days, there's just been rabid call buying,'' said James Burleson, a market maker with LETCO on the Pacific Exchange, adding that implied volatilities for the calls have shot up as a result.
The options, which are traded on all four U.S. equity option exchanges, had volume of some 1,850 contracts in May 5 calls, 480 in June 7.5 calls and 460 in June 10 calls.
The series had total volume of about 260 on Friday and often trades virtually no volume, according to one analyst who declined to be named.
The stock closed Monday up 1/2 at 5-7/8 in late trade. It had been floundering below 10 since last August, but has risen sharply from below 3-1/2 only a week ago.
''It's been washed out for the last year, year and a half, but they have huge sponsorship by a number of big technology conglomerates,'' the analyst said.
The firm received a $6 million in investment from Microsoft Corp. for an almost 12 percent stake last year and earlier in the decade had been backed by Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL - news), AT&T Corp. (T - news) and Motorola Inc. (MOT - news).
Traders said the rumors driving the options activity were vague, although they noted that voice recognition has been a hot topic in the high tech industry in the last year or so.
A General Magic spokeswoman said the company did not comment on stock market activities or rumors.
The firm's flagship product, the Portico service, enables users to access, retrieve and act upon information using any telephone and a normal speaking voice.
Given the low delta -- the speed of premium change against the underlying stock price movement as well as a rough indicator of the probability of the option expiring in-the-money -- of the 7.5 and 10
calls, the call buying was definitely speculation-driven, traders said.
The market-maker said orders appeared coming from both retail and institutional traders.
''It's from both ends of the spectrum,'' he said.
Implied volatilities for the heavily traded calls shot up to near 140 percent from their usual levels around 100 percent.
Jay Shartsis, director of options trading at R.F. Lafferty & Co., said it was ''possible'' that some of
the bidders were convinced there would be a positive news in the near term. |
