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Gold/Mining/Energy : Homestake Mining -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: long-gone who wrote (232)	10/12/1999 9:45:00 PM
From: FuzzFace	Respond to of 415

HM options in TSC article: thestreet.com Digging for Gold in the Options Pits By Erin Arvedlund Staff Reporter 10/12/99 1:47 PM ET Even as earnings reports from luminaries such as Intel (INTC:Nasdaq) were scheduled to begin rolling in Tuesday, trading activity was biased toward mining plays and rolls out of October positions. Traders had regular October options-expiration action on the brain, but the truly head-spinning activity in options usually arrives later in the week. That's because investors holding current-dated options generally wait until the last minute to decide when and for how much to unload them -- or let them expire worthless. (Technically, equity options expire Saturday.) Volatility Index Today % Change 23.71 +7.53 Source: ILX "Tuesday's no big deal," said one longtime institutional-options trader. "Wednesday and Thursday's really expiration." He pointed to early rolls in options such as Lernout & Hauspie (LHSP:Nasdaq), Network Associates (NETA:Nasdaq) and Credence Systems (CMOS:Nasdaq). Investors roll an options position out of the October-dated options -- which are due to expire -- by taking actions such as selling the current month to buy the following month. The Network Associates trade, for instance, consisted of a 3,000-contract position in the October 17 1/2 calls. The investor apparently sold out of those calls at a price of 1 3/4 ($175) and bought 3,000 of the November 17 1/2 calls, at a price of 2 15/16 ($293.75). Put/Call Ratio Today (Noon) Previous Close 0.46 0.56 Source: ILX Roughly 1,500 October 35 puts in Lernout & Hauspie crossed at a price of 1 3/16 ($118.75), and the sale likely helped finance a roll into 1,200 November 35 puts, trading for 4 3/8 ($437.50). Meanwhile, the panning for flakes continued in gold and mining company options, with massive trades in Homestake Mining (HM:NYSE) and continued call-buying in Newmont Mining (NEM:NYSE). Since gold spiked in late September, "gold futures have since pulled back to around the 10-day moving average and are just sitting there," said Joe Sunderman, senior research analyst with Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati. And the Philadelphia Gold and Silver Stock Index, or XAU, has pulled back to its 20-day moving average, the analyst said. Since last week, but particularly Monday, massive trades have been building up in Homestake Mining's longer-dated January options. The open interest -- that is, the number of contracts opened by investors in a particular strike price -- totals nearly 28,000 in the January 7 1/2 calls and 48,000 in the January 10 calls, which were trading at 3 ($300) and 1 ($100), respectively. The mining company's stock was up 1/16 to 10. Roughly 4,000 of Newmont Mining's December 25 calls traded at 4 1/8 ($412.50), and 6,000 of the December 30 calls moved at a price of 1 7/8 ($187.50). The stock was unchanged at 27. And despite the fact that its stock was down 7/16 to 14 13/16, Placer Dome's (PDG:NYSE) longer-dated January call options were up at midday. The January 15 calls gained 3/16 ($18.75) to 1 15/16 ($193.75) and the January 17 1/2 gained 1/4 ($25) to 3 5/8 ($362.50).

To: long-gone who wrote (232)	10/14/1999 7:53:00 AM
From: FuzzFace	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 415

Gold Shorts are refusing to cover. It should be interesting to see if they finally get squeezed. If my selling 1/2 of my HM stake yesterday means anything, we're going to the moon real soon. Sorry, just had to throw a virgin into the volcano. Now the gold gods should be satisfied. :) thestreet.com Quick & Dirty Not to give short-shrift to the market action today, but (like every picture) the numbers tell the story. A story which (like the song) remains the same: Rising rates + disappointing earnings = market decline. Meanwhile, I couldn't help notice gold rose 1.2% to $322 per ounce today while the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Gold & Silver Index rose 5.2%. This following a lot of action for gold stocks in the options pits yesterday. Heading into this week, many gold market participants were shocked (shocked!) to see the short position in gold little changed despite the European central banks big announcement on Sept. 26. For the week ended Oct. 5, the net short position in gold was 64,951 contracts vs. 62,196 for the week ended Sept. 28, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission commitment of traders' report. "There's a lot of denial about the rally," said one gold market watcher. "Everybody who missed the move said 'I'm not going to book [shorts] now' and those who wanted to go long said 'I missed it.' " Meanwhile, the rumor mill is spinning anew with tales of bullion banks facing big losses because of gold's recent upswing. This story is a long way from over.