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Strategies & Market Trends : Galapagos Islands -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lost1 who wrote (16850)	12/16/2002 11:28:09 AM
From: Techplayer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57110

11:09 ET 2. Options players were also scrambling on Friday to grab up January 55 calls for Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN). Open interest on this out-of-the-money call jumped from 21,837 to 31,909 contracts. The option saw blocks of 9,000 and 2,459 contracts cross the tape at 0.85, which was between the bid and ask prices. This strike is also the site of peak call open interest in the January series and could offer up potential resistance in the future. AMGN must still overcome peak December call open interest at the 50 strike, which has more than 32,600 contracts. From a sentiment standpoint, calls continue to outnumber puts in the front three months of options. AMGN's SOIR sits at 0.64. On the other hand, this reading is higher than 79.2 percent of those taken over the past 52 weeks. Furthermore, the security's short interest plunged 18 percent over the most recent reporting period to 23 million shares. These positions can be covered in roughly one day of trading. Analysts also dote on the biotechnology firm, with 24 of the 28 brokerage firms covering the company rating it a "buy" or better. This leaves ample room for future downgrades that could further depress the shares. After gapping above the 50 level on December 12, the stock continues to test support at this key level as it struggles to remain above it. Click the following link to see the Daily Chart of AMGN since July 2002: schaeffersresearch.com .