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Technology Stocks : Oracle Corporation (ORCL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zen Trader who wrote (4126)	12/9/1997 10:14:00 PM
From: Leo Zahariadis	Respond to of 19080

Tuesday December 9, 7:20 pm Eastern Time U.S. OPTIONS FOCUS/Betting on Oracle bottom CHICAGO, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Option investors apparently were betting that shares of software maker Oracle Corp (Nasdaq:ORCL - news) were bottoming as they bought calls and sold puts, traders said Tuesday. In late activity, Oracle was down 9-11/16 at 22-11/16 on huge volume of more than 162 million shares. The stock slumped after it reported weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings late Monday. The earnings prompted a rush of rating downgrades from the likes of Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. ''There are huge call buyers and put sellers,'' said Patrick Hickey, a market maker in Oracle options at the Chicago Board Options Exchange for LETCO. ''They're obviously thinking it's a bottom,'' he said, but he added that some investors might just be using the options as a hedge against selling the stock. He said no particular strike or month was a focus, with trading busy even in some long-term options, known as long term equity anticipation securities, or LEAPS. The most active Oracle option was the December 23-3/8 call, which traded 6,725 contracts. Other busy Oracle options included the January and March 27-1/2 calls and the December 22-1/2 puts. Among the LEAPS, the January 2000 50 call traded about 2,860 contracts and the January 2000 30 call traded nearly 2,000. Hickey noted that with the stock tumbling, implied volatilities in the options shot up across the board. In the December near-the-money options, implied volatility traded in the mid-80s and in the mid-70s in the near-the-money January series. Historic volatility averaged about 42.5 in November and about 52 over the last couple of months. ''Obviously everybody wants to be insured for an up move or a further down move,'' Hickey said, explaining the spike in Oracle option volatilities.