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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jack Colton who wrote (49828)	7/14/1998 2:29:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 61433

thestreet.com on ASND options trading today thestreet.com Options Buzz: With Market Surging, Nasdaq Plays Abound By Dan Colarusso Senior Writer 7/14/98 2:18 PM ET If the market has -- in the words of R.F. Lafferty options pro Jay Shartsis -- reached a "belief stage," at least two major institutions are showing some skepticism on the continued strength of the Nasdaq market. Their doubt appeared today in the form of two big options trades in the Philadelphia Stock Exchange's brand-spankin'-new OTC Prime Index (OTX), which tracks the top 15 Nasdaq stocks. With the Nasdaq 100 rallying to more than 1425 from 1150 during the past month, institutions that have taken the ride up with Dell (DELL:Nasdaq) and Microsoft (MSFT:Nasdaq) are putting some hedges on their gains. Today's OTX action saw spread trades where players bought the August 200 puts for 3 1/4 and sold the August 190 puts for 1 3/8. "They get a 10-point spread for 1 7/8, so if the thing craps out, they have some protection," said one Philly floor trader, adding that some of the major institutional players have done very well on Nasdaq stocks during the past three weeks. In New York, Shartsis said he's seeing signs that may portend a rally through Friday's options expiration. "I think we've reached a belief stage in this market. There's no more put-buying. That began to dry up last week," he said. "We haven't seen the intense call-buying, but that may happen in the next few days." Meantime, earnings plays continue to dominate the action in companies such as Intel (INTC:Nasdaq), Compaq (CPQ:NYSE) and, today, Ascend (ASND:Nasdaq). Tech players said they were expecting the networking company's earnings to meet or slightly surpass expectations, but that wasn't stopping spread traders looking to play both sides of the fence. Ascend's July 50 calls traded more than 1,800 contracts and lost 1 13/16 ($181.25) of their value to hit 1 15/16 ($193.75) by early this afternoon. The July 50 puts traded more than 1,200 contracts, but that contract's price climbed 5/8 ($62.50) to 1 1/16 ($106.25) today. Shartsis said much of the earnings-related speculation that came across his firm's desk consisted of traders simultaneously buying out-of-the-money puts and out-of-the-money calls. Source Media (SRCM:Nasdaq) traders are hanging on for their lives as the bidding for the company intensifies. With the company rumored as a takeover target for the past week or so, call buyers have been ratcheting up the options plays on the firm. Microsoft and Yahoo! (YHOO:Nasdaq) emerged as key competitors for the software firm as the stock jumped 8 5/16 to 29 11/16 today. Trading was halted at 12:15 p.m. EDT. The options were screaming right along with the stock price. The July 20 and 22 1/2 calls and the August 20, 22 1/2 and 25 calls traded more than 300 contracts each, with the August 25s leading the way. Volume on those calls hit 517 as the price rose 2 1/16 ($206.25) to 3 3/4 ($375) today. Philadelphia floor traders said the company's options had been busy for the past week as the speculation intensified.