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To: Lucretius who wrote (41763)	5/19/1999 5:27:00 PM
From: Cynic 2005	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 86076

US OPTIONS-Providian Financial vols up on report CHICAGO, May 19 (Reuters) - Implied volatilities jumped in options on Providian Financial Corp. <PVN.N> as the stock tumbled Wednesday after a newspaper reported the company was under investigation for possible fraud. "Vols are up," said a floor source in the options traded on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). "Everyone's buying everything." Implied volatility for the options spiked up to about 95 percent from 56 percent, said an options strategist. The May 105 and 110 vols backed off slightly and ended Wednesday at around 87 percent, while the June 105s were at about 78 percent and the 110s at around 75 percent. The stock's three-month historical volatility is about 46 percent. "That's a huge move for a financial firm," the strategist said. "Trading's frantic." The stock ended down 17-3/16 at 106-15/16 on New York Stock Exchange volume of more than 5.0 million shares. The San Francisco Chronicle on Wednesday reported that the San Francisco district attorney's office was investigating consumer lending practices at Providian, the nation's ninth-largest credit card issuer. A company spokeswoman said Providian was confident it was in compliance with regulations and would cooperate with the probe. Orders in the CBOE options appeared fairly evenly divided between calls and puts, with roughly 2,500 calls and nearly as many puts traded Wednesday. "I thought maybe they'd be buying puts...(but) they're buying calls and puts, institutional and retail," added the floor source. "It's not like a bearish slant or bullish slant." The most-active May 100 puts rose 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 on volume of 485 and open interest of 20, while the May 105 put rose 2-1/16 to 2-5/16 on volume of 199 and open interest of 30. The May 110 calls slid 12-1/2 to 2 on volume of 239 and open interest of 51, the May 115 calls fell 8-1/4 to 1-3/8 on volume of 450 and open interest of 113, and June 110 calls fell 8-7/8 to 8-3/8 on volume of 237 and open interest of 78.