Wednesday, January 22, 2025
The iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD) is a popular asset allocation ETF for those wanting exposure to corporate bonds. Many asset allocators have at least a portion of their portfolio in corporate bonds (non high-yield variety), so LQD sees a lot of options action. Last week, a strategist bought over 40,000 […]
While it’s been a rough year for the Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK), a large options trade may suggest a brighter 2023. A strategist purchased what appears to be a 30,000-lot of covered calls on ARK that expire in February. The covered calls allow for over 10% upside potential in share appreciation before capping out, while […]
It’s always interesting to see a very large spread trade occur in a stock that doesn’t have a very active options chain. Dlocal Limited (DLO) offers a payment system for emerging markets and generally trades about 5,000 options per day. On one day last week, one spread accounted for 30,000 contracts. It appears to be […]
AMC Entertainment (AMC) was a popular meme stock for Reddit/Robinhood traders back in the height of the meme stock frenzy. However, the stock hasn’t done much in recent months – until now. Last week the stock jumped 13% in a day with over 3x more options volume than normal. One of the larger trades on […]
When a stock is trading in a range, sometimes a covered call strategy can be a good way to take advantage of the situation. Sunpower (SPWR) has been range-bound for most of the year and is trading somewhere near the middle of its range. A trader is attempting to capitalize off the situation by making […]
Video game giant Activision-Blizzard (ATVI) has agreed to be purchased by Microsoft (MSFT) for $95 per share. However, the government may thwart the proposed deal due to antitrust concerns. That’s why the stock is trading in the low $70s instead of near the buyout price. One trader appears to have decided that the ATVI share […]
While trading tends to slow down during Thanksgiving week, the weather doesn’t always comply. Freezing temperatures have caused a surge in natural gas prices, and trading has become brisk in the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG). UNG is the most popular pure play ETF for natural gas. A sophisticated trader recently placed what looks […]
Valvoline (VVV) is a well known oil and gas refining and marketing company. However, despite the popularity of its products, very few options trade on the stock. The average daily volume in VVV options is just 758. As such, it was quite a surprise to see 40,000 contracts trade in VVV June options last week. […]
Bond prices have rallied lately with the expectations that interest rates won’t go quite as high as originally expected. (Bond prices move opposite of yields.) This includes government bonds, corporate bonds, and high yield bonds as well. A very large bullish call spread in iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) suggests there […]
A lower than expected CPI number sent stock soaring last week. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) jumped 5.5% on the day of the release. Moreover, what looks like a massive covered call trade on SPY also occurred on the day, which may imply the index could climb as high as $420 in the next […]
