Your intraday options trading update.
High Options Volume by Strike
Four of the five top trading strikes this morning held by iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NYSE: EEM) with the EEM Apr 11 50 Call trading 133,166 contracts, the Apr 52 Call seeing 101,673 contracts, and the May 51 and May 53 calls each seeing a little over 100,00 options contracts. OptionMonster reported this morning a single trader conducted several 99,000 contract trades in EEM in an apparent bullish move.
The odd man out in the top 5 volume leaders was Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Apr 36 Call with 101,673 contracts traded. The option is down .17 to 2.45.
Major Stock Trading Volume Movers
Inspire Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ISPH) rises .97 to 4.95 and it trades 41 million shares, up 1400%. Merck (NYSE: MRK) announces it will buy Inspire for $5 per share in cash, or about $430 million, according to reports. ISPH options busy too. Rand Logistics (NASDAQ: RLOG) trades 1.3 million shares, a 1,400% rise in shares with the stock up .07 to 7.66. National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM) rises 10.06 to 24.13 in its takeover by Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN). NSM volume at 136.4 million shares.
Stocks/Underlying – Big Daily Change in Option Volume
Inspire Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ISPH) option volume rises more than 55,000% to 11,547. Washington Federal (NASDAQ: WSFL) sees options volume rise to 2,900 contracts, while Vivo Participacoes SA (NYSE: VIV) has a rise in options volume to 30,803. Options blast from the past National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM) has volume of 27,123 options contracts with stock rising 10.06 on takeover.
Stocks – Big Daily Change in Open Interest
Broken record in this segment with Epicor Software (NASDAQ: EPIC) open interest rising to 1,632 contracts, BroadSoft (NASDAQ: BSFT) OI rising 271% to 8,049, and 3D Systems (NASDAQ: TDSC) now with OI of 2,175. Two showing substance are Cephalon (NASDAQ: CEPH) with open interest rising 207% to 193,917 contracts and Neoprobe (AMEX: NEOP) with its open interest arriving at 32,224, up 186%.
Stocks/Underlying – High Option Volume
Important underlying/stocks seeing big volume included several of the major indices this morning as the market moved up. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: SPY) rose again and its options trading hits 493, 379 contracts. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NYSE: EEM) total option trading was 474,528 after huge bullish trades noted above. The iShares Russell 2000 Index (NYSE: IWM) at 136,368 options about the same as the S&P 500 Index Options (CBOE: SPX) with 133,016. The PowerShares QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ) sees 123,573 contracts traded.
The CBOE Volatility Index (CBOE: VIX) grounded at 16.51, down .99, and 81,313 contracts trade.
