Option Midday Movers April 5

by OptionsZone Experts | April 5, 2011 2:02 pm

Your intraday options trading[1] update.

High Options Volume by Strike

Four of the five top trading strikes this morning held by iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NYSE: EEM[2]) 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[3] 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[4]) 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[5]) rises .97 to 4.95 and it trades 41 million shares, up 1400%. Merck (NYSE: MRK[6]) 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[7]) trades 1.3 million shares, a 1,400% rise in shares with the stock up .07 to 7.66. National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM[8]) rises 10.06 to 24.13 in its takeover by Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN[9]). NSM volume at 136.4 million shares.

Stocks/Underlying – Big Daily Change in Option Volume

Inspire Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ISPH[5]) option volume rises more than 55,000% to 11,547. Washington Federal (NASDAQ: WSFL[10]) 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[8]) 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[11]) open interest rising to 1,632 contracts, BroadSoft (NASDAQ: BSFT[12]) OI rising 271% to 8,049, and 3D Systems (NASDAQ: TDSC[13]) now with OI of 2,175. Two showing substance are Cephalon (NASDAQ: CEPH[14]) with open interest rising 207% to 193,917 contracts and Neoprobe (AMEX: NEOP[15]) 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[16]) rose again and its options trading hits 493, 379 contracts. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NYSE: EEM[17]) total option trading was 474,528 after huge bullish trades noted above. The iShares Russell 2000 Index (NYSE: IWM[18]) at 136,368 options about the same as the S&P 500 Index Options (CBOE: SPX[19]) with 133,016. The PowerShares QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ[20]) sees 123,573 contracts traded.

The CBOE Volatility Index (CBOE: VIX[21]) grounded at 16.51, down .99, and 81,313 contracts trade.

Endnotes:

  1. options trading: https://investorplace.com/options-trading/
  2. EEM: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=EEM
  3. reported this morning: https://investorplace.com/35951/emerging-markets-eem-anadarko-options-draw-traders-apc/
  4. VZ: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=VZ
  5. ISPH: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=ISPH
  6. MRK: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=MRK
  7. RLOG: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=RLOG
  8. NSM: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=NSM
  9. TXN: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=TXN
  10. WSFL: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=WSFL
  11. EPIC: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=EPIC
  12. BSFT: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=BSFT
  13. TDSC: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=%20TDSC
  14. CEPH: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=CEPH
  15. NEOP: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=%20NEOP
  16. SPY: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=SPY
  17. EEM: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=%20EEM
  18. IWM: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=IWM
  19. SPX: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=%20SPX
  20. QQQ: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=QQQ
  21. VIX: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=VIX

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2011/04/option-midday-movers-april-5-eem-nsm-vz-vix-ceph-isph/