Your intraday options trading update.
Weekly Options Busy
Weekly options are getting major volume from traders this morning. The biggest as usual is the SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) followed by several ETFs that have been in the news lately. The May Weekly 2s expire today.
Option industry news the last few days has flowed from the options conference in Savannah, GA that began on Thursday. Late yesterday the BATS exchange announced plans to go public. Reports are the Kansas City, Mo.-based exchange seeks to raise $100 million.
BATS had a 3.5% market share of U.S options trading in April, according to data from The Options Industry Council. Not too shabby considering it had a .20 share about 14 months ago.
Also yesterday, The OIC released a study it commissioned that found that half of Financial Advisors use options, and that FAs with more assets under management are more likely to use options.
High Options Volume by Strike
Weeklys in the SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) lead individual strike volume with the SPYWk2 134 Put and 135 Call trading about 160,000 contracts between them. The SPY Wk2 135 Call is down .51 to .02.
Energy Select SPDR (NYSE: XLE) has its XLE Sep 79 Call and Sep 90 Call each trading about 55,000 contracts. Calls are dropping with the 79s down .19 to 2.08 and the 90s down .17 to .28.
The iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV) Weeklys are moving. The SLV MayWk2 34 Call trades 40,436 options and is down .07 to .24. Two more calls are falling, the SLV MayWk2 35 Call trades 38,000 and the SLV MayWk2 34 Put trades nearly 35,000 contracts.
Major Stock Trading Volume Movers
Vermillion (NASDAQ: VRML) is up .62 to 6.45 on 8.6 million shares. Positive news on a blood test system brought in buyers.
Second biotech seeing big volume is Biomimetic Therapeutics (NASDAQ: BMTI) as it trades 4.6 million shares and is down .44 to 8.76. Earlier this week the stock was slammed on news that its bone graft product was getting a negative review.
El Paso Pipeline (NYSE: EPB) trades about 9.3 millions hares, down 1.47 to 34.20. Company announced it plans to sell 14 millions units in a public offering.
Find more option analysis and trading ideas at Options Trading Strategies.
Stocks/Underlying – Big Daily Change in Option Volume
RR Donnelley (NYSE: RRD) again draws interest, trading 35,000 options as the stock drops .04 to 20.35.
Progress Energy (NYSE: PGN) trades down .12 to 48.24 and trades nearly 19,000 option contracts.
Pep Boys Manny Moe and Jack (NYSE: PBY) trades modest 3,000 or so options as stock drops .05 to 13.95.
Stocks/Underlying – High Option Volume
The SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) has option volume of nearly 2 million contracts as it falls 1.13 to 133.95. About 430,000 contracts traded on the Standard & Poor’s Index Options (CBOE: SPX) as it falls 11.41 to 1337.24.
The iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV) trades nearly 1.3 million options as it rallies up .84 to 34.16.
The CBOE Volatility Index (CBOE: VIX) is up 1.07 to 17.10 with 316,000 contracts traded on the index.
Burney Simpson is the managing editor of InvestorPlace options pages.
