Options Market Findings: January 18, 2011

Today we have a continued Bull and a BIG Bear. One strategist looks like they're going to keep their bet on CB Richard Ellis Group (CBG) rolling out of the January 20 calls and into the February 22 calls. Over 9k January 20 call contracts traded on open interest of 9,223, and 9,019 of the February 22 calls went out against open interest of 22. This indicated to me the strategist is taking a large portion of risk off the table, but keeping the bullish bet intact. The net credit received from this strategy would be about $1.15 per share. Going back on my option chart it looks as if the strategist opened this strategy on December 16 for just under $1 per share. Now the strategist is almost 50 cents in the money and playing with the houses money. Not a bad deal at all!

The BIG Bear bet we have on January 18 was on the Dow Jones Transportation ETF (IYT). Over 12k contracts traded for the March 90 puts on open interest of 228. It looks like multiple institutional size blocks were taken out throughout the day, with the majority of them being purchased near the ask price. This could be a hedge but it would be a very expensive one if that. It looks more like someone is betting on a correction and thinks this sector may perform the worst. I will likely follow this trade for a hedge myself, as this type of conviction is worth following.

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