Options Flow Summary and Unusual Activity Alert: Southern Company (SO)
Southern Company (SO) 36.88 -0.59%
There was an impressive burst of put buying in SO this afternoon. A customer paid $1.05 for nearly 6,000 August 35 puts using a multi-market sweep, and later paid up to $1.15 to give him a total of 10,000 contracts on the day.
This lifted SO option volume to 20 times its normal levels. ISE confirms this volume to opening in a customer account. SO is expected to announce earnings Wednesday pre-open.
YTD volume recap shows the last spike of similar magnitude was in February, when OTM put buyers were active in the March 30 puts.
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SO is typically a slow name for options, with average daily volume below 600 contracts. Todayís buyer appears to be positioning for a negative earnings surprise, and will create the largest open interest position in the stock.
Posted By: Trade Alert
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About Henry Schwartz
Henry Schwartz has traded derivatives on US and European exchanges for nearly 20 years. His experience includes market-making and institutional trading at the Hull Group, Salomon Brothers, Bear Stearns and most recently Banc of America Securities, where he led the electronic market-making project coincident with the launch of the ISE. His current work involves real-time stream analysis of options market activity for a number of leading institutional sell-side firms.
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