Options Flow Summary, Unusual Activity Alert & Pin Risk: General Sentiment & Western Digital (WDC)

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General Sentiment
This has been a choppy day with an early rally losing steam and markets relatively unchanged at mid-afternoon. December options expire tomorrow and a large part of todayís trading involves last-minute rolling of front-term positions. 

The CBOE VIX is down to 21.23 as traders go into holiday mode and look to the short Monday session and Tuesday holiday. Volume is on pace for a typical 13 million contract day with calls leading puts by a slight margin and a bearish flow bias.


Western Digital (WDC)
There has been unusual options activity detected in WDC, with triple normal levels and flow heavily weighted to upside calls. While the stock volume is actually below normal, more than 11,000 options contracts have traded by mid-afternoon, dominated by call buyers focused on the Jan-08 35 strike. 

Early opening customers paid $.25 on the ISE for 500 contracts. By midafternoon, a  total of 6,100 are on the tape at prices from $.25 to $.35. This buying activity has driven up implied volatility from 45% to 49%. The stock has nearly doubled since touching a low near $16.21 in April and is currently near $30.24.

PinRisk Candidates
Several near term options with large Open Interesthave the potential to ëpiní to strike tomorrow:

Symbol	Expiry	Strike	Type	Spot	Distance	OI
ORCL	Dec7	22.5	Calls	$22.21	0.29	73,931
C	Dec7	30	Puts	$29.80	0.20	68,178
C	Dec7	30	Calls	$29.80	0.20	33,148
F	Dec7	7	Puts	$6.73	0.27	66,537
WMT	Dec7	47.5	Calls	$47.70	0.20	45,220
WMT	Dec7	47.5	Puts	$47.70	0.20	24,138
NWA	Dec7	15	Calls	$14.80	0.20	39,813
NWA	Dec7	15	Puts	$14.80	0.20	25,366

 

Posted By: Trade Alert
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