Midday Unusual Options Activity Update: FMCN, NWSA, VALE, ALL, UAL, CLWR

Posted November 21st, 2011 by Joseph Cusick in Unusual Activity

Implied Volatility Movers And Unusual Volume Movers For Midday 11/21/2011

Implied Volatility Movers
Focus Media (FMCN) implied volatility is elevated today amid heavy trading in the options market. Shares plummeted $7.40 to $18.10 on reports of a negative research note about the company. That has not been confirmed. For whatever reason, shares are taking a beating and options volume in the Chinese media company is running 5X the daily average, with 75,000 puts and 24,000 calls traded on the stock through midday. April 30 call options are the most actives. 10,730 traded. Jan 25, Dec 17 puts and Dec 20 puts are busy as well. Meanwhile, implied volatility in options on the stock jumped 50 percent and is now relatively high at 133.5 percent.

Unusual Volume Movers
News Corp (NWSA) options volume is running 15X the (22-day) average, with 102,000 contracts traded and call activity accounting for 99 percent of the volume.

VALE options volume is 2.5X the average daily, with 99,000 contracts traded and put volume representing 92 percent of the activity.

Focus Media (FMCN) options volume is running 5X the average daily, with 94,000 contracts traded and put volume representing 76 percent of the total volume.

Increasing options activity is also being seen in Allstate (ALL), UAL, and Clearwire (CLWR).

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About Joseph Cusick

Joseph Cusick currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Education and a Senior Market Analyst for optionsXpress. Mr. Cusick seeks out common sense and technologically scalable educational pathways for self-directed investors of all experience levels. He is largely responsible for ramping up delivery of online and offline seminars to customers and potential clients worldwide. Prior to serving in his current role, Mr. Cusick immersed himself in the broker side of optionsXpress by managing his own book of business. Prior to joining optionsXpress, Mr. Cusick served as a market maker and portfolio manager at the Chicago Board of Options Exchange. Joseph is a graduate of Marquette University and holds his Series 4, 7 and 63 registrations with FINRA.

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