Midday Unusual Options Activity Update: FTR, F, JNPR, RVBD, SBUX, STX, ECA
Implied Volatility Mover
Frontier Communications (FTR) saw volatile trading Friday morning. Shares fell to a 52-week low of $3.81 on heavy volume, but have since recouped some of the losses and are down 24 cents to $4.23. The options order flow in the telecomm is interesting, as 24,000 calls and 9,780 puts traded in the name so far. Typical volume through midday is about 1,650 contracts. Thereís no news on the stock, but implied volatility in FTR surged 42 percent to 62, as players in the options market seem to be expecting the wild gyrations in the shares to continue in the near future.
Volume Signals
Ford Motor (F) options volume is running 2.5X the (22-day) average, with 266,000 contracts traded and call activity accounting for 67 percent of the volume.
Juniper Networks (JNPR) options volume is 7X the daily average, with 131,000 contracts traded and call volume representing 79 percent of the activity.
Riverbed Technologies (RVBD) options volume is running 6X the average daily, with 53,000 contracts traded and call volume representing 53 percent of the total volume.
Increasing options activity is also being seen in Starbuckís (SBUX), Seagate Technology (STX), and Encana (ECA).
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