june calls

[Libtardius Maximus]

Guys, check out the volume of the June calls starting at 40.

Options experts insight requested.

Wow!

[johnwgrant]

Seem to be going off in the middle of the bid/ask....

Sure is a lot of volume - just counting the may 18th and june 22nd big (over 1,000) calls they total over 12K ==> over 120,000 shares. Volume today is only about 230,000 (to this point). So, relative to the share volume, the options market is "rocking" !!

[jiminsidz]

Just at a glance that adds up to about $30mill for those big trades.

Covering?  I always find it hard to tell.  If it is covering then who wrote the calls on 1million shares that will definitely be exercised at the strike - so seller is really only getting today's market price of $78 plus a buck or two on his million shares???

But the market maker could be setting up several layers of trading for synthetic results.  Need a math PhD to wade through this.

[johnwgrant]

Since I love conspiracy theories

* Deal announcement just days away
* Need to let the "big dogs" buy in at a good price.... Hmmm... How to do this...
* Get the Market maker to push the price down on a slow day (like today)
* Buy deep-in-the-money calls with only about 2 1/2 weeks of time value left.
* Wait a few weeks and collect the big $$$$ (or stock if that is what you needed).

[Rob Cos]

Guys, check out the volume of the June calls starting at 40.

Options experts insight requested.

_____________________

To me this looks like someone trying to get long or more likely covering a short position quietly without driving up stock - so to knock this manipulated IOC stock down you don't have to short or sell that many shares - it amazes me - so after you do that - you absolutely load up on very deep in the money calls with low strikes (not followed that closely) to me this looks like covering. Smart covering. If they tried to cover this many shares this stock would spike to mid 80s quickly and cost them more. Possible it is a long getting longer also.

[jft310]

We bought more June calls today. Never miss a chance to add a bit. Always carry cash. The market should be a smart short covering without upward stock price movements. The Wells mgr plays options. FWIW

[petrengr1]

A record number of InterOil Corporation call contracts were traded during the busy trading session.

http://www.avafin.com/articles/1022986.html

[trans]

Pet, that's a bullish .19 put/call ratio and record call volume.....Cross our fingers....its bullish this time too

[johnwgrant]

As a matter of interest, whatever happened to all those June calls ?!?!

When I look at the open interest today, they all appear to have "evaporated" !?!?

Am I crazy or did I just dream we had thousands of calls traded yesterday ??? (OK - don't answer that !)

Did someone buy and sell thousands of calls during the same day (ie, round trip these trades?) ???

[katytrader]

As a matter of interest, whatever happened to all those June calls ?!?! When I look at the open interest today, they all appear to have "evaporated" !?!? Am I crazy or did I just dream we had thousands of calls traded yesterday ??? (OK - don't answer that !) Did someone buy and sell thousands of calls during the same day (ie, round trip these trades?) ???

It appears to be short covering.  The large volume transactions occurred within the same few minutes with virtually identical pricing if my memory is correct.  If the calls are bought and exercised on the same day, the transaction would not show up in the open interest nor would the assignment of the calls show up in the daily volume of the stock (per my query to Fidelity).