March 17.5 Calls

[Bondguy8]

I found it interesting that's a large block of March 17.5 calls were purchased today.  With liquidity being poor this was a sizeable trade and clearly directional.  The march expiry will encompass the audit results (i think safe to say) as well Q4 earnings release.  These options don't strike me as a short setting their stop.  I am anticipating the market "leaking" the audit results and the stock price giving away the results.  Today could have been the start or some repositioning (I still dont think we get results until mid-late Jan).  But with stock up 7% and large blocks of out of the money calls trading today on what should be a quiet day; gets one thinking.  Why did the institution buy a large block of March 17.5 calls the day after X-Mas and leading into slow trading into New Years holiday?  Seems like they could be giving away valuable time decay by doing that trade today...

[Mountainbiker]

How about those institutions who were short are now going long for the run up as well. Those SOBs can make money both ways.

[Mountainbiker]

Mar 15 calls are active today too. Looks like March will be a good month for NQ!

[junktrader]

This was an interesting trade. Someone purchased 2,000 @ .98 in the morning, 1,979 roughly 40 minutes later at $1.08, then another 2,000 contracts at $1.15 in the afternoon. All told, they spent roughly ~$650K on calls that give them the right to buy ~600,000 shares, paying up for each successive buy. This isn't a huge trade by institutional standards, but certainly not insignificant either. To me the bigger takeaway is the timing and price direction. Someone wanted to own these calls NOW. To show up the day after christmas and push a trade like this through into an illiquid market implies to me that someone heard something (during the annual meeting?) that they think will move the stock price sooner rather than later. Otherwise you'd wait for better liquidity days. This is a good data point, but institutions aren't always infallible, and there could be a number of other reasons why they bought besides bullish sentiment. (long volatility trade, hedging an existing short, etc). Good to see nonetheless.

Has anyone heard anything about the annual meeting besides the bare bones press release today?!!