Volume Spike Investor

Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN) is seeing a flurry of stock options activity today yet the stock is not reflecting the volume at all.  We have seen more than 20,000 shares in both PUTS and CALLS in November 2008.  Oddly enough, this is actually before most traders expect big news from PROVENGE.
Option/Strike                 Volume    OpInt
NOV08 $12.50 [...]

AK Steel Holding Corp. (NYSE: AKS) has seen options go through the roof today.  This is on market talk that the company has entered talks to sell itself.  Whether or not a sale will come up is still unknown, but that isn;’t keeping options traders from putting on their speculator hats.  See below with strikes, [...]

This week has seen a surge in trading in stock options in Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT).  The food giant has never been this active in memory.  But oddly enough these transactions may be an inefficiency that exists rather than massive gambles. Take a look at the open interest as of yesterday now:
OPTION (Mo/STRIKE)             Volume    [...]

As of 8:50 AM EST we are seeing many stocks that are gapping downn more than 10% in pre-market trading on generalyl active volume.  Here we have yesterday’s close, the indicated trade levels and the volume as of 8:50 AM EST.
COMPANY NAME (TICKER)                        CLOSE     8:50AM    %DROP      VOLUME
Bare Escentuals, Inc. (NASDAQ: BARE) [...]

It is a rare day that Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) is among the more active options trades.  Today it isn’t just among them it is THE MOST active series of options trades at the CBOE. This looks like someone has unwound a major straddle trade.  The long and short of this one being a [...]

Amgen (AMGN) indicating up 3% more after solid earnings… watch for potential profit taking later in the morning after huge gain yesterday.
BE Aerospace (BEAV) is trading up almost 7% after the company managed to beat earnings and raise guidance despite woes at airline carriers themselves; short covering adding to gains.
Concur Technologies, Inc. (CNQR) gapping up [...]

Today could represent a ket technical violation in shares of Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER).  Shares are down 10.5% at $24.65 as of 3:10 PM EST.  We have seen almost 39 million shares trade hands, compared to an average daily volume of 28.7 million shares.
The key level to watch is $24.69.  That isn’t a [...]

We love looking for very unusual options trading to look for flags that might now show up in the trading volume.  Silver Wheaton Corp. (NYSE: SLW) is a name that almost never shows up on a the most active call options list.  But as of 12:45 PM EST this Monday we have seen this silver [...]

Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: VNDA) is one of the leading volume stocks this morning on NASDAQ. Unfortunately for holders, it is a major downside volume alert to yet another 52-week low.  An FDA non-approvable letter is the culprit.
The biotech is down now more than 60% at $1.24 and its prior 52-week trading range was [...]

The most active stock in pre-market trading is Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) after the company released its positive data on its osteoporosis treatment that Wall Street was awaiting.
This stock is surging to new 52-week highs and getting out from under a very large shadow since it has had almost nothing but problems since 2006.
Amgen has [...]