Volume Spike Investor

The rumors, need for capital, horrible news, and more all continue to take a toll on the financial stocks.  Today was an unbelievable day in stock options trading volume for JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), and Citigroup. Inc. (NYSE: C).  We saw many many contracts in the current month of January expirations, which expire tomorrow, and a huge volume in February stock options.  With each 10,000 contracts representing 1 million shares, you can see where today was a VERY active day. Below is the breakdown showing the breakdown by “calls” and “puts” by month, as well as the strike price, today’s option contract volume, and the open interest as of yesterday:

JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM)
JAN-2009 CALLS
$trike  Volume  Op.Int.
25.00    13,587    15,834
26.00    11,518    19,181
27.50    10,225    20,938
JAN-2009 PUTS
$trike  Volume  Op.Int.
22.50    23,330    38,531
24.00    5,622    9,390
25.00    35,679    52,155

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC)
JAN-2009 CALLS
$trike  Volume  Op.Int.
7.50    15,136    13,239
9.00    16,044    198
10.00    41,063    8,060
JAN-2009 PUTS
$trike  Volume  Op.Int.
5.00    18,634    34,620
7.50    62,363    34,991
10.00    24,981    55,289
FEB-2009 CALLS
$trike  Volume  Op.Int.
10.00    19,976    6,651
11.00    12,860    21,317
12.50    32,093    27,082
15.00    19,926    41,365
20.00    11,929    34,654
FEB-2009 PUTS
$trike  Volume  Op.Int.
7.50    24,364    19,062
10.00    12,149    41,853
Citigroup. Inc. (NYSE: C)
JAN-2009 CALLS
$trike  Volume  Op.Int.
4.00    21,783    4,273
5.00    37,494    76,713
JAN-2009 PUTS
$trike  Volume  Op.Int.
2.50    24,647    57,001
4.00    23,537    30,744
5.00    13,401    122,963
6.00    10,924    53,656
FEB-2009 CALLS
$trike  Volume  Op.Int.
4.00    8,706    3,164
5.00    9,159    43,788
6.00    18,817    15,923
7.00    9,642    36,970
FEB-2009 PUTS
$trike  Volume  Op.Int.
3.00    28,191    17,838
4.00    28,956    59,266
5.00    12,735    64,257

Jon C. Ogg
January 15, 2009