Options Traders Increase Activity in IBM Ahead of Earnings (IBM)

Posted in Options 
October 15th, 2009

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) is on deck for earnings this afternoon, and traders have begun their last minute bets by using call and put options.  The OCT-2009 CALLS and PUTS expire tomorrow at the close, so these bets are right around the closest strike prices only.  We have included the OCT-2009 CALLS and PUTS only along with trading volume and the listed open interest.

CALL$    Volume    OpInt
120.00    11,228    33,884
125.00    9,571    20,881
130.00    10,166    18,605
135.00    2,180    6,788
PUT$    Volume    OpInt
115.00    1,900    17,011
120.00    3,659    9,824
125.00    5,395    9,586

At 2:32 PM EST we have shares trading down 1.1% at $126.96 and trading volume in the stock is only about 5.5 million shares versus a full day’s trading volume of about 6.7 million shares.  Because of its super high share price and because the Dow Jones Industrial Average is a price-weighted index, our take is that IBM is perhaps more crucial than any other component as far as whether this DJIA 10,000 level can hold.

JON C. OGG

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