Volume Spike Investor

DryShips, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) is seeing some options activity that stands out today, although it is a bit muted by our count considering that the $300 million convertible note offering was juiced up to $400 million and considering the share lending agreement with Deutsche Bank.  The action is almost irrelevant in NOV-2009, but the December action is where the options trading looks to be today.  The calls are first, and the puts are second.

DEC$    Volume    OpInt.
6.00    2,923    11,666
7.00    9,576    28,535
8.00    3,480    44,912

DEC$    Volume    OpInt.
5.00    1,463    8,528
6.00    4,484    14,286
7.00    1,445    21,313

There have been 5,662 contracts trade in the NOV-2009 $6.00 CALLS (in the money) versus an open interest of 11,341 contracts.  The other trading noted was in the March-2010 $7.00 CALLS saw 4,589 contracts trade hands versus an open interest of 7,153 contracts.  Interestingly enough, neither one of these seem to be huge bets about hedging on the notes.

All this is with shares down ‘only’ 2.2% at $6.38 on 63 million shares as of 3:00 PM EST, which makes DRYS close to 300% of regular trading volume in teh stock.

JON OGG