Volume Spike Investor

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is in the same boat as all other companies when it comes to options expiration happening this Friday.  By the look of the trading patterns, we are seeing a balance of options roll-dates happening with those who are making the short-dated speculative options expiration trades.  The action is in the $300 strikes for November, but traders and speculators are making their moves in various strike prices into DECEMBER.

NOVEMBER CALL & PUT trading is as follows:
CALLS    Volume    OpInt
300.00    11,481    25,039
310.00    16,723    43,953
320.00    4,918    43,994
PUTS    Volume    OpInt
280.00    1,273    24,179
290.00    5,763    34,885
300.00    14,161    41,758
310.00    3,156    21,806

DECEMBER CALL & PUT trading is as follows:
CALLS    Volume    OpInt
300.00    4,730    10,727
310.00    5,390    17,223
320.00    3,613    28,844
330.00    3,137    15,879
340.00    1,461    11,104
PUTS    Volume    OpInt
270.00    1,368    29,693
280.00    1,710    33,502
290.00    1,674    11,924
300.00    3,358    15,842
310.00    1,381    12,303

At 11:50 AM EST Apple shares are trading up 0.36% at $302.68 in what is light trading volume of 6.9 million shares.

The rule of thumb going into options expiration date is that the closest strike price tends to act as a magnet.  Whether that holds true for Apple is something we won’t try to use a crystal ball to determine.

JON C. OGG