With stocks recovering from an early morning sell-off, the S&P 500 managed to rebound and close slightly positive for the 7th consecutive trading day. Let’s look at the top three most unusual options trades for today, Wednesday, January 10th, 2018.
If you’re looking to trade options, make sure you use Ally Invest. Ally is currently offering free trades for 90 days with a qualifying minimum deposit. After that, options contracts start at just $0.50 per contract.
1: Sprint Corporation (NYSE:S)
63,500 March 16 2018 $6 put contracts were purchased today in Sprint stock in three massive block trades. The first was for 18,000 contracts, with an additional 27,000 contracts purchased slightly thereafter. The final block trade was a purchase of 18,500 contracts.
All together, the 63,500 put contracts were purchased fora total of $3,610,000. These puts will expire in 65 calendar days. Sprint settled at $5.62 today, making these put contracts $0.38 in the money and little change from their average purchase price.
| TIME | OPTION | QTY | PRICE | EXCHANGE |
| 10:18:26 | 16 MAR 18 6 P | 27,000 | 0.56 | CBOE |
| 13:03:12 | 16 MAR 18 6 P | 18,500 | 0.58 | PHLX |
| 9:57:27 | 16 MAR 18 6 P | 18,000 | 0.57 | PHLX |
2: Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F)
Two massive purchases of put options occurred today in Fort Motor Company stock, the massive American auto manufacturer.
The first purchase was for 18,898 $13 put contracts at an average price of $0.30 per contract. The total premium spent on this trade was $566,940 and the options are set to expire in only 9 calendar days! Ford stock closed at $13.03 today, making this half a million dollar put purchase $0.03 out of the money and in jeopardy of potentially expiring worthless.
The second large put purchase in Ford stock was for 15,270 $12 puts at an average price of $0.14. These puts will expire in 65 calendar days and are $1.03 out of the money and will expire worthless unless Ford is below $11.86 in 65 days.
| TIME | OPTION | QTY | PRICE | EXCHANGE |
| 11:36:19 | 19 JAN 18 13 P | 18,898 | 0.30 | NYSE |
| 09:40:36 | 16 MAR 18 12 P | 15,270 | 0.14 | CBOE |
3: AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV)
For approximately three hours starting at 12pm EST, someone (or something, i.e. an algorithm) started buying thousands of in-the-money calls on Abbvie Inc, a biopharmaceutical company. This is truly a massive trade.
In total, over 38,000 $75 calls were purchased at an average price of $24.70.
This puts the total premium spent for this trade at $93,860,000! That is almost a hundred million dollars in calls that expire in 9 calendar days! Granted, this is an arguably safe trade because ABBV settled at $99.69 and the strike price of the calls is $75. Even though the calls are almost $25 in the money, there is always the possibility that call options can expire worthless.
Usually, when a trade is this big, it suggest someone knows something. And given that ABBV is a biopharmaceutical company, it certainly looks like someone is making a big bet.
| TIME | OPTION | QTY | PRICE | EXCHANGE |
| 12:13:17 | 19 JAN 18 75 C | 3,200 | 24.65 | PHLX |
| 12:13:55 | 19 JAN 18 75 C | 3,200 | 24.6 | PHLX |
| 12:14:18 | 19 JAN 18 75 C | 3,200 | 24.65 | PHLX |
| 12:14:37 | 19 JAN 18 75 C | 3,200 | 24.6 | PHLX |
| 13:12:10 | 19 JAN 18 75 C | 3,200 | 24.9 | PHLX |
| 13:26:10 | 19 JAN 18 75 C | 3,200 | 24.75 | PHLX |
| 13:54:59 | 19 JAN 18 75 C | 3,200 | 24.8 | PHLX |
| 14:02:36 | 19 JAN 18 75 C | 3,200 | 24.75 | PHLX |
| 14:07:24 | 19 JAN 18 75 C | 3,200 | 24.7 | PHLX |
| 15:24:05 | 19 JAN 18 75 C | 3,200 | 24.65 | PHLX |
| 14:11:37 | 19 JAN 18 75 C | 3,198 | 24.5 | PHLX |
| 13:10:35 | 19 JAN 18 75 C | 2,800 | 24.85 | PHLX |
If you’re looking to trade options, make sure you use Ally Invest. Ally is currently offering free trades for 90 days with a qualifying minimum deposit. After that, options contracts start at just $0.50 per contract.