Week Ahead Thoughts & Set-Ups

I was away last week but it appears to have been a lot of violent moves in both directions, resulting in a pretty much unch market.  Above on SPY is 210 and 211 as the big keys with that 211.50 area the largest area to clear for new highs with a measured move target to 215 and above that 220.  Support is 209 and 208, which I would want to see hold in order to maintain Friday's momentum.  If I had to make a call here, I would go with a higher tape into year end with that 220 not out of the question. 

 Looks ready to go as well with 115.30 and 115.50 the big areas for a potential move to 120 with support at 114/113.50.  Much like SPY you have the big volume reversals friday with MACD curling for a bullish cross and RSI has room to run.

 The most compelling bull thesis is here to me, and I want to see 24.90/25 break with an initial measured move to 26.  Same deal large reversal with MACD curling.

 The one laggard would be here in the IWM as it continue to tread water and remains under too many moving averages, but if you had followed this "divergence over the past 2 years you are most likely buried in shorts.  I am not too concerned with IWM, sure, I'd like to see it moving aggressively higher but I could make a case that within this channel it is making higher lows and higher highs.  Support 166.30 and 115 will be the big ones above is 118.50 and the big one I would like to see break is 120 for a initial move to 123.

AAPL strong move on watch red to green and/or 119.25 break stop below 119 on the 119.25 break r/g would be intraday level.  Target 120/120.65 and then can really be off and running to 123.So risking .25 for potential 1.50-4 its a favorable scenario.  

Swing stop would be either 118 or 117, with same targets but adding a gap fill at 127.50.

EPS 1/25  Shorts 1.5%.

 ATVI straight forward day trade 39 break stop 38.89 target 40.

No interest in swinging this type of set-up but 37.80 would be the stop with targets 40/41.50.  A close above 40 I'd probably have 1/4th left from day trade to keep for a gap up the next day though.

 Just a straight red to green play.

 A somewhat interesting bottom here needs 96 break can stop 95 or 94 with targets of 98/100/102.

EPS 2/9 Short 1.5%

 Top side break 53.45 stop 53.30 or 52.50 depending on time frame. target 54/56.

EPS 2/2 Short 1.5%.

 63 break off the bottom stop 62.70 with a target of 65. Again a favorable scenario.

 126 break stop 125.75ish target 128.

Swing 126 break stop 125 or 124 target 128/130/131/135

EPS 2/2 Short 11.5%.

 FIT red to green play should get 34.50 above that is 37. stop 33

Short 50%? not sure if accurate.

 GOOG 768.50/770 area could get aggressive higher 2 point stop 776/780 targets.

 JNJ 103 break target 105, stop 102.

EPS 1/18

 68 break stop 67.90 target 69/70

Swing stop 67 with targets 69/70/72.50/75

EPS 1/14 Short irrelevant.

 NFLX 131 break intraday stop target 132/133 and up.

 This gets interesting above 561.25 can also try red to green needs a $3 stop target 570/590/600

 SBUX 61.87 break target 63/64/68 stop day trade is 61.75ish swing is 60.60.

 Cash flow short 24.90 break .10 stop target 24.30.

 Strong within a group that could run 59 break target 62 stop 58.

 25% short 26.45 break could run it again stop 26.25 target 27/28/30.

Good Luck!

Trade #1 closed Trades 3,4,5,6 & 7 viewed.

SPY calls trade number 1:  So essentially this trade never worked out the way I though as you can imagine from Monday.. Fortunately I was stopped out long before the carnage happened and grabbed a small net gain.

CLOSED +.13
NFLX Trade #2

On Monday I caught NFLX very nicely but booked quick gains and really could have crushed it but I do not often swing for the fences and I got to talking shop with someone a few weeks back and basically described myself as a grinder I am not going to put up many 50 point games but I am going to give 20 & 10 on most days.


The gist of the trade is I made a bunch of sales ranging from +.70- +1.50 and then turned the last 1/3 into a call fly which gave me a guaranteed gain of +$1.40 and a chance to make 6 points in total but today I sold that for +2-+2.20 roughly.  (  There was some positive feed back on a post i did on this on a LNKD trade so I may do another one here. In the coming days.

CLOSED +.70-.2.20

Trade #3 SPY Puts  So this was basically a scalp at inception but then decided to leave a piece on for the over night, which again I put into a fly.. Pictured below.  I may actually use this as opposed to the NFLX or both as this can really show the bad side and the good.  So what is the bad side well these puts went all the way to 1.60 on Monday the good side is I had a bearish position with SPY up $2 today and I only lost $60. So have profits here raning from .09-.24 and with creating the fly I was guranteed to make .15 with a chance to make 1.15.. Now the problem here is getting out is damn near impossible because of spreads so I could have gotten a fill at around .09 giving me .24 gain on balance but as you will soon see I am long a few positions after today so this can serve as some small form of a hedge.

CLOSED +.09-+.24  (most likely the rest goes to 0 etc..)

These are my three new open positions I will keep size out of most discussions as it is irrelevant but becomes relevant in the FLY situations because it will then be too confusing to explain as you cannot see the - next to the ones I sold. (I am far from the biggest trader on the block & in twittersphere I am most likely one of the smaller ones) These are smaller positions for swings roughly 1% with ORCL being a tad less than the others as it is shorter term trade and if the market finds a gap down tomorrow it will suffer the most.  So I am still being cautious but ready to nibble on some longs.  Quickly I am 97% cash roughly I typically will always have at least 70% cash and typically always swing options as I do not see the need to keep the required capital in a trading brokerage account to swing say 5-10 equity positions.

Briefly this blog is mostly just for me as a blog of my trades and things it is not a pound the chest or have Saturday fills where losing positions dissapear.. If no trader had losses, then how could there be any good traders???

Be Well.

SPY Trade #1 1/10/14

One of the things I do not do well or enough of is that I tend to only keep track of the score board and not the statistics.  What I mean by that is I track my PNL but tend to not keep enough data on my individual trades.  So this will become a log of any trade aside from day trades.


I got long SPY Jan 18th 184 calls on Friday on the break above the intraday highs.  I am long at .77 and they closed on Friday at $1.  Nice little gain I was tempted to book some but stuck with a full position over the weekend.

Below is a 60 minute view my thought is bears had a chance on the bad jobs report but had no juice and once we snapped highs on Friday really caught a nice stick to close the day.  My initial stop was below 183 but that will change on Monday depending on how we open I will most likely be using an intraday pivot as a stop but the plan is for us to bust out of here and potentially get a little blow off through all time highs. 

A Quick Break Down of A Trade In LNKD

I bring to you a day trade in LNKD.  I want to preface this by saying you will NOT get rich in a single day trade, can you accumulate wealth day trading? Definitely, day trading can be extremely lucrative.  Is position trading far easier? Sure, but you can put up a lot of points on the board day trading this market especially in beta land.  That whole topic is for another post, which I will probably forget about and never write.

So what did I do here, I got long 30 LNKD weekly 220 calls at 3.42, I quickly eliminted my risk by selling 2/3 (or 20) at 4.00 so $1,100 gain in less than 3 minutes.  So what else did I achieve with these sales?  I eliminated all of the risk from the trade within 3 minutes.  Now some momentum guys might say I suck and why would I sell there etc.. Well a lot of these guys are heros right now in this very rare tape and my big thing is A. I trade a very aggressive style using the most volatile instrument in the markets and I like to eliminate risk.  

Next I sold 5 more at 4.60-4.65 for another $600 now up $1,700 and chage and then I sold 2 more at 6.10 for an additional $500 so currently up $2,200 in a day trade probably less than 5 minutes into it.  This is not a get rich quick program nor is it a life changing trade it is just cash flow trade but if I told you, you could enter a day trade and in 3 minutes you would have no risk and the potential to make 5 grand I would have a line a mile long at my Twitter door.. LOL unfortunately I cannot tell you that but at times pieces of the puzzle fall into place.

What did I do with the few runners I have left, well quite simply I again eliminated all of the risk from the balance of the trade by creating a weekly 220-230-240 butterfly call spread bringing in about $3.15 original cost is $3.42 so a small risk left of .27 but that implies allowing the butterfly going to 0.. hard to do and forgetting about the 2,200 in gains already.

So what happened we now have $75 in risk on the balance and an oportunity to make $3,000 in addition to $2,200 already booked so we can potentially make $5,200 10 minutes into a day trade and because we are well hedged with the fly we can forget about it and move on with our day and seek out another edge elsewhere.

Lets get into why LNKD and why there one could argue that it looked like a short, as it had fallen below the prior lows of 218 and below the 100 day and was looking awful.

I bring you the LNKD time and sales what do we see well a dip below 217 and bounce back above and then another test of the 217 and all of that red is someone pounding on the 217 but there is someone there buying it all up and not going away.  A fairly good indicator of the lows are in temporarily and this should begin moving higher.

The 5 min on LNKD we see the heavy sell off on the break below 218 tand then 217 the bounce back above 217 another attempt to break below and then the ripping starts.  So we are invovled about 9:50 and have this puppy wrapped up about 10:10-10:15 (prior times at the top were off a tad lol).

Next important thing is what is the market doing during all of this well I see a few fairly large red sticks down in that 9:45-10 time frame another great indicator that this LNKD is going to head higher especially back by an incredible bull market where dips are more than likely going to be bought.

Breaking Down A Trade In SPY

Okay so via my newsletter I have received a lot of questions about trading options and how to best do it, which of course there is no right or wrong way.  But with that said one of the more interesting questions I receive the most is "I get big gains but then give a lot or all back".  So I am going to delve into a strategy I frequently use and we are going to use a trade in SPY today.  For me right now as I have said I am in all cash mode and just day trading the first few hours but I have also been trading SPY  bit in the afternoon and today if you watched the order level 2 or whatever you use you could fairly clearly see any rally up to 166.30 was finding a lot of sellers.  Whether you just looked at the chart or studied the tape I mainly watch the tape as I am not doing much as else and I have found you can put together some decent scalps.  Now the risk reward in these is never going to be great as it mostly never will be in scalps but one has to rely on probabilities and that probability is simply your ability to read the market and be able to trade solid set-ups that are going to be successful a lot of the time.  So around 1ish we rallied back up to that 166.30 area and I short the market via weekly 166 puts.  Continued below.

I paid 1.07 and I would stop out in the 166.45-166.50 area so risking maybe .03-.04 plus slippage of .02 so .05-.06 risk.  The next thing I do is Que. up my levels via a chart and attempt to predict my puts price once reaching those levels so I can have my offers out there as the market is having these quick spikes and I want to get filled on those.  I paid 1.07 for the puts by the way as it is difficult to tell from there unless of course you use etrade.  So thankfully the trade works out and my first target is reached and I get only a partial fill at 1.17 and then sell out the rest 1.15-1.13 so at this stage I am out half the position. With average profits of .08 and my stop on the balance is roughly break even, so at this stage I am essentially looking for a big stick down to dump another quarter and leave another trailer to be out before Obama.  So I get the spike into Obama and I dump another quarter for .27 profit.  So now we have average profits of .15 on the 3/4 we sold and have a decision to make on the balance do we stay for Obama or do we go.  So at this stage I want to keep a little short exposure but like in boxing I do not want my nose out there wide open so being well ahead here I have a lot of options that I can do.  So  I decided on creating a butterfly a very powerful strategy when your ahead so being long the 166 I decided on creating a 166-164-162 butterfly so selling the ratio put spread to create the fly brought in $1 and my original cost was $1.07.  So my max loss on this last 1/4 is .07 and my upside is $2 so I am getting 28.5 to 1 odds on my money.. You do not have to be the best trader in the world to be profitable with those odds.


So lets back track a bit we have .15 profit average on 3/4, so our worst case scenario on the trade is an avg profit of .10 per contract not bad.  Our best case scenario is average profits of .62 average profit per contract with what at this point is 0 risk from inception of the trade.  Of course mark to market my risk here over night is .38 but that is okay as I have spoken about in the past I view options trade aside from day trades as creating a piece of art work and in the end using this strategy you either end up with an inexpensive coaster or you end up with a Picasso... These are the types of odds you want on your side to grab profits out of the tape using options in my opinion.  There are tons of options I have now until Friday with this trade as well we shall see how it plays out and what I do with it...

P.S. hopefully I made some sense out of one of the strategies I use when looking to keep my nose clean and break some jaws once in a while.


Be Well,

Keith

The Week That Was In The Options Market 9/30-10/4

GRPN buyers of 7,000 Oct. 11 puts.

Closed .40 off the lows and has been a strong name so really have no interest here, I am setting an alert for 10.85 break down though as if market starts any panic this could be a name to get hit hard.

CNP traders active in Nov 25 calls for over 3,000 and in addition one trader enters 2,500 25/22.50 bull risk reversal.

Shares are starting to perk up a bit and are battling the 10 day here at 24.02.  Worth mentioning some prior action here 9/26 trader buys 10K Oct 25 calls, 9/25 trader buys 2500 Nov 25 calls, 9/24 700 oct 25 calls & 9/20 6,000 Oct 25 calls bought.  Open Interest in Oct. 25 calls is now 28,000 & Nov 25 calls 11,800.

The story is building here for sure and I am becoming interested eyeing a break out of this flag and for markets firmness.

WFC sitting on a lot of support here attempted to crack today but bounced well off the lows some mixed action here.  Trader buys 4,400 April 50 calls, trader buys 1,100 Jan 43 calls & a trader rolls out of 3,000 Oct 11th 41 puts to Oct 11 40 puts.

All of these plays actually have potential as a short term trader setting an alert for the 40.90 break down if the market continues to act weak.

LUV bounced well off the lows here today and calls were running hot trading 9X daily call volume average and 4 to 1 call to put ratio with over 4,000 Nov 15 calls bought and about 1,500 Oct 15 calls.

LUV like many airlines are looking interesting and consistantly finding bullish buyers in the options market, setting an alert for 14.82 break and November 15 calls looking cheap at .35 by .40 with EPS 10/24.  Watching those november 15 calls on the 14.82 break will also watch the action before then for possible entry will not plan to hold through earnings though but you never know.

EA shares showing some weakness here and traders are getting bearish today with 2,500 Oct 26 puts, and over 3,000 Oct 25 puts.

Worth noting buyer of 1,700 Nov 27 calls on 9/26.  Setting an alert for 25.16 break for a test of 100 day but not something I am really interested in.

Oct. 31 calls finding buyers here today in MXIM over 2,000 shares put in a big candle today so keep an eye on that 30 level for a continuation move higher.

BAX breaking down hard keeping an eye on that 65 area, trader rolls out of 1,500 Oct 65 puts to 2,000 Oct 62.50 puts, also trader enters 1,200 Oct 62.50/67.50 bear risk reversals.

Earnings 10/17 noting the action and watching the 65 level.

BP- More add on action today with 4,700 Oct 44 calls & 3K Nov 44 calls bought.  I continue to monitor this one but continues to act weak.

ZIOP- continues to defie gravity and trader rolls out fo 3K Oct 3 calls to 3,000 Jan 4 calls.

IAG- Trying to bottom traders active buying over 3,000 Oct 5 calls today.

AG- SHares look awful but buyers active in Nov. 12.50 calls today for over 1,000 and ran 2x daily call volume.

BHP- Buyer of 3,000 Oct 67.50 puts.

MS- Trader enters a Jan 24/30 bear risk reversal 2,500 times.

LNG- Some buyers in Oct 35 calls.. Keep an eye on it through today's highs.

JPM- Mar. 60 calls bought 2,200 similar theme in many banks short term cautious long term bullish.

NFX- Trader sells 6,000 Nov 27 puts and buys 6,000 Oct. 28 calls.. Worth a look for strength.

ORCL- Traders active in Oct 35 calls over 2K.  I see nothing here but a possible short through 32.73.

HES- Buyer of 1,000 Oct 80 calls.

AAPL ICHAN rally again kind of getting silly at this stage, but anyways.

The Trades: Trader buys 500 Oct 4th 500 calls 2 seperate blocks of 500 & 350 block of oct 19th 490 calls bought.

My Take:  I trade AAPL daily so watching for a break above today's highs for a run back to the 497 area, probably not a name I will put in my book and if I do it will be in a hedged manner.

FB pulling back a tad waiting for moving averages to catch up and earnings looming at the end of the month.

The Trades: Trader enters a massive Dec 65/70 call spread 25,000.

My Take: FB always on watch but right now I see no set-up aside from intra day trades.  

MSFT starting to set-up here with RSI grinding higher MACD curling up an same with Accum/Dis.

The Trades: Saw 1,500 Oct 4th 32 calls bought.  

My Take:  An interesting high delta play, keeping my eyes on this through that 33.68-33.75 area and looking at the weekly 34 calls.

IGT shares held a key level and look to reverse here with a pretty nice reversal candle and also building a nice hammer on the weekly.

The Trades: Traders extremely active in Oct 20 calls today over 4,500 running 3X daily call volume.

My Take: Not seeing a catalyst for this one, but going to keep my eye on it as this is one trader just taking up all the calls available.  Watching today's highs for a move back to 20 day.

WFT beautiful candle today closing right near the highs, and is looking like 18.

The Trades: Trader rolls out of 1300 Oct 15 calls to 1300 oct 16 calls, also seeing size buyers active in Oct 15 calls well over 2,000. On 9/19 we noted a trader bought 6,000 Jan 18 calls.

My Take:  This is not bad here watching for red to green scenarios or a few days of consolidation before a next leg higher but all signs are a go here with all the momentum indicators lining up.

DHR wedged between 20 and 10 day looking to break higher.

Trades: Long term bulls active in Jan 67.50 calls but selling Jan 2015 72.50 calls over 5,000 of them also action in Oct 60 calls over 1,000.

My Take:  Earnings 10/17 and this could set-up putting on a list to check back on.

RAD- 5,000 Jan 2014 3.5 puts bought for .09 also smaller size blocks of Nov 6 calls & April 2014 calls.  Definitely not my thing but one may want to set an alert for a 5.08 break.

XOMA- Big candle today trader wants more time and rolls out of 3,000 Oct 5 calls to 3,000 Nov 5 calls.  5.53 break should get this to at least 6.

VOD- Long term bulls remain active making adjustments trader rolls 4000 Oct 34 calls to 5,000 Nov 36 calls  & another 2k jan 30 calls to 2K jan 35 calls.

NEM- 4,000 Nov 30 calls bought.. Zero interest in this play.

JCP- Trader rolls out of 4,000 Oct 4th 10.50 puts to 5,000 Nov 9 puts.. staying bearish.

YHOO- We have noted the bullish flow many times and today sees traders makign adjustments rolling Jan 33 & 32 calls to Jan 36 & 37 calls 5K each.

DISH- Trader buys Dec. 50/42 strangles 1K, also 2,500 Jan 60 calls.

IAG- More speculation today in Oct 5 calls over 4,000.  Still no thanks for me.

ADSK- Size buyers in oCT 43 CALLS over 7,000 & trader closes 4,700 Oct 40 puts.

ABBV- Trader rolls out of 2,500 Oct 42.50 calls to 3,500 Oct 45 calls.  Could get interesting through 10 day for a run back to highs into earnings.

ADT- Long term bull in a combo spread buys 2,500 Jan 42/50 call spreads and sells 2,500 Jan 35 puts net debit $1.  Needs work.

TLM- Shares flying traders active in Jan 14 calls over 10,000.

AMAT- trying to hold gap and put in a bit of a hammer today trader buys 3,400 Oct 18 calls.  Setting alert for 18 noting the action.

PFE- Oct 29 calls active about 5,000 share sperking up a bit now above all moving averages.

HPQ shares have failed to recover from the earnings gap down yet, which tends to not be a great sign, which makes sense considering the PC world etc..

The Trade: Much talked about buyer of 27,564 Oct. 22 calls but also there was a 750K block order of shares sold short there at the same time so I am not that bullish on this position or this name and have no interest here.  Worth noting Seller of 5,000 Oct 23 calls, buyers of 1500 Oct 24 & 25 calls  and a bunch of smaller sellers in Oct 23 & 21 calls.

CAKE shares sold off hard in the A.M. but trader quickly bought the dip much like the market and shares are setting up for a break out above 44.77 area.

The Trade: Trader buys 2,800 April 2014 50 calls.

My Take: Spreads are wide in CAKE so more of a swing trade stock if choosing options and I am currently not looking swing much so I am setting an alert for a possible day trade on the break out.

DD solid day as it held the 50 day and reclaimed the 20 day and now has its eyes set on the 10 day above.

The Trades: Trader buys 1,700 Nov. 60 calls  Earnings are 10/22

My Take:  It is interesting and I do like set-ups that have been strong and are currently working back through supply but still not looking to add longs aside from day trades.  So noting the action.

DAR recent rip currently being faded with the market.

The Trades: Trader buys Jan 20/17.50 1 by 2 ratio put spread 10K by 20K for .35 debit.

My Take.  Significant position and one of my favorite types of spreads, but a longer term play that I am not interested in.

GLW shares now under all moving averages aside from the 200 day and actually look to be setting up for a short below 14.42.

The Trades: Trader sells 10,000 Oct 11 14.50 puts looks to be tied to short stock.  Also trader buys 6,000 Oct 14 puts.

My Take: The Oct. 14 puts at .12-.15 are not a horrible play on that 14.42 break down especially if the freak show in Washington continues the market could see more selling.

UAL bearish engulfing today as shares look set to test 200 day support.

The Trades: Dec 34 calls hot on this dip with buyers of over 13,000 running 2x daily average.

My Take: Continue to see air lines attracting bulls and I am noting the action and still have my eyes on LUV, but until the market firms up I am avoiding swings.  Will most likely look to add an Air Line to IRA holding as well, that I may look to buy on a dip.

GE solid day closed near highs and is now above all moving averages and starting to perk up here.

The trades: Traders got very active early in the day in Nov. 26 calls for well over 10K.

My Take:  I almost pulled the trigger here, as we also noted the larger weekly 24 calls trading on Monday at .23 now trading .35 but again not really looking to hold a book and finding plenty of value day trading.  In addition earnings are 10/18 as a catalyst so will set-up well for a nice earnings trade with very small risk designing a different play.

AMD shares continue to be in a tight range & I think  many eyes are on that $4 break, which could take earnings to get it done.

The Trades: Traders very active today in Oct. 4 calls over 5,000 mostly offer side action too.

My Take: Not a name I want to be long into earnings and probably not one I would even trade the $4 break as every pumper and tom dick and harry will be in there, but if this is your area would definitely set an alert for a $4 break.

LAMR shares are setting up for a nice year end run here in my opinion.

The Trade: Trader rolls out of 5,000 Oct 41 calls to 5,000 Jan 46 calls & buys back short Oct 37 puts and sells 5,000 Jan 40 puts.  Also buyers of 4,000 Jan 50 calls & Jan 49 calls find buyers of 3,000.

My Take: Stalking for an IRA add.

GM shares fell to test right around 100 day and trader saw opportunity.

The Trades: 3,500 Nov 36 synthetic longs, 2500 Nov 37/33 bull risk reversals.

My Take:  Nice hammer here will watch red to green tomorrow for a trade.

ZNGA shares been running hot and all eyes on that $4 break.

The Trades: Oct 4.50 calls got really hot today over 10,000 with IV spiking EPS 10/14.

My Take: Not a name I want to be long into EPS and similar to AMD probably not something i would play, but one could set a $4 alert.

Banks

Just going to devote a section to banks without charts.

JPM- trader buys 18,000 Nov. 1st 53 calls, Trader enters Nov 1st 52.50 synthetic long 5,000 times, Nov. 55 calls bought 9,200 Nov 52.50 calls bought 2,500.  Alert set 52.81 break here.

BAC- Dec. 15 calls over 10k, this weeks 14 calls 2k.

GS- Jan 175/150 bull risk reversal 600, Jan 175 calls 350, Nov 160 calls 700.

C- 5,800 Oct 50 calls, 4800 Dec 50 calls, 3700 Nov 52.50 calls.

As I have been talking about the theme is short term caution on banks long-term bulls today really highlights that.  I will be actively looking for entries and stalking earnings dips for longer-term holds.  If I were a long-term investor with no exposure to banks I would probably be nibbling some on these gap downs in the market...  I have long-term exposure already, but looking for swing trades here for sure & earnings trades once market firms.

Other Options Activity

FB- 25,000 Nov 70/75 call spreads bought for .20 also 1,400 Dec 60/65 call spreads bought.  Seeing a lot of these way out of the money spreads being bought lately.

ADBE- Long term bulls buy 2,500 Jan 55 calls & also about 1,000 Jan 50 calls bought.  Still have 53 alert set.

LCC- Another airline actually broke out yesterday but put in a sloppy candle today buyer of 2,000 Nov 20 calls and small buyer this weeks 20 calls, worth a look for a trade through 20.10.

AXAS- Big break today buyer of 1,000 March 2.50 calls trading 3x call volume.  $3 break could really get this moving worth an alert if your into the smalls.

YHOO- 1K Oct. 34/37 call spreads bought EPS 10/15 could be a fade here honestly. We will see.

HUN- Have noted bullish buying a few times today saw an adjustment as trader rolls out of 4,900 Oct 20 calls into 4,900 Nov 22 calls.  Also a bunch of smaller size Oct. 20 call buys as well.

TLM- Shares going ballistic trader Sells 6k Jan 11 puts, closes 6,000 Oct 13 calls & buys 7,000 Jan 2014 14 calls.  Also trader bought 2,500 Oct 14 calls.  Personally not a chaser and missed the move so certainly not chasing it here.

STX- Buyer of 2,000 Oct 44 puts.

NSM- Buyers of over 6,000 Jan 45 puts & 1k Nov 45 puts 9X daily avg put volume.  EPS 11/4

MT- Buyer 4,000 March 12 puts.

ARO- Oct. 11 calls very active today over 5,000 offer side action, I have no interest maybe it gets taken out not sure, if not goes to 0 at some point.

CTRX- Buyer 1k Jan 47.50 calls.

MRVL- Buyer of 3k Oct 12 calls looking for a reversal.

SPLS- Trader rolls out of 3K Oct 15 calls to 3,400 Jan 17 calls.

DHR- Buyer 2,500 Oct 67.50 puts rolled from 2,000 Oct 70 puts. EPS 10/17 Noted.

CAM- Buyers active in Oct 62.50 calls over 3,000 and Oct 60 calls about 1K, setting an alert for 200 day break 61.15-61.25 see if there's anything here.

SLV- 5K Jan 22 calls bought.

FTNT- Dec 20/26 call spread bought 3K times also buyers active in Oct 21 calls EPS 10/14 have an alert set for 21.44 for a trade but that Dec. spread is reasonable too just too far out for me.

WMGI- 2,500 Nov 30/35 call spreads bought.  Interesting chart could set-up soon.

TIVO- 1K Nov 13 calls bought- I am setting an alert for 12.65-12.70 area see if there's anything here.

VLO shares have not caught a bid since the beginning of the year, but caught an upgrade last week and are looking to try and rally some with RSI moving higher a bullish MACD cross imminent & accum/dist curling upwards in addtion to a close above the 10 day.

The Trade: Trader buys 14,000 Dec. 39 calls for .38

My Take: For the entire summer any rally in shares have quickly been sold and this is not something I am interested in believing as shares have a lot of work to do.  In addition this type of play basically gives very limited flexibility as far as selling premium creating spreads etc..  EPS at the end of the month, will note the action.

NBG shares woke up on Friday for a 10% rally and options traders got bullish as shares clear this long range.

The Trades: Jan 5 calls 1,000, Jan 5.50 calls 1,000 & Jan 7 calls 2,500 ran 2x daily call volume with net delta of +209K.

My Take:   For now this really looks like it does have room into the $5's and those Jan 5 calls for .40 are not looking too bad here.

BP shares continue in this range and I have spoken about bullish positioning in the past but shares continue to tread water and are unable to break above.

The Trade: Trader sees volatility and buys 5,000 Nov 42 straddles.

My Take: Earnings 10/29 as a catalyst you know this probably is a decent play here and one which I believe could certainly end well.  For me I continue to favor the long side as the positioning has been bullish and I am just waiting for a break above this triangle to seek entry.

ETE had a blow off top and shares came back in to test 10 & 20 day support which held and now look poised for a run back to the highs.

The Trade: Trader buys 1,500 Nov 70 calls.  Daily avg. volume is only 1,200

My Take:  Chart looks decent here setting an alert for 67.50 area to see if there is anything here.

ROC shares have performed well while being range bound for the better half of the year albeit an 8 point range.

The Trade: Trader enters a combo bull spread buying 1,250 Feb 70/75 call spreads & sells 1,250 Feb 60 puts for a .20 debit.

My Take: EPS 10/21 shares are setting up well here ahead of the date for a 69 break this is a very bullish spread with daily volume in calls just at 400 so certainly one to watch for that 69 break.

DECK after about a year of weakness from missed earnings report is showing signs of life here.

The Trade:  Trader buys a bull spread combo 2,000 Dec 70 calls and sells 2,000 Jan 80 calls & sells 1,500 Jan 57.50 puts.  For 1.50 debit.

My Take: Earnings 10/21 not a name I want to be blindly directional long into the report but until then I have an alert set for a 69 break for a run to the 71 area.

MTOR shares have doubled since May but traders see this getting ahead of itself and are looking for a pull in.

The Trades: Traders very active in Nov 7 puts for about 5,000 running 5x daily avg volume.

My Take: Earnings 11/11 so traders are positioned for that, but before that one may want to set an alert for 7.87 break down which should test 7.50-7.30 area and below that should see a $6 handle.

RAX failed to break above that signifigant resistance and got rejected pretty hard.

The Trades:  Trader buys 2,500 Nov 47.50/40 put spreads. 

My Take- EPS 11/4 noted for that also could be a short trade here on a 50 break targeting the 48 area.

ANF these teen retailers are struggling and the only rallies are news driven either takeover or private equity etc..  

The Trades:  Nov 30 put buys over 1,000.

My Take: Sets up for a short here through 35 or 34.64.

Other Options Activity

CWH- Trader buys 6,000 Nov. 25 calls ran 5x daily avg. call volume.

LVLT- Trader buys 1,300 Nov 30 calls also Dec. 31 calls seeing action ran 4x daily avg call volume.  Blow off top here needs to consolidate same to make a run at new highs.

CNDO- Trader buys 1,000 Nov. 12.50 calls & sells 1,000 Feb. 17.50 calls.

JPM- Nov. 55 calls active.  Did the whole piece on the banks earlier in the week, so we all know where I stand.

C- Trader buys 2,200 Oct 47 calls & another trader enters a Dec 50/48 bull risk reversal 2,500 times.  Earnings 10/15 will be looking to play.

BID- Trader buys 4,000 Nov. 55 calls.

AGN- Trader rolls out of 2,500 Oct 92.50 calls to 2,500 Nov 92.50 calls. Continue to look for that 92 break for a run back to test that 93 area.

UUP-March 2014 22 calls finding buyers for 2,500. Hammer reversal on Thursday with follow through on Friday so far so good.

 FB- Buyers of over 6,000 March 39 calls. Stock replacement.

MSFT- Trader enter 9,000 April 29/38 bear risk reversals.

RAD- Finding buyers of April 6 calls 1,000 & Nov 5.50 calls about 1,000 as well.

LUV- Trader buys 2,000 Oct 15 calls.

WLL- Buyer of 1,600 Dec. 62.50 calls.  Also smaller size buyers in Nov 67.50 calls over 1,000 scattered.  Shares are really extended here, but worth noting and eyeing on pull backs or a few weeks of consolidation.

TSO- Finding buyers of Nov 46/49 call spreads over 4,000.  Also an Oct. 42 put buyer for 1,200.

HBAN- Trader rolls 1,000 Jan 9 calls to 1,000 April 9 calls.

LNG- smaller size buyers in Nov 37 calls & Dec. 36 calls.  Also some buyers of stock and sell March 38 calls for $3.