Thursday, July 29, 2010

Option Activity Alert: General Electric (GE)

Au contraire.
The stock is trading up 1/2% at $16.13.
From Schaeffer's Research:
Puts were the options of choice on GE yesterday, as traders on the ISE bought to open 2,344 of these bearishly oriented contracts. By comparison, just 912 calls were purchased on GE during the course of Wednesday's trading, netting the shares a single-day ISE put/call volume ratio of 2.57.
The day's downbeat option activity seems to be part of a growing trend, as GE sports an inflated 10-day ISE put/call volume ratio of 0.79, in the 82nd annual percentile. In other words, traders on this exchange have purchased puts over calls at a faster clip just 18% of the time during the past year.

GE SOIRIn the same skeptical vein, GE's SOIR is hovering near annual-high territory.. ....

...However, during the short term, heavy put open interest could actually work in GE's favor. The stock's out-of-the-money August 14 and 15 put strikes carry a combined total of 65,118 contracts in open interest, which could provide options-related support as expiration draws closer.