Wednesday, March 23, 2011

"Big bearish play in Industrial SPDR ETF put options" (XLI; PKX)

From Interactive Brokers via FX Street:
XLI – Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund – A massive put spread on the XLI, an exchange-traded fund that tracks the performance of the Industrial Select Sector of the S&P 500 Index, appears to be the work of a bearish strategist positioning for the price of the underlying fund to pull back. Shares in the ETF are currently down 0.65% to stand at $36.52 as of 11:25pm in New York. The large-volume transaction launched the XLI on to our ‘most active by options volume’ market scanner within the first 30 minutes of the session.

It looks like the investor purchased around 31,000 puts at the June $36 strike for a premium of $1.47 each, and sold the same number of puts at the lower June $32 strike at a premium of $0.48 apiece. Net premium paid to initiate the spread amounts to $0.99 per contract. Thus, the options player is poised to profit should shares in the XLI drop 4.1% from the current price of $36.52 to breach the effective breakeven point on the spread at $35.01 by June expiration. Maximum potential profits of $3.01 per contract are available to the investor in the event that the XLI’s shares plunge 12.4% in the next few months to trade below $32.00. Shares have closed above $32.00 since November 17, 2010....MORE
I put the Posco symbol in the headline because the Buffett favored South Korean giant also had some action.