Tuesday, April 16, 2013

"Did SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD) Option Traders Predict the Gold Drop? "

From Schaeffer's Research:
The shares of the SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSEARCA:GLD) fell to a two-year low of $130.51 on Monday, falling in sympathy with gold futures. What's more, there are more than a few fresh option bears likely celebrating the commodity's downturn, as evidenced by the recent glut of well-timed put positions.

On Friday, April 12 -- the session prior to the yellow metal's steepest one-day percentage drop in more than 30 years -- saw a spike in put activity, as Schaeffer's Quantitative Analyst Chris Prybal pointed out via internal email. Overall, GLD saw roughly 415,000 puts exchanged, more than five times the norm.

Most notably, put open interest at the April 140 strike swelled by a whopping 28,406 contracts over the weekend. While these puts were out of the money at the time of initiation, as GLD closed at $143.95 on Friday, they're now in the money by about 6 points....MORE
On Friday we saw a 100,000 contract trade in the Financial ETF's puts: "Large-by-large Put Buying in the Financial ETF (XLF)".