Silver Strong, Expiration Quiet

Your intraday option s trading update. High Options Volume by Strike Expiration
blues,  or is that expiration snooze. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: SPY ) is
dominating options trading, holding the top three slots. Most active strike is
the SPY Jun11 145 Call with last of .06 trading 198,854 contracts, followed by
the SPY Apr 11 131 Put down .34 and last of .02. 135,592 contracts traded. The
SPY Apr11 132 Put is down .70 to 12 with 97,051 contracts traded. Citigroup
(NYSE: C ) with the C Apr 11 4.5 Call trading last at .01 with 78,284 contracts,
and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC ) May11 12 Put last of .09 seeing 68,905
contracts. Also BAC Apr11 13 Puts offered at .12 with 64,689 traded. Stock is at
12.93 after reporting quarterly profits down 36%. Those 13 Puts still might pull
through. Or will we close exactly at 13? "At the money strikes get a lot of
play. It may be someone buying a 'lottery ticket.' Or someone closing out a
position very cheaply," said Luke Rahbari, partner with Stutland Volatility
Group. Rahbari said that options trading today has been pretty quiet as many
traders already modified positions earlier this week in preparation for
expiration Friday. However, trading remains strong in such funds as the SPDR
Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD ) and the iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV ). "We were
long some out-of-the-money silver calls but it went through that strike and we
sold them. We did well. But I'm surprised at the continued upside move,"
said Rahbari. SLV had total options volume this morning of 373,133 as it rises
.47 to 41.5. Major Stock Volume Movers Primerica (NYSE: PRI ) is down .72 on
volume of 7.9 million. Citigroup announced yesterday the public offering of 12
million shares of PRI common stock held by a C subsidiary. To be priced at
$22.75 Ku6 Media (NASDAQ: KUTV ) up 1.06 or 25% to 5.13 on 2.4 million shares.
It's an online Chinese video company. Hauppauge Digital (NASDAQ: HAUP ) up .38
to 2.26 on a little more than a million shares. Find more option analysis and
trading ideas at Options Trading Strategies . Stocks/Underlying – Big Daily
Change in Option Volume Hub Group (NASDAQ: HUBG ) sees option volume of 1,450,
up over 6,000%. Benzinga says that someone bought 1,408 May11 35 Puts for 65
cents. HUBG at 38.59, up .36. Cabot Microelectronics (NASDAQ: CCMP ) options
trade 5,154 contracts as stock rises .22 to 48.78. Cabot supplies polishing
slurries and CMP pads. I read somewhere that was hot these days, maybe it was on
Benzinga. American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO ) gets options volume of 34,637,
as stock rises .038 to 16.02 Stocks – High Put/Call Ratio Regional bank firms
continue showing in this negative indicator. The Regional Bank HLDRs (NYSE: RKH
) rises .24 to 84.97 but P/C ratio is at 372.59. Banco Bradesco (NYSE: BBD )
sees its P/C at 217.91, and H and R Block (NYSE: HRB ) rises to 17.09 and the
P/C hits 190.43. Stocks/Underlying – High Option Volume The SPDR S&P 500 Index
(NYSE: SPY ) sees volume of 1.8 million option contracts on expiration Friday as
it rises .59 to 132.15. The S&P 500 Index Options (CBOE: SPX) jumps nice 6.51 to
13,221.03 and volume hits 408,680 contracts. The CBOE Volatility Index (CBOE:
VIX ) is active with the index down .95 to 15.32, as options on the VIX trade
250,140 contracts. Burney Simpson is the managing editor of InvestorPlace
options pages.