By: Mr.Fog on Giovedì 30 Agosto 2007 21:49
Qualche pazzo scatenato ha comprato put sullo S&P con strike 700...
Pare piu' una scommessa che altro e con un grado di probabilita' di 0,0000000....
-----------------------
Bin Laden' Options Trades Have Wall Street Whispering
By Steven Smith and Aaron L. Task
Staff Reporters
8/30/2007 7:07 AM EDT
As if the mortgage-market meltdown isn't enough to spook investors, some market players are worrying about unusual options bets that some observers have dubbed "Bin Laden Trades."
The blogosphere and options trading desks have been rife with speculation about these trades, which are unusually large bets that the market will make a huge move in the next month. Some entity, or entities, has taken a large position on extremely deep in the money S&P 500 options, both puts and calls, that won't pay off unless the market undergoes an extremely large price move between now and the options' expiration on Sept. 21.
The positions in question have left option industry experts perplexed to come up with a rational explanation for the trades, which are far from the best or most efficient way to profit from what would be outlier events.
Those worrying about the worst-case scenario are recalling that large put contracts were placed on airline stocks, notably American, a unit of AMR and United Airlines, in the weeks leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
The first area of focus is that open interest on September 700 S&P puts is 116,000 contracts, an unusually high number for such a low-probability trade. A put is a defensive bet that gives the holder the right to sell a security at a specified price, in this case more than 50% below the S&P 500's current level of 1463 as of Wednesday's close.
For comparison's sake, according to the Option Clearing Corp., the open interest in the July 700 strike some three weeks prior to expiration on July 20 was 790 calls and 7,300 puts, and the August 700 strike showed 1,250 calls and 14,800 puts prior to Aug. 17 expiration.
And the volume completely outstrips anything seen last September, when the S&P was around 1300, some 20% below current levels. In September 2006, the 700 strike had 600 calls and 7,500 puts, and no strike below 1000 had open interest surpassing 42,000 contracts, and that was the 900 puts.