Andrea Kramer (akramer@sir-inc.com) OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (OVTI) was popular in the options pits on Friday, with investors honing in on the December series of options, which assumed front-month status over the weekend.
By the close, OVTI had seen roughly 7,600 calls and 2,300 puts change hands, more than doubling its expected daily volume of fewer than 2,500 calls and 1,200 puts. Attracting the bulk of the attention was the then at-the-money December 28 strike, which saw about 4,500 calls and 1,200 puts cross the tape. Most of the options traded at the ask price, and both call and put open interest skyrocketed over the weekend, pointing to buy-to-open activity.
The affinity for calls over puts echoes the growing trend on the International Securities Exchange (ISE), where speculators during the past two weeks have bought to open almost 29 OVTI calls for every put. What's more, this ratio ranks in the 85th percentile of its annual range, implying that options traders have initiated bullish bets over bearish at a faster clip just 15% of the time during the past year.
In that same vein, the stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.38 indicates that calls more than double their put rivals among options slated to expire within three months. In fact, this ratio stands just 17 percentage points from a 52-week nadir, suggesting that short-term speculators have been more optimistically aligned toward OVTI just 17% of the time during the past year.
Technically speaking, the aforementioned bulls are likely cheering this morning, as the shares of OVTI have extended their quest for new highs. At last check, the security has added 2.5% to flirt with the $29.68 level ? in territory the stock hasn't explored since mid-2006.
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