Las Vegas Sands Corp. Draws Single-Day Spike in Call Buying

Traders on Thursday opted for bullishly oriented bets on Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS). During the course of the session, speculators on the International Securities Exchange (ISE) bought to open 4,613 calls on LVS, compared to 1,646 puts. The stock's single-day call/put volume ratio arrived at 2.80, revealing that calls bought to open nearly tripled their put counterparts.

Among near-term options, call players are favoring narrowly out-of-the-money options. LVS' November 17 call carries peak front-month open interest of 18,747 contracts, and the December 17.50 call is home to a hefty accumulation of 34,965 contracts. Currently, LVS is trading just shy of $16.50.

After checking out the casino concern's price action, yesterday's surge in optimistic speculation comes as no surprise. LVS has trended consistently higher since April, using support at its 10-week and 20-week moving averages to rack up a gain of 186% in 2009.

However, it's possible that some of Thursday's call buying was the result of hedging by short sellers. Skeptics have sold short nearly 15% of LVS' float, so these bears could be looking to protect themselves against a continuation of the equity's uptrend.

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