Bearish Speculation Rises as MGM Mirage Approaches Resistance

Skepticism surrounds MGM Mirage (MGM), judging by an uptick in put buying on Tuesday. During the course of the session, traders on the International Securities Exchange (ISE) bought to open 1,411 puts on MGM, compared to 202 calls. Most active was the December 12 put, where 1,262 contracts crossed the tape. Accordingly, open interest at this strike rose overnight by 968 contracts, and now stands at 17,232 puts.

The day's put-skewed activity was actually a deviation from the norm for MGM, which sports a 10-day ISE call/put volume ratio of 3.02, in the 81st annual percentile. However, the apparently upbeat status of this indicator is muted by the presence of heavy short interest. The number of MGM shares sold short bolted higher by nearly 64% during the past month, and now accounts for 12.5% of the equity's float.

In other words, rising short interest raises the possibility that calls are being purchased as hedges for bearish stock positions, rather than as outright bullish bets. The argument that skepticism still reigns supreme is supported by MGM's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) -- the current reading of 1.18 ranks just 20 percentage points from an annual pessimistic peak.

Meanwhile, on the charts, MGM is maintaining support at its 10-week and 20-week moving averages. However, the shares have been repeatedly rejected by resistance in the $12-to-$14 neighborhood, which is looming not far overhead.

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