Most Active Weekly Options: Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO)

Cisco Systems, Inc.'s weekly 12/5 26-strike put is being bought to open today

Karee Venema

Nov 17, 2014 at 1:36 PM

CSCO

The 20 stocks listed in the table below are the names that have attracted the highest weekly options volume during the past 10 trading days. Those highlighted are new to the list since the last time the study was run, and data is courtesy of Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White. One name of notable interest today is Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), where option traders are betting on a breach of recent support.

Cisco Systems, Inc. last week notched its first weekly close north of $26 since August 2013, and with the stock bottoming out at an intraday low of $26 earlier, it seems like this former layer of resistance could now be switching to a more supportive role. Not everyone is convinced this level will hold, though, with a number of traders betting on a breach of this area over the next several weeks -- a time frame which encompasses this Thursday's annual shareholder meeting.

Specifically, CSCO's weekly 12/5 26-strike put has received notable attention today, with 3,364 contracts on the tape at last check. The majority of these calls have changed hands at the ask price, and just 300 contracts are currently in residence, making it safe to assume new positions are being purchased. The options market isn't too confident the put will be in the money at the close on Friday, Dec. 5, as its delta is docked at negative 0.33.

Widening the sentiment scope reveals option traders have taken the glass-half-empty approach to CSCO in recent weeks, despite the stock tacking on an impressive 17.6% in 2014 -- and tagging a fresh 52-week peak of $26.38 today. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), for example, the equity's 10-day put/call volume ratio of 1.21 ranks just 5 percentage points from an annual bearish peak. Should Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) continue to make its way up the charts, an unwinding of the hedges related to these bets could add fuel to the security's fire.

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