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Option bulls continue to target Facebook Inc
The 20 stocks listed in the table below have attracted the highest total options volume during the past 10 trading days. Names 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 social networking giant Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), where option traders are rolling the dice on a strong finish to the week.
Facebook Inc is up 3% this afternoon to trade at $78.45, after Topeka Capital waxed optimistic on Instagram's growth potential, following Wednesday's major milestone. Specifically, the brokerage firm said, "Instagram reported passing 300 million monthly active users (MAU) approximately nine months after reporting 200 million MAUs, as the platform continues to benefit from its tie-in with Facebook."
In FB's options pits, calls are crossing the tape at a rate 1.8 times the average intraday pace, with buy-to-open activity detected at the stock's weekly 12/12 78 strike. By initiating these long calls, traders expect the equity to settle north of $78 at tomorrow's close, when the weekly series expires. Delta on the call is docked at 0.63, suggesting a greater than 3-in-5 probability of an in-the-money finish.
Today's positive price action is just more of the same for Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), which currently boasts an impressive 43.5% year-to-date gain. Not surprisingly, option bulls have been lining up their bets on FB in recent weeks. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), for example, the stock's 10-day call/put volume ratio of 2.86 ranks higher than 83% of similar readings taken in the past year.