Traders bet on rally by March.On Thursday, over 5,000 contracts traded on March 2020 $50 call options onMetLife (MET). With a prior open interest of 224 contracts, the volume was 22 times the prior open interest, making for one of the most active options trades of the day. With shares around $44, the bet is on a $6 upside by March, about 13.4 percent higher from here, in the next 203 days before expiration. MetLife provides insurance, annuities, employee benefits, and runs an asset management business for individuals and companies around the world.Action to take: Insurance companies tend...

Traders bet on further drop in shares by February.On Wednesday, over 15,000 contracts traded on February 2020 $8 put options onFreeport McMoRan (FCX), one of the world’s leading copper giants. With an open interest of around 1,000 contracts prior to the trade, the volume in the option has surged 15-fold. Shares of the copper mining company currently trade around $8.80, making the $8 strike price on the put option a bet on the share price dropping at least 10 percent from here. Although best known for copper, Freeport also explores for gold, silver, molybdenum, and even oil and gas around...

Director $116,000 buy at regional bank.On Tuesday, August 27th, director Scott Toothaker picked up 5,371 shares ofBar Harbor Bankshares (BHB). The buy increased his stake by 22 percent, to just over 29,500 shares. The purchase totaled just over $116,000. Insiders at the bank have been buyers year-to-date, with many purchases occurring at prices as much as 18 percent higher than where shares currently trade. The last insider sale occurred in 2018, but has been far lower than the total insider buys year-to-date. Bar Harbor Bankshares operates as a regional bank with over 48 locations in Ma...

Surge in 2021 call buying.On Friday, over 1,980 contracts traded on a January 2021 $15 call option onNektar Therapeutics (NKTR). With a prior open interest of 156 contracts, this represents a 16-fold surge in volume. With shares of the company currently trading around $17, the option buyer is about $2 in-the-money per $6.60 contract. As such, the option should move dollar-for-dollar higher with shares. Nektar Therapeutics develops drug candidates for cancer, auto-immune disease, and chronic pain in the United States. The company has collaboration agreements with many larger pharmaceutica...

CFO and director buy shares.On Thursday, August 22nd, Keith Koci, CFO ofCleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF)picked up 12,500 shares of the company, paying just over $101,000 to do so. This buy increased his total stake in shares by 17 percent. He was joined by director John Baldwin, who bought 7,000 shares, a $58,000 buy. That increased the director’s stake by 6.5 percent. Insiders have bought earlier in the month as well, and have been net buyers with no sales since May. Insiders have often paid prices as much as 17 percent higher than where shares currently trade. Cleveland-Cliffs is an iron...

Surge in September call buying.On Thursday, over 20,300 contracts traded on the September 6th 2019 $9 call option onBed Bath & Beyond (BBBY). With shares trading around $8.40, the option is a bet on a 6.6 rally in shares in the next 14 days. The option contract had a prior open interest of just 320 contracts, indicating a 63-fold surge in volume on the trade. Bed Bath & Beyond operates 1,533 stores around the world selling various home fashions, furnishings, and linens. Shares have been heavily discounted by 57 percent in the past year on slow-moving store growth. With 80 perc...

CFO follows large director buys this month.On Wednesday, August 21st, Aaron Alt, CFO ofSally Beauty Holdings (SBH), bought 1,000 more shares, paying just over $12,000 to do so. While a small buy, he is following on two director purchases on August 20th, in the amount of 3,000 and 10,000 shares, at a cost of $36,000 and $119,000 respectively. And on August 2nd, a director bought 7,000 shares as well, shelling out nearly $93,000. Insiders have been buyers of shares earlier in the year as well, notably in May when the share price was anywhere from 13 to 20 percent higher than the current pr...

Surge in September put buying.On Wednesday, over 5,000 contracts traded on the September 2019 $69.50 put options onExxonMobil (XOM). With a prior open interest of 260, this was a 19-fold surge in volume. With a current share price at $70, the options are just out-of-the-money. The option buyer could see a penny-for-penny move should the shares fall less than 1 percent from here. ExxonMobil shares have traded as low as $64.50 in the past year, so a drop to those lows within the next month could make the option worth as much as $5, about a 270 percent gain from its current price around $1....

Surge in put-buying indicates drop by the month’s end. On Tuesday, over 4,700 contracts traded on an August 30th $123 put option onJohnson & Johnson (JNJ). The bet, with shares of the healthcare giant trading around $131, implies a 7 percent drop by the end of next week. The option, with a prior open interest of around 150, saw volume increase by 32-fold as a result of the surge in trading. The company could certainly see shares drop that quickly. In the past year, a number of claims have been made against the company and its myriad of products, leading to high-publicity lawsuits....

Large buy on extremely low-valued put option.It’s been a tough year operationally and for shares ofTesla Motors (TSLA). One trader is even betting on a further drop in shares in the next month, possibly as a result of a broad market decline, but also possibly because of company-specific issues. On Friday, over 40,000 contracts traded on a September 2019 $50 put option, expiring just over one month away. With shares around $220, the $50 strike would trade in-the-money only if shares dropped over 75 percent! With a cost of $0.04, or $4 per contract, the option is a cheap bet on a big perce...