Bet on rally in Brazilian ore play in next month.The October 4th $12.50 call options inVale (VALE) saw heavy trading recently. With shares around $11.80, the option is a bet on shares moving another 6 percent higher in the next 22 trading days before expiration. Over 3,750 contracts on this option traded against a prior open position of 100, making for a 37-fold surge in volume on the trade. With a cost of just $0.16, or $16 per contract, it’s an inexpensive bet that could give the trader a lopsided return if shares move even higher. If Vale shares hit $13 at expiration, the option could...

Multiple insiders buy this week. In the past week, multiple insiders have been buyers atAt Home Group (HOME). That includes a 4,000 share buy by the company’s Chief Development Officer, a 64,000 share buy from the CEO and President, a 6,400 share buy from the COO, a 21,000 share buy from a director, and a 10,000 share buy from the company CFO. These buys have all occurred in the past few days, and represent over $750,000 of purchases from insiders on the open market. At Home Group operates home décor stores in the United States, including furnishings, mirrors, rugs, wall art, and othe...

President & CEO makes a 32,000 share buy.Cigna Group (CI)President & CEO David Cordani picked up 32,509 shares recently. The buy increased his stake in shares to over 357,500 shares, and the recent purchase cost just over $5 million. Insiders at the company have largely been sellers year-to-date, albeit in smaller amounts of a few hundred to a few thousand shares at most. And Cordani recently sold 27,000 shares in March at a price just 6 percent higher. Cigna Corporation is a health service organization that provides insurance and related products and services around the world.Ac...

Senior VP buys nearly $100k in shares.Kyle Larkin, a Senior Vice President atGranite Construction (GVA), picked up 3,500 shares of the company, increasing his stake by nearly 73 percent. The cost came to just under $100,000. Insiders have been net buyers, and data shows that in the past year, corporate insiders have gone from owning 1.8 percent of the company to 2 percent, a small but important increase. Granite Construction is in the business of infrastructure contracting and construction materials productions in the United States, with a focus on transportation, water, specialty, and m...

Volume soars on late September calls.The September 20th $245 call options onHome Depot (HD) saw nearly 8,900 contracts trade against an open interest of 123. That’s a 72-fold surge in volume that the company’s shares, trading around $230, can rise another $15 in the next 11 days. With a cost of just $0.14, or $14 per contract, any move higher could move the option higher on a percentage basis. Given the 52-week range of shares, another 6.5 percent rally in shares seems over-optimistic. Home Depot is a retailer with a focus on hardware, tools, and other home products, with thousands of lo...

Put option buying bets on decline.The October 4th $26 put options on Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) saw over 10,400 contracts trading—a 41-fold increase over the prior open interest of 250 contracts. With 28 days left to go and with shares around $32, the bet is that shares will decline nearly 19 percent. At just $0.15 for the option, or $15 for the full contract, the trade may simply be a hedge following the strong rally this week on the announcement of new trade talks. Advanced Micro Devices is an industry-leading name in the semiconductor space with computing and graphics processing tec...