Netflix and Treasuries join the weekly option club

By optionMONSTER September 06, 2010, 07:48:39 AM EDT

The universe of weekly options expanded by two names this week, giving investors a chance to place short-term bets on Netflix and long-term bonds.

TLT On Thursday, NFLX and the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund ( TLT ) saw the launch of new contracts that expire on Sept. 10, in addition to the standard monthly options that come due one week later. Options activity was above average in both stocks on Friday, even though it was immediately before a long holiday weekend.

NFLX advanced another 0.35 percent to $138.48 in the session, capping a 10 percent rally for the week. Investors have been pouring capital into the name on strong demand for its online movies and snail-mail DVDs. It got a further boost on Wednesday on the announcement that its videos will be streamed via the new Apple TV service.

The advent of weekly expirations marks another milestone for the company as a major name in the world of options. It already trades almost 26,000 contracts a day, putting it ahead of companies such as Google, Amazon.com and Oracle, which are 7-20 times bigger in terms of market cap. It traded more than 1 million contracts last month -- a 300 percent increase from January, according to data from Options Clearing Corp. GOOG and AMZN also have weekly options.

TLT was also active, but it's coming under fire from the bears as Treasuries begin to reverse after a five-month rally. The interesting thing about TLT is that tracks the "long end" of the yield curve, where bond prices are more sensitive to changes in underlying interest rates. That means it has more of the volatility that option traders love.

The has moved at annualized volatility 19 percent over the last 30 days. In contrast, the iShares Barclays 1-3 Year Treasury Bond Fund ( SHY ), which tracks the "short end" of the yield curve, only moves by about 1 percent.

(Chart courtesy of tradeMONSTER)




The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.


This article appears in: Investing, Options

Referenced Stocks: AMZN, GOOG, NFLX, SHY, TLT



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