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Nektar Therapeutics has been rebounding from a big selloff, and one investor expects the move to continue.

optionMONSTER's Heat Seeker tracking program detected the purchase of 5,000 May 8 calls for $0.55. An equal number of February 7 calls were sold at the same time for $0.10, but volume was below open interest.

This activity suggests that the investor rolled a previously existing position in the February calls to May. The move provides an additional four months to benefit from upside in the stock while raising the level at which the trader has the right to buy shares. The transaction cost a net $0.45.

NKTR is up 2.78 percent to $7.02 in afternoon trading, so those calls are in the money . If the stock were to drop between now and expiration tomorrow, those February calls would probably become worthless, and the trader will have lost the $0.10.

The drug developer, whose product pipeline includes potential treatments for cancer, pain, and infections, peaked around $16 in late 2010 and then fell all the way to $4.07 last November before rebounding. Sentiment has been improving among drug developers with promising compounds as large pharmaceutical companies seek new avenues of growth.

Overall option volume in NKTR is 8 times greater than average so far today, with not a single put trading in the session.

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