Credit: Shutterstock photoApple remains the favorite name for fast traders.
Option volume is surging again today in the electronics giant, with the most attention focused on short-term contracts expiring on Friday. The action is bullish, with heavy buying in the Weekly 540, 545, and 550 calls.
AAPL is already up 34 percent this year, and traders are looking for another short-term push. The stock is up 1.21 percent to $541.88 this afternoon as more than 721,000 options have traded overall in the name this session--twice its daily average and more than 8 percent of total volume in the option market.
JP Morgan also attracted bullish bets as investors sold the Weekly 39 puts and bought the Weekly 39 and 40 calls. The bank's stock has been melting up all year and today touched its highest level since early August. It's now up 0.59 percent to $39.44.
The opposite was true of Morgan Stanley: Almost 4,000 Weekly 19 calls were sold, mostly for $0.10 to $0.27. Those trades were probably the work of investors who thinks that the stock will remain below the $19 strike price through Friday's close. MS is down 0.21 percent to $18.67.
Weekly activity also stands out in the PowerShares QQQ exchange-traded fund, which tracks the Nasdaq 100 index. It's modestly bearish, with selling in the Weekly 64 and 65 calls. The 65 puts were bought, contrasted with selling in the 64 puts and the 63 puts. QQQ is down 0.14 percent to $64.61. (See related story )
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
