The bulls rediscovered technology yesterday.
As the overall market soared, optionMONSTER's Heat Seeker monitoring program showed especially heavy activity in companies such as CommVault Systems , Linear Technology and BlueCoat Systems .
LLTC saw buyers early, with money flowing into its January 31 calls for $1.15. KLA-Tencor , which provides chip-making equipment, followed in the early afternoon with bulls snapping up its December 47 calls for $0.85.
Then in the final minutes of trading, the attention shifted to BCSI and CVLT, with the December 20 calls and the January 55 calls bought in each, respectively.
All four stocks rallied 4-6.5 percent, and all the calls purchased were out of the money . This means that traders are looking for the shares to continue higher in coming weeks.
Because they lock in the price at which a stock must be purchased, long calls tend to appreciate much more quickly than the underlying equity itself if it rises. The drawback is that they will expire worthless if a rally doesn't occur. (See our Education section)
Overall option volume was 16 times greater than average in CVLT and 10 times above average in BCSI and LLTC. In KLAC it was about triple the average level, according to the Heat Seeker.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
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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.