| Opposite earnings plays in energy | |
| | |
|
Whiting Petroleum and Oasis Petroleum yesterday saw unusual option action apparently keyed to their earnings reports, but the trades were in opposition directions.
The activity began first in Whiting as traders bought about 6,400 Weekly 19.50 calls expiring on Oct. 30 for $1.90 to $2.09, according to optionMONSTER's Heat Seeker tracking program. These were clearly new positions, as open interest in the strike was a mere 5 contracts before the session began.
Then optionMONSTER's Depth Charge system detected the purchase of some 6,800 November 12 puts in Oasis for $1.20 to $1.40 yesterday. This also represents fresh buying, as open interest in the strike was only 676 contracts before those trades appeared.
Long calls lock in the price where investors can buy a stock, which lets them position for a rally with limited capital. The opposite is true of long puts, which gain value in a selloff as outright bearish bets or hedges on a long-stock positions. (See our Education section)
Whiting's quarterly results are scheduled for the afternoon of Oct. 28, two days before yesterday's calls expire. Oasis is expected to release its earnings in early November, at least two weeks before its puts expire.
WLL fell 10.12 percent to $20.16 and OAS dropped 10.29 percent to $12.20 as the the price of crude slumped yesterday. Both have rebounded sharply along with other oil and natural-gas producers as crude bounced earlier this month.
Total option volume in WLL topped 18,200 yesterday, quadruple its daily average for the last month, with calls outpacing puts by about 40 percent. OAS' volume reached 11,000, also quadruple its daily turnover, with puts eclipsing calls by more than 2.5 to 1.
More From optionMONSTER
|
|
|
Whiting Petroleum Corporation
|
|
|
CODE : WLL |
ISIN : US9663871021 |
|
| |
ProfileMarket IndicatorsVALUE : Projects & res.Press releasesAnnual reportRISK : Asset profileContact Cpy |
Whiting Petroleum is a oil producing company based in United states of america. Whiting Petroleum is listed in Germany and in United States of America. Its market capitalisation is US$ 6.2 billions as of today (€ 5.4 billions). Its stock quote reached its highest recent level on August 22, 2008 at US$ 99.26, and its lowest recent point on April 03, 2020 at US$ 0.25. Whiting Petroleum has 90 927 193 shares outstanding. |