1. STO.ASX (9 Sep last $11.52)
STO stood out with its high volume of trading on calls on Friday, 18000 contracts. Second highest volume behind the XJOs.
The series that attracted high trading volumes were in Sep 1225 calls and Sep $1178 calls. They don’t appear to be opening trades though, appear more to be closing of calls written or rolling of bear call spreads.
Looking at calls traded on STO in the last two weeks, the last time it attracted more than 10,000 contracts per day was on 1 September, when STO hit an intraday high of $12.19.
Options trading pattern may be suggesting the market has identified a trading range of the stock, $12.20 to about $11 for now. Strategies have been positioned at the range.
2. WPL (9 Sep last $34.02)
With WPL trading around the $34 level last week, options volume on WPL has dropped off . Its weekly volume of both calls and puts together were only about 36% of the week before.
Its Implied Volatility have calmed down as well for its Sep and Oct expiry terms and they have gone below Historical levels by 9% and 7% lower respectively.
With this lower volume and lower Implied Volatility, this may be signal that aggressive selling or shorting is slowing in WPL and could be start of base-building around the $34 level.
3. ORG.ASX (9 Sep last $13.20)
Total options volume on ORG last week had been steady compared to the week before, but trades were more tilted towards the puts. There were 80% more puts traded than the week before.
In analysing its open positions in Sep puts, the top two largest Open Interests were the Sep $1507 and $1459 put series which are quite deep in the money comparing with ORG’s price of about $13. The higher volume on the puts could be attributable to rolling of those puts to reduce risk of assignment.
Trading on the calls though, the lower volume may be a signal of a lack of opening of fresh positions in the share.
