Most Active Stock Options November 30, 2009 & Trading Activity

The top ten most active option contracts today were:

1. Home Depot (HD) January 20 Call Options
2. PowerShares QQQ (QQQQ) December 44 Call Options
3. PowerShares QQQ January 44 Call Options
4. S&P 500 SPDR (SPY) December 105 Put Options
5. Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF) January 12 Put Options
6. S&P 500 SPDR December 109 Put Options
7. S&P 500 SPDR December 110 Call Options
8. Financial Select Sector SPDR January 13 Put Options
9. PowerShares QQQ December 41 Put Options
10. Financial Select Sector SPDR January 14 Put Options

We can see there is some unusual bearish activity in the January XLF options. I have considered hedging with a 13/12 vertical put spread for January in the XLF, but have not opened it yet. Today I sold several December 19 strike put options on the Direxion Daily Financial 3X Bear (FAZ), traded Google December 590 & 600 strike calls back and forth multiple times, and I'm currently short the GOOG 600's. I also sold some call options on Suntech Power (STP), and tried getting some premium for the December 15 strike put options on A-Power (APWR), but did not get filled. I believe today would have been a great day to get short some puts on APWR but I will try again tomorrow. As stated in a previous blog post APWR reports Thursday so I want to be short some puts going into the number as I don't mind holding the shares if it sells off below 15. I purchased back my 85 strike call options on Visa (V) as I believe it could hit 85 before expiration with the help of the market. I missed out on buying back my American Express (AXP) 43 strike calls at $40 per contract, which could have been written for $70 at close, so I'll definitely be looking to buy those back on weakness in the underlying. I did sell some premium on the Dell (DELL) December 14 put options at the day high, which I left open but could have closed for a 20% gain at close. I continued to lighten up on my position in RINO, but may leave the rest to expire as I think my 30/35 vertical call spreads have a good chance of expiring at maximum profitability. Happy trading and hope December can be as profitable if not more profitable than November was!