Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Post Market Report: 2-19-13

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Constellation Brands (STZ) - Calendar Vol Diff Opens After Stock Explodes on Deal and Dance Around DOJ


STZ is trading $43.67, up 0.7% with IV30™ down 2.2%. The LIVEVOL® Pro Summary is below.



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Constellation Brands, Inc. is a wine company. The Company is a marketer of imported beer in the United States. through its investment in Crown Imports, LLC (Crown Imports), a joint venture with Grupo Modelo, S.A.B. de C.V. (Modelo) pursuant to which Modelo’s Mexican beer portfolio (the Modelo Brands) are imported, marketed and sold by the joint venture in the United States.

The stock popped on 2-14-2012 from $31.88 to $43.75. Here's the news on that move:

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What: Shares of Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ ) were heading for the stars today, climbing as much as 38%, after a new agreement was reached between AnheuserBusch InBev and Grupo Modelo that would appear to pass Department of Justice's muster.

So what: The government had planned to file an antitrust suit against AB InBev's original plan to buy Modelo, but the world's largest beer maker has said it will now sell Modelo's Piedras Negras brewery near the U.S. border to Constellation for $2.9 billion. The deal gives Constellation, the world's largest wine maker, the rights to sell Corona and other Modelo brands in the U.S., and would alleviate the concerns about AB InBev gaining further market share in the U.S. The DOJ has not yet commented on the new deal, but analysts believe it should satisfy the agency's antitrust concerns.

Source: The Motley Fool via yahoo! Finance; Why Constellation Shares Soared, written by Jeremy Bowman.
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The stock just came up on a real-time custom scan. This one hunts for calendar spreads between the front two months.

Custom Scan Details
Stock Price GTE $5
Sigma1 - Sigma2 GTE 8
Average Option Volume GTE 1,000
Industry isNot Bio-tech
Days After Earnings GTE 5 LTE 70
Sigma1, Sigma2 GTE 1

The snapshot of the scan is included (below) in case you want to build it yourself in Livevol® Pro.



The goal with this scan is to identify back months that are cheaper than the front by at least 8 vol points. I'm also looking for a reasonable amount of liquidity in the options (thus the minimum average option volume), want to avoid bio-techs (and their crazy vol) and make sure I'm not selling elevated front month vol simply because earnings are approaching.

Let's take a look at the Skew Tab, to start.



We can see a similar shape across both months with Mar elevated (in vol) to Apr across all strikes. I do also note the slight expansion of the vol to the downside -- a sort of widening divergence.  More on that later...

Now we can turn to the one-year Charts Tab (below). The top portion is the stock price, the bottom is the vol (IV30™ - red vs HV20™ - blue vs HV180™ - pink).



On the stock side we can see the explosion on 2-14 off of that deal news wrt DOJ. But, even without that pop, the stock has been on an upward trajectory for the last 12 months.

In order to get a better look at the vol, I have included the one-year IV30™ chart below.



We can see that while the implied has drifted away from it's annual high reached not too long ago, the trend in IV30™ has generally been up (like the stock). In English, as the price has appreciated,the option market has reflected increased risk -- sort of the opposite of "normal" behavior.

Finally, let's look to the Options Tab (below).



Across the top we can see Mar is priced to 54.66% and Apr is priced to 46.18% -- it's that vol diff that triggered the scan.Just as an example of how the vol diff widens to the downside, while the ATM vol diff is ~10 vol points, the Mar/Apr 32.5 put spread shows more than a 20+ vol point diff.

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Pre-Market/Post Market: 2-19-13

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Friday, February 15, 2013

Post Market Report: 2-15-13

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3D Systems (DDD) - Vol Breaches All-time High; Still 10 Days Before Earnings



DDD is trading $59.42, down 5.3% with IV30™ up 2.1%. The LIVEVOL® Pro Summary is below.



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3D Systems Corporation (3D Systems) is a holding company that operates through subsidiaries in the United States, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. The Company is a provider of three-dimensional (3D) content-to-print solutions including 3D printers, print materials and on-demand custom parts services for professionals and consumers.

This is one of the most fascinating technologies I have ever seen -- for the curious, please do read up about this -- it is mind blowing.

This is a vol note, specifically an elevated vol note where the options are breaching all-time highs in IV30™. Let's start with the one-year Charts Tab, below. The top portion is the stock price, the bottom is the vol (IV30™ - red vs HV20™ - blue vs HV180™ - pink).



On the stock side we can see the impressive rise over the last year, with a bit of a hiccup over the last month. But, still, the stock was trading $20.38 a year ago, and is now ~$60. But this is an elevated vol note, what vol we have... let's turn to the two-year (almost) IV30™ chart, below.



We can see the explosive rise on vol in a very short time period. On 1-18-2013 the implied was trading at 49.06%. Today it's over 82%. Earnings are due out 2-25-2012, but the vol push over the last month is not entirely due to earnings (if at all).

Finally, let's tun to the Options Tab.



We can see that Mar vol is priced to 83.05% while May is just 66.83%. That diff is in large part due to earnings. Keep in mind that as of Monday, DDD will have Apr options. There is a similar picture seen with SSYS -- a similar (but not too similar) company. Vol exploding and the stock dipping as earnings approach. The vol rise in DDD however has pushed it's implied to an all-time high. This is going to e a fascinating earnings cycle.

NB: There is a 3:2 stock split coming soon as far as I know.

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Pre-Market/Post Market: 2-15-13

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Thursday, February 14, 2013

Post Market Report: 2-14-13

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HJ Heinz (HNZ) - Takeover and a Cheater? Maybe...

HNZ is trading $72.40, up 19.7% with IV30™ down 35.5%. The LIVEVOL® Pro Summary is below.



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H. J. Heinz Company together with its subsidiaries is engaged in manufacturing and marketing a range of food products throughout the world.

HNZ is up due to a takeover bid from Berkshire with the help of another private equity firm for $72.50 per share. Clearly the equity market reflects a high likelihood that the deal will be approved by the HNZ board and shareholders as the stock is trading $72.41.

But this isn’t a note about a takeover, it’s a note about the day before a takeover… and it’s a disturbing one. Let’s start simple. I have included the average daily option volume for HNZ over the last three months, below.



Note that the 1,986 number reflects the total daily average volume across all calls for a day. Over the last month, the average is closer to 1,000. Next, let’s turn to an all-time stock chart for HNZ, below.


Provided by Yahoo! Finance

We can see that in the nearly 30 year history of the stock it has never traded at $65. Why do I choose $65 as a price? Here’s why… Let’s look to the options Montage for HNZ on close as of yesterday, below.



We can see that 2,593 Jun 65 calls traded on existing OI of just 364. Again, note that the volume in just the Jun 65 calls is more than 125% of the total daily average volume in ALL calls for HNZ. Note as well that HNZ has never traded at $65.

A fair question is, “were most of these trades on the same side?” And the answer is provided by the OI chart, below.



That blue line represents the OI in the Jun 65 calls as of this morning for the last month. We can see it was steady (and small), then yesterday popped dramatically. How dramatically?... Let’s turn to the Options Tab for today, below.



We can see the OI rose from 364 to 2626 or 2262 opening long positions at a strike price that has never been reached in 30 years… And then the takeover news…

In total we have an OTM call strike trading more than 125% of total daily average call volume on a strike price that has never been reached by the stock in 30 years and then the next day a $0.35 option is worth $7.50. That’s a 2,000% return or ~1.5 million gain in one day.

How fortunate... Of course it is possible that this was a coincidence o even a hedge as the Jun 60 calls have an even lager OI but did not move surrounding this news.

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Pre-Market/Post Market: 2-14-13

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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Post Market Report: 2-13-13

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Uni-Pixel (UNXL) - Micro Cap Sees Huge Stock Movements and Elevated Vol; Earnings Due Out Soon


UNXL is trading $17.06, up 2.5% with IV30™ up 0.4%. The LIVEVOL® Pro Summary is below.



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Uni-Pixel, Inc. (Uni-Pixel) is a production-stage company delivering its Performance Engineered Film (PEF) to the display, touch screen and flexible electronics markets.

This is an interesting company -- it has revenue well belo $1 million with just 18 employees, yet a market cap of ~$160 million. I UNXL using the real-time custom scan that hunts for elevated vols.

Custom Scan Details
Stock Price GTE $5
IV30™ GTE 30
IV30™ Percentile GTE 80
Average Option Volume GTE 1,200

The goal with this scan is to identify short-term implied vol (IV30™) that is elevated to its own annual history (at least in the 80th percentile). I'm also looking for a reasonable amount of liquidity in the options (thus the minimum average option volume), and I want a minimum vol level so I don't pick up any boring ETF’s (or whatever). The stock price requirement helps me identify names that have enough strike prices to trade or spread.

The one-year UNXL Charts Tab is included (below). The top portion is the stock price, the bottom is the vol (IV30™ - red).



On the stock side we can an incredible run up from ~$5 to now ~$17, with some abrupt stock volatility recently which has seen the stock trade as low as ~$7 and as high as ~$20 in just the last three months (ish).

Since the name has just started trading options, I have included a very small window of the IV30™ chart below for easier examination.



We can see the vol has always been above 100% -- not unusual for a micro cap. More recently though I note the climb in the implied and sustaining of those elevated levels. The company has earnings due out 2-2-13 and given the recent stock movement, it would surprise me to see IV30™ go above 150%.

Finally, let's look to the Options Tab (below).



Across the top we can see the monthly vols are priced to 114.34 for Feb and 121.45% for Mar. Again, as earnings approach, that Mar vol may get well over 150%. Sometimes it's interesting to watch the micros -- this is certainly one of those times.

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Pre-Market/Post Market: 2-13-13

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Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Post Market Report: 2-12-13

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US Airways (LCC) - Calendar Vol Diff Opens Near Expiry as Stock Rises

LCC is trading $14.35, down 0.76% with IV30™ up 3.5%. The LIVEVOL® Pro Summary is below.



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US Airways Group, Inc. operates and owns passenger and freight airline carrier. The Company allows consumers to obtain flight and fare information, as well as make reservations online.

I found this stock using a real-time custom scan I built. This one hunts for calendar spreads between the front two monthly expiries, and even though we are just four days from expiry, this is a compelling vol set up.

Custom Scan Details
Stock Price GTE $5
Sigma1 - Sigma2 > 7
IV30™ GTE 30
Average Option Volume GTE 1,200

The goal with this scan is to identify back months that are cheaper than the front by at least 10 vol points. I'm also looking for a reasonable amount of liquidity in the options (thus the minimum average option volume) and enough strikes to spread and thus a minimum stock price. I also require a minimum vol level in order to avoid any boring ETFs (or whatever).

Let’s start with the Skew Tab to examine the month-to-month and line-by-line vols.



We can see quite clearly how elevated Feb vol is to Mar across all strikes. While that upside skew in Feb creates an even grate vol diff between the two expiries at those strikes, that is in fact a bit artificial b/c the Feb options are worthless than $0.05. But, the ATM vol difference is compelling.

Let’s turn to the six-month LCC Charts Tab is included (below). The top portion is the stock price the bottom is the vol (IV30™ - red vs HV20™ - blue vs HV180™ - pink).



On the stock side we can see a nice appreciation where the stock has risen from ~$10 to over $15 as of a few days ago, and now back in the mid $14 range – so ~40% in six months… Nice return. The 52 wk range for LCC stock is [$6.78, $15.64], so the stock is nearing an annual high.

On the vol side we can see how the IV30™ (red-line) has been trending downward in general but does trade significantly above the short-term historical realized vol (HV20™ - the blue line). The 52 wk rage for IV30™ is [43.295, 82.84%], putting the current level in just the 15th percentile. So we do have another situation of rising stock price ad dipping vol.

Finally, let's look to the Options Tab (below).



Across the top we can see that Feb is priced to over 70% vol while Mar is priced to ~50%. It’s that vol difference that triggered the scan. Looking at a couple of specific spreads, we can see the Fe/Mar 14 put spread shows greater than a 20% vol diff ad the Feb/Mar 15 call spread shows a 24 vol point difference.

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