Volume Spike Investor

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) has been one of the under pressure banking stocks on its own accord of late.  But today we have seen many options trades go off in the Put options.  This may be nothing more than a roll-out as last Friday was expiration date, and it could just be traders making hedges to positions.  Here are some of the more active contracts in near-months trading:

CONTRACT STRIKE        Vol.        OpInt.
AUG08 $20.00 PUTS    4,497      12,625
AUG08 $22.50 PUTS    14,967    37,936
AUG08 $25.00 PUTS    13,737    37,589
JUL08 $20.00 PUTS      12,468    13,422
JUL08 $25.00 PUTS       6,445     9,401

As of 12:43 PM EST, Bank of America shares themselves are down almost 3% at $26.30 on over 33.5 million shares.  Its average daily volume is 44.6 million shares and the 52-week trading range “WAS” $26.95 to $52.96 today.

Jon Ogg
June 23, 2008