Volume Spike Investor

Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) is seeing a lot of trading activity, and some of it may be a result of the stock options.  As of 2:54 PM EST we have seen 11.8 million shares trade hands and the stock is now up over 7% at $16.27.  Shares had been down until the market rallied, and it briefly put in a new 52-week low of $14.37 today. Its 52-week trading range was $14.93 to $38.40 before today.

The most interesting trading today besides the sudden volume pick up is the action seen in the stock options.  It appears that two huge PUT OPTION positions were closed out.  The JANUARY 2010 $30 PUTS have seen 41,551 contracts trade and the open interest was 41,760 before today.  The JANUARY 2010 $15 PUTS have traded 40,728 contracts and the open interest was 41,341 before today.

40,000 options contracts is representative of 4 million shares on a fully leveraged basis.

Jon C. Ogg
NOVEMBER 13, 2008