Groupon Sees Very Unusual Options Trading
Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) is not a company where we would expect to see a large and unusual options transaction take place. After all, many traders and investors would say it is effectively now just priced as a stock option…
It appears as though someone is making a bet that Groupon can be next big upside earnings report or something of the sort. We looked at the April 2013 with some puzzlement because the $4.00 Calls saw some 30,000 contracts trade hands. The last print on this was at $1.15 as of now and the prior open interest was 1,194 contracts.
30,000 contracts is the equivalent to 3 million shares on a fully leveraged basis. The open interest is larger in April now than it will be in the more active January 2013 contracts, where the $4 calls had an open interest of only 12,047 contracts as of today.
Groupon shares are down marginally on the day and we have seen only 7.3 million shares trade hands. Its post-IPO trading range has been $4.00 to $31.14.
JON C. OGG
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Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. www.247wallst.com.