C ? Citigroup, Inc.
Shares in Citigroup are on the rise Tuesday despite the unexpected departure of CEO, Vikram Pandit, and President and COO, John P. Havens, this morning. The stock fell ahead of the opening bell on the announcement, but reversed losses at the open, gaining as much as 2% to $37.40 in the first half of the session. Trading traffic in out-of-the-money calls expiring in January of 2013 suggests some strategists are positioning for shares to reach their highest levels since July 2011 in the next few months.
Traders exchanged more than 4,500 calls at the Jan. 2013 $41 strike this morning against open interest of 2,697 contracts. It looks like most of the volume was purchased for an average premium of $0.81 apiece, thus positioning buyers to profit in the event of an 11% move up in the price of the underlying to top the breakeven price of $41.81 by expiration next year.
Bullish positioning at the higher Jan. 2013 $44 strike, where around 750 calls were purchased this morning at an average premium of $0.33 each, indicates traders are prepared to profit should the stock jump 18.5% to exceed $44.33 by January 2013 expiration.?
Overall options volume topping 200,000 contracts by 11:35 a.m. ET on Citigroup is well above the stock?s average daily options volume of 140,192 contracts. Calls are more active than puts, with roughly 1.3 call options changing hands on the stock for each single put option. Shares in the name rose on Monday following the company?s third-quarter earnings report.
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