While there were?no directional ‘smoking gun’ option trades ahead of the 11:35 spike yesterday, we did notice heavy put volume early in the day, with 5500 puts trading before?10:00 am, which is triple the expected option volume in AVP at that time of day.?

AVP

 

Nearly all the volume was in Jan 7 puts where a buyer paid $1.475 for about 5500 contracts when shares were near $6.62 in a trade that opened a new position.? Directionally that trade is a loser, but the wild swings in share price combined with an increase in option implied volatility work in favor of the buyer and could indicate someone acting ahead of the sham bid story.