NYSE Euronext has been trading sideways at its highest levels in nearly two years, but one large trade is positioning for a potential drop in the next three months.
optionMONSTER's Depth Charge system detected the purchase of 6,760 June 32 puts in a single print for $0.20 on Friday. This is clearly a new position, as open interest in the strike was just 233 contracts before the session began.
These puts, which lock in the price where shares can be sold no matter how far they might fall, were not tied to any stock trades identified by our scanners on Friday. They could have been purchased as a hedge on a long position established earlier or as a straight bearish bet that NYX will fall below $32 by expiration in mid-June. (See our Education section)
Overall puts in the name outnumbered calls by 10 to 1, a reflection of the bearish sentiment.
NYX fell 0.7 percent in the session to close the week at $38.08. The stock had reached $38.53 on March 6, its highest level since May 2011, but has been trading in an extremely tight range since then.
The operator of the New York Stock Exchange gapped up above $33 from the $24 level on Dec. 20 on news that it would be acquired by IntercontinentalExchange for $8.2 billion. The company is scheduled to release first-quarter results on April 30.
Shares of financial exchanges have soared 30 percent in the last three months, according to our r esearchLAB analysis tool. They have slowed in recent weeks as the stock market has encountered some resistance at record levels but are still outperforming the S&P 500 by a substantial margin.
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