A huge trade is apparently looking for a drop in shares of Thompson Creek Metals.
optionMONSTER's Depth Charge shows that a block of 41,575 January 5 puts was sold for $3.60 yesterday in volume below previous open interest of 48,338 yesterday. At the same time, 41,350 January 2016 5 puts were bought for $3.65 compared to open interest of just 1,026 contracts at that strike, so it is clearly a new position. That one trade was all of the volume in the name and eclipsed TC's daily option average of just 240 for the last month.
The trader appears to be closing the near-term contracts and rolling them into a position one year later. The new in-the-money puts are being used to profit from a decline in their underlying share price in an alternative to short-selling the stock that limits risk. (See our Education section)
TC was up 0.69 percent to close at $1.45 yesterday. The mining company was up at resistance at $3 in late August but fell to a 52-week low of $1.37 during yesterday's session.
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