The bulls are targeting United Continental.
optionMONSTER's Heat Seeker market scanner shows that 10,000 February 60 calls were purchased for $1.77 and an equal number of February 65 calls was sold for $0.47. Volume was below open interest at the higher strike, so there are two possible explanations for the activity.
One is that existing long calls were rolled down to the 60s as the investor sought increased leverage to the upside. Alternately he or she may have implemented a new vertical spread . (See our Coaching section.) Either way they paid a net $1.30 and are looking for a rally over the next two months.
UAL fell 0.07 percent to $57.47 on Thursday and has been making steadily higher lows since the market bottomed in October. It's down from an all-time high of $74.52 in late January.
Overall option volume was 6 times greater than average, according to Heat Seeker. Calls outnumbered puts by a bullish 3-to-1 ratio.
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