Options Traders 'Put' Faith in New BlackBerry (BBRY) CEO

November 8, 2013 12:20 PM EST
BlackBerry (Nasdaq: BBRY) traders are betting that things might turn around for the beleaguered company with a new leader running the show.

Data compiled by Bloomberg shows that the cost of puts protecting against a 10 dip in BlackBerry's stock price versus calls on a 10 percent upside move fell by a record 12 percent on November 4th. The action indicates less demand on betting for more downside in the shares. The data is for one month through last Monday.

Of the total amount of BlackBerry options being held by traders, about 1.28 million contracts are for calls, versus roughly 1.14 million for the right to sell.

The most owned option contract is the January 2014 $10 call. Contracts with the largest open interest were December $6 puts and November $8 puts.

Incoming CEO John Chen joined BlackBerry after selling Sybase to SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) for $5.8 billion in 2010. At Sybase, which he joined in 1997 and was promoted to CEO in 1998, Chen immediately cut 10 percent of the workforce while shares were at an all-time low. Sybase was sold when shares were over six-times higher.

BlackBerry is up 0.7 percent Friday.


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