Unusual Friday Options Activity (AAPL, GOOG, BAC, LEAP, PCS, DRYS, YHOO)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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We have seen some unusual options trading today.  As you would expect, some is around today’s 4:00 PM close  with today being options expiration date.  But some bets are way out into 2011 and we have some around merger rumors.  All have links with full details on the options trading analysis at VSInvestor:

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) are both seeing very active trading around expiration date today, and the closest strikes are acting as magnets.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) has seen a very bullish bet in options out to 2011.

There is some elevated Dec-2009 Call options activity in both Leap Wireless International Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP) and MetroPCS Communications Inc. (NYSE: PCS) on today’s re-rumor of a potential deal coming back up.

DryShips, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) is very active in the stock after an increased convertible note offering, yet the options activity seen today seems muted.

Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) has a big bet out in January 2011 options expiration.

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JON C. OGG
NOVEMBER 20, 2009

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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