Elevated Put Trading Continues, But In Different Manner (MMC)

McMoRan Exploration Company (NYSE: MMC) is seeing some elevated put options trading this Tuesday and it stands out because option activity was elevated last Thursday in a different manner. 

Last week on Thursday it was pointed out by optionMONSTER that over 3,900 March $14 puts had traded against an open interest of just 264 contracts.  Their tally was that these were new positions.  So what about more?  What about a lot more?  Some of these may be sales or exits of a position, but there have been 5,477 contracts traded in the March $12 puts versus a prior open interest of 28,012 contracts.  In the March $13 puts, there have been 10,302 contracts traded against a prior open interest of 11,364 contracts.

If there is a fear that no one knows, it is not reflected in the stock today.  Shares are up almost 1% at $13.96 and there is nothing unusual about the 1.48 million shares which have traded hands so far.  The 52-week trading range is $8.25 to $19.26 and the market cap is only $2.25 billion.

JON C. OGG