Today’s tickers: PWRD, HAR & AVL
PWRD - Perfect World Co., Ltd. – Options on Perfect World Co., Ltd. are more active than usual today with shares in China’s largest online game developer and operator down 27.0% at $8.77 this afternoon. The stock plunged after a report posted on Chinese blog Tianya alleged the Company is being investigated by Chinese and U.S. regulators. Short notes out on Bloomberg this morning suggest the report has been removed from the blog and that Perfect World has since denied the allegations. Options players snapped up both call and put options in the front month to prepare for either a rebound in the price of the underlying or further declines in the next two weeks. Investors bracing for further bearish movement in the shares purchased in- and out-of-the-money puts. Volume is heaviest at the Jan. $11 strike where some 2,415 deep in-the-money puts changed hands against open interest of 441 contracts. It looks like trader purchased the majority of these puts for an average premium of $0.58 a-pop. The Jan. $9.0 and $10 strike puts also drew buyers, and appear to have been purchased more than 1,000 times each at average premiums of $0.43 and $0.54, respectively. Finally, the Jan. $8.0 strike puts changed hands more than 500 times against open interest of just 52 contracts today. Investors purchased most of the volume, paying an average premium of $0.26 each. Put buyers targeting the $8.0 strike contracts may profit at expiration if shares in PWRD drop 11.7% from the current price of $8.77 to breach the average breakeven point on the downside at $7.74. Meanwhile, traders prepared to see the stock rebound picked up more than 1,350 calls at the Jan. $10 strike for an average premium of $0.51 per contract. Profits may be available to call buyers at expiration day if shares in the game developer rally 20.0% to top $10.51. Overall options volume on the name is greater than…
