Options Trading News

As Synovus Financial climbs back toward its 52-week highs, a large option trader is looking for shares to break higher or lower.

SNV is up another 1.86 percent to $2.19. That is an intraday gain of just $0.04, but the financial-services stock has been rising for the last six weeks from $1.80. There is strong resistance around $2.20, which was breached on an intraday basis in February, but the shares have not closed above that level.

More than 20,700 SNV options have changed hands today, compared their daily average of 1,780 in the last month. Virtually all of that volume is one February combination play, according to optionMONSTER's tracking systems.

The trade involved 10,000 each of the February 2 puts and 2.50 calls, which went for $0.15 and $0.10 respectively. The volume was multiples of the open interest at each strikes, indicating new activity.

It appears that both sides of the trade were purchased in a long strangle position. The trade can profit if SNV spikes in either direction and/or if the actual volatility is greater than that implied by the options. (See our Education section)

The implied volatility of the options traded today is 36 percent, which compares with the stock's historical volatility of 26 percent. But both volatility metrics are are at 52-week lows.