Options Trading News

Option action lit up yesterday in Abbott Laboratories, which has been a solid performer for the last year.

Our Heat Seeker detected activity in the November 67.50 calls in the second half of the session, with large blocks bought for $0.74, $0.76, and $0.80. More than 16,000 of those options changed hands, well exceeding previous positioning of 7,641 contracts, indicating that this is fresh buying.

Those calls lock in the price investors must pay to buy the stock, so they can generate significant  leverage in the event of a rally. But they'll expire worthless if the shares don't move.

ABT rose 0.44 percent to close at $65.75. It has a $103 billion market cap and is valued at 13 times forward earnings. The pharmaceutical company has 20 drug candidates in Phase 2 or Phase 3 clinical trials to drive growth.

Almost 25,000 calls traded versus fewer than 8,000 puts yesterday, a reflection of the session's bullish bias. Total option volume was more than 6 times greater than average, according to our data systems.

(A version of this post appeared on InsideOptions Pro yesterday.)