Options Trading News

An enormous call spread tops today's option activity in Phillips 66 as the stock remains near its highs.

optionMONSTER systems show that 113,000 PSX options have traded, more than 5 times its daily average in the last month. Almost all of the action is in one three-way call spread.

A trader sold 20,000 January 48 calls for $5.10 and 24,747 January 49 calls for $4.20. The open interest at each strike was more than 40,000.

Second later, the trader bought 53,136 January 55 calls for the ask price of $1.15. That volume was twice the strike's open interest at the start of the session and therefore a new position.

This appears to be a roll of the in-the-money calls up to the higher out-of-the-money strike. The trader would be taking profits off the table while maintaining upside exposure. (See our Education section)
 
PSX is down 0.79 percent to $52.75 in afternoon trading but isn't far from the $53.58 close from Monday of last week, which was a high for the stock. Shares of the oil-refining and chemical company were below $29 in early May.