Options Trading News

Cobalt International Energy has more than doubled since December, and the bulls apparently think that it may keep running.

optionMONSTER's Heat Seeker tracking system detected the purchase of about 1,000 March 25 calls for $1.75 and the sale of an equal number of February 22.50 calls for $1.60. Volume was below open interest in February but not March, which indicates that an existing long position rolled from one contract to the other.

That provides the investor with an additional month of upside exposure to the offshore oil driller. In return, they paid $0.15.

CIE rose 5.3 percent to $23.46 yesterday, continuing a monster run from the $10 area that began in mid-December. Most of the gains followed an announcement on Dec. 20 confirming the presence of hydrocarbons at a key well off the coast of West Africa.

Overall option volume in CIE was triple its average amount yesterday, with calls outnumbering puts by 4.5 to 1.