55,000 puts, no less! Probably someone in mortgages who had vested by stayed long - wrong choice. Or maybe someone speculating - they were $0.15 on Tuesday!
Gl to whoever has the balls to trade this stock. Damn thing went from $37 to $31 in 3 mins. Granted it didn't close at $31, but still. Absolutely nuts.
Yea that drop turned my stomach on my birthday, but I was able to liquidate all of the position just minutes after at 36.86..... $COSTAverageMAN
not sure if you might be correct, but this article has an extremely interesting couple of items. specifically paragraphs 2 and the last one...those are extreme statements in typical government ease without saying what they should say! Nuts and bolts of Bear Stearns bailout By Greg Robb, MarketWatch Last Update: 1:49 PM ET Mar 14, 2008 WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The Federal Reserve was able to supply funds to Bear Stearns Cos. by employing a little-used power under which the U.S. central bank can lend directly to non-bank financial institutions, Fed officials and experts said Friday. Under "unusual and exigent circumstances," the Fed can loan to broker-dealers if credit is not available from other sources and if a firm's failure to obtain such credit would adversely affect the economy. The most important thing to realize, analysts said, is that this is a loan from the Fed to Bear Stearns (BSC: news) , backed by collateral from Bear Stearns. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM: news) is only serving as the operational conduit for the funds from the Fed, simply because it had all the necessary arrangements in place to conduct business with the central bank, a Fed staff member and outside experts said. "J.P. Morgan is not liable if Bear Stearns defaults, so the Fed is looking to the collateral of Bear Stearns," said Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP. The size of the loan isn't certain, a Fed staffer said. The amount of credit provided by the Fed will depend on Bear Stearns' credit needs and the collateral on the company's balance sheet. On a conference call with analysts, Bear Stearns' executives refused to discuss the size of the loan. See related story. Nor was the length of the loan known. J.P. Morgan said the initial period of the lending would run for 28 days. A wide range of collateral can be used at the Fed's discount window. Under law, the Fed's board of governors was required to approve the Bear Stearns loan. The board vote was 4-0, with Fed Gov. Frederic Mishkin absent due to his travel schedule. During every period of financial strain, including immediately following the Sept. 11, 2011, terror attacks, the Fed typically reminds financial markets that it has the power to lend to other financial institutions. But the Fed hasn't used the authority in decades. Greg Robb is a senior reporter for MarketWatch in Washington.
Anybody making a trade over the weekend on this? I got whipsawed on one trade on BSC this morning, the other profitable. I'm steering clear. No reason to sweat bullets.