PCBC is trading 2.08 down 49% on earnings. <img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hMry1m7UF10/S9mTLdrvr1I/AAAAAAAACHQ/sfREwKrccVc/s1600/pcbc_summary.gif"> I have to thank my friend Jeff Kearns, at the BLOOMBERG/ NEWSROOM, for this one. He was very fast to identify the unusual trading and nice enough to interview me in his article. The Options Tab (<a href="http://livevol.blogspot.com/2010/04/pcbc.html">in the article</a>) illustrates clearly that the OI in the Ma5 puts (2,317) is not only larger than any other line - it's more than double any other line. There's not a single strike with OI above 1,000. The Level 2 pop-out shows that the OI accumulated in a single day: 4-23-2010 with 2,325 trading. Is 2,300 unusual for this company... Um, yeah... The company averages just 172 options trading a day - a small snap of the Stats Tab is included. Note the avg OI in the entire chain (even with the trades,<a href="http://livevol.blogspot.com/2010/04/pcbc.html">in the article</a>) is still half of that single trade. Finally, the Time & Sales Tab for 4-23-2010 and those puts is included (<a href="http://livevol.blogspot.com/2010/04/pcbc.html">in the article</a>). You can see the puts trading $1.00 against $0.60 x $1.05; these were purchases, and someone paid up... For what it's worth, I see the largest shareholder has 265,00 shares and then the next largest has just 53,000. The 2,300 puts protect 230,000 shares. So you could make an argument it's a hedge but then again... Wouldn't the largest shareholder have inside information. Also, this is a $1.00 insurance versus what was a $4 stock. That's not a hedge - that's a bet (in my opinion). This is trade analysis, not a recommendation. Details, prices, trades here: http://livevol.blogspot.com/2010/04/pcbc.html
Edited post. I misread the above article. Initially I thought the contention was that the options trades discussed were from today, when in fact the article refers to options trades on 23 April.