True. But for the contrarian or longer term trader this might be an opportunity. I simply do not trust the brokerage firms that try to manipulate these things for their own interest. It seems odd to me to have the first viable vaccine for AIDS announced and have the stock tank. The contrarian looks through the chaos for the real reason and or manipulation. I haven't had a position in this stock for this reason but this could be what I have been waiting for. We'll see. When the crowd heads one way I start to get excited about going the other. Also VXGN gets 70% of proceeds abroad and 30% in the US.
well to be upfront with you, i as well am looking to purchase some at these levels... not definitely however i am contemplating it... i havent seen it at this price since i first owned back in '02... lets see how today pans out...
just started monitoring the block trade scanner on bloomberg, and there was roughly 70-100k in put volume, on friday. clearly somebody knew something.
The put/call ratio ran at .44-.46 for the whole month of Feb. until Fri. when it dropped to .27. The call OI as of Fri. was 59,589 and put OI was 16,315. The short interest 3,218,799 or about 4 days at normal volume to cover. The volume on Thurs. of puts and calls was about even at 2300-2400 each so sombody knew something on Thur. or Fri. Wonder if it relates to the short interest and managing the news coverage?
here are the block transactions on friday: clearly a massive amount considering it did less than 400k shares. really, you need to determine which were purchases and sales by looking at time and sales. 10:06:13 10,000 March 10 puts at 1.40 10:07:51 10,000 May 15 calls at 2 10:08:10 10,000 Feb 15 puts at 1.75 10:14:37 15,000 Feb 15 Puts at 1.95 10:14:10 31,000 Feb 15 puts at 1.90 10:18:44 25,000 March 15 calls 1.65 15:33:47 10,000 May 12.50 puts at 3.80 15:33:44 10,000 May 12.50 puts at 3.80 15:55:02 11,500 May 35 calls at .70 14:02:55 20,000 May 12.50 calls at 3.70 11:57:00 10,000 Feb 12.50 Puts at 1.85 also, separated because this is obviously one position. he obviously did well with it (lost 1.1 on calls, but made 5-6 on the puts, assuming purchases): 15:06:57 10,000 Aug 35 Puts at 24.20 15:06:56 20,000 Aug 35 Puts at 24.20 15:06:33 20,000 Aug 35 calls at 1.1 15:06:52 10,000 Aug 35 calls at 1.1
I know who is responsible for at least 75 of those puts. But he is not as smart as you may think...he was just covering his ass and locking in some profit. nitro