McMoRan Exploration is drawing unusual call activity as its stock slips again today, but the options don't appear overly bullish.
MMR is down 1.15 percent today to $12.49. Shares of the oil and natural-gas company were above $14 through the start of August but have been losing ground steadily since then.
Today's option volume in the name isn't huge, but one call spread triggered an alert on optionMONSTER's systems. A trader bought 2,500 September 17 calls for the ask price of $0.04 against open interest of more than 11,000. At the same time, he or she sold 2,500 February 17 calls for the bid price of $0.85 at volume that was 10 times open interest at that strike.
This could be a short calendar spread , but it appears far more likely that the trader is buying back short calls in September and selling contracts further out in time. If that's true, the thesis would be that MMR won't be above $17 in the coming months. (See our Education section)
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