4/24/2009 9:57 AM
Keywords:
ABX
Optimistic options traders flocked to Barrick Gold Corporation (ABX: 
sentiment, chart, options) on Thursday, as gold futures reclaimed the $900 level. According to data from WhatsTrading.com, the commodities concern saw roughly 13,500 calls change hands yesterday, more than doubling its average daily volume of fewer than 6,000 contracts. The bullish bias mimics the sentiment among near-term options traders, as demonstrated by the stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.51, in the 26th annual percentile. In other words, short-term speculators have been more optimistically aligned toward ABX only 26% of the time during the past year.
Most popular yesterday was the equity's May 31 call, which saw about 5,400 contracts cross the tape. What's more, within the first 30 minutes of trading today, this option has already seen more than 5,100 contracts change hands on open interest of roughly 5,700. Pointing to the escalating demand is the May 31 call's implied volatility, which inched higher from 53.3% to 56% overnight. Compared to the stock's 1-month historical volatility of only 52%, this near-the-money option is relatively expensive at the moment.
At last check, the shares of ABX have added 79 cents, or 2.68%, to hover near the 30.25 level. From a longer-term perspective, the stock is facing potential resistance in the 32-to-34 region: home to its descending 10-month moving average, and a former