The International Securities Exchange has seen an uptick in the number of puts trading.
Another easy way to gauge market sentiment is to look at the put-to-call ratio, which divides the number of puts by the number of calls.
Using the December contract, the seller wrote around 1,500 call options at 35 cents and sold a similar number of puts at the same strike.
While a large number of puts on Halliburton crossed the CBOE tape that day, the high reading is still noteworthy for its normally unambiguous bullish implications.
The trader sold 2,500 calls at the October $50 strike for a premium of $2.20 apiece in order to offset the cost of buying the same number of puts at the lower October $30 strike for $1.60 each.
The investor appears to have sold 5,000 calls at the August $80 strike for a premium of $1.45 each, in order to purchase the same number of puts at the lower August $50 strike for $1.80 apiece.
The investor purchased approximately 3,400 puts at the April $105 strike for a premium of $6.86 apiece, and sold about the same number of puts at the lower April $85 strike for an average premium of $1.57 each.
These traders appear to have purchased roughly 4,000 puts at the July $25 strike for an average premium of $1.23 each, and sold about the same number of puts at the lower July $20 strike for $0.23 apiece.
The investor picked up 10,000 puts at the June $41 strike for a premium of $1.52 apiece and sold the same number of puts at the lower June $37 strike for $0.49 each.
The equity put/call ratio remains poised to fuel such an unwinding, as its 21-day moving average hovers near past rally-inspiring levels thanks to options traders favoring a heavier-than-normal number of puts relative to calls.
The trader picked up 1,450 puts at the March $40 strike for a premium of $3.00 each, and sold the same number of puts at the lower March $35 strike at a premium of $1.45 apiece.
