Today’s tickers: HWD, HAS & VSH
HWD - Harry Winston Diamond Corp. – Fresh prints in Harry Winston Diamond Corp. puts drove options volume in the front month above the prevailing level of overall open interest on the stock in the first half of the trading session. Shares in the specialist diamond company fell as much as 2.9% today to $10.36, bringing total declines in the stock up to roughly 43% since the end of May. The company was scheduled to present at the Telsey Advistory Group 2nd Annual Fall Consumer Conference just after 9:00 am EDT this morning.
One or more put players exchanged some 4,150 puts at the October $10 strike against zero open positions. It looks like most of the put options were sold for an average premium of $0.35 a-pop. Investors selling the contracts keep the full amount of premium as long as shares in Harry Winston exceed $10.00 through expiration next month. Heavy put selling pushed implied volatility on the Oct. $10 puts down more than 25% in early-afternoon trade. Shares in HWD have traded above $10.00 for more than one year, but did slip to as low as $9.61 in August 2010. Sellers of the puts likely expect shares in the miner of rough diamonds to resist above $10.00 through October expiration, and are happy to pocket available premium on the options in exchange for bearing the risk that the stock hits fresh lows in the next few weeks. Traders short the puts may have shares of the underlying stock put to them at an effective price of $9.65 each should the options land in-the-money at expiration day. Options implied volatility on the stock dropped 17.5% to 54.47% by 12:20 pm in New York.…
