Options Buying Spikes In Regional Bank ETF (KRE)

The ETF Professor admits that regional banks have somewhat of a disppointment during this market rally. As a group, the sector has languished while the market has made new highs.

Take a look at the chart. Lower highs and lower lows. That didn't stop options investors from buying nearly 19,000 December 22.50 calls on the SPDR KBW Regional Banking ETF (NYSE: KRE). Today's purchases come against open interest of just 6,085 contracts, so this is the opening of new bullish positions in KRE options.

KRE must rise to $23 by expiration for the calls to become profitable. KRE is diverse as far as many bank ETFs go. It's top holding, MB Financial (Nasdaq: MBFI), accounts for just 2.97% of the ETF's assets.