Oil ETFs See Increased Options Activity
The ETF Professor included the Oil Services HOLDRs ETF (AMEX: OIH) in today's ETF Watchlist for a reason and that was the ETF's faltering technical outlook. OIH has lost nearly 6% over the past month and that has invited options bears to step up.
Nearly 8,000 January 110 puts in OIH were purchased today against open interest of just 682 contracts. After closing below its 50-day moving average on Friday, OIH is up more than $2 today.
The ETF needs to fall about 10% by expiration for today's put buyers to turn a profit. OIH holds names such as National Oilwell Varco (NYSE: NOV), Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB) and Baker Hughes (NYSE: BHI).
The SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services (NYSE: XES), which tracks similar stocks to OIH, saw the purchase of 5,990 March 23 puts, but that trade was the close of an existing short position.
