Pipeline Stocks Seeing Unusually High Put Volume

Kinder Morgan (KMI) is resting just above session lows after it was earlier noted that a large amount of put options traded during mid-day across a number of pipeline companies. The April out-the-money $35.00 puts traded 4,075 times so far today with an open interest of 217. Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) is also resting just above session lows after being flagged for unusually high put-purchasing activity. The April slightly-out-the-money $45.00 puts traded 2,915 times with an open interest of 193. Like others, Enterprise Products Partners (EPD) has seen increased put volume activity, with the April slightly-out-the-money $55 put options trading 3,238 times over an open interest of just 135. The purchases have been interesting and certainly seem correlated to each other. Each one is an outright position in the closest, out-the-money put option, with all of them expiring in April.