Calls Purchased on Japanese Stocks (EWJ)

Shares of The iShares MSCI Japan Index Fund EWJ are higher on the session by 0.94%, currently trading at $9.63. The ETF has been moving lower over the past three months, off from recent high near $10.71, but appears to have bottomed as of late. Options traders are buying call on the index today. The December $10.00 call was just purchased 30,000 times, on the offer; open interest on the strike is only 2,799 contracts, signaling new, bullish positioning. Call volume is currently running at 40x the daily average with 100% of all calls traded being purchased on the offer. The iShares MSCI Japan Index Fund seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the MSCI Japan index. The fund normally invests at least 95% of assets in the securities of the underlying index and in ADRs based on the securities in the underlying index. It uses a representative sampling strategy to try to track the index. The index consists of stocks traded primarily on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It is nondiversified.