Advertisement
Singapore markets closed
  • Straits Times Index

    3,224.01
    -27.70 (-0.85%)
     
  • Nikkei

    40,422.40
    +254.33 (+0.63%)
     
  • Hang Seng

    16,541.42
    +148.58 (+0.91%)
     
  • FTSE 100

    7,952.62
    +20.64 (+0.26%)
     
  • Bitcoin USD

    70,250.49
    +609.00 (+0.87%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • S&P 500

    5,254.35
    +5.86 (+0.11%)
     
  • Dow

    39,807.37
    +47.29 (+0.12%)
     
  • Nasdaq

    16,379.46
    -20.06 (-0.12%)
     
  • Gold

    2,254.80
    +16.40 (+0.73%)
     
  • Crude Oil

    83.11
    -0.06 (-0.07%)
     
  • 10-Yr Bond

    4.2060
    +0.0100 (+0.24%)
     
  • FTSE Bursa Malaysia

    1,541.25
    +10.65 (+0.70%)
     
  • Jakarta Composite Index

    7,288.81
    -21.28 (-0.29%)
     
  • PSE Index

    6,903.53
    +5.36 (+0.08%)
     

Big win for Altera call buyers on talk of Intel deal

By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed

NEW YORK (Reuters) - News that chipmaker Intel Corp (INTC.O) is in talks to buy Altera Corp (ALTR.O) sparked a flurry of trades in its short-term calls and could spell huge gains for some timely buyers of the options.

Altera's shares jumped as much as 30 percent to a high of $45 on a Wall Street Journal report of talks toward a deal.

Trading in Altera's call options, that give the right to buy the shares at a fixed price at a future date, jumped on the news.

"Call buyers surfaced just as the story broke," said Fred Ruffy, options strategist at WhatsTrading.com.

About 3,000 Altera calls at the $36 strike price and set to expire on April 17 traded for 35 cents. These traded at 15:32 p.m. EDT (1932 GMT), just as Altera shares began to spike.

ADVERTISEMENT

The calls last traded at $4, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Since each options contract represents 100 shares of the underlying stock, the trader would have paid about $105,000 for the 3000 calls. These were worth roughly $1.2 million by the close of trading, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Calls betting on the shares rising above $37 by April 17 also attracted activity at the same time with nearly 1,900 trading. These traded for 15 to 20 cents and closed at $8.

(Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; Editing by Chris Reese)