Options Brief: Bank of America (BAC)

BAC – Bank of America Corp. – BAC’s shares have spent the better part of the trading day vacillating about Thursday’s closing price of $15.46. Currently the financial firm’s shares are flat at $15.46 as of 12:55 pm (ET). Options activity on the stock has been relatively slow thus far today, but there is one transaction in the November contract that caught our attention. It looks like one wary options trader purchased a debit put spread, buying approximately 10,000 puts at the November $15 strike for an average premium of $1.62 apiece, and selling about the same number of contracts at the lower November $11 strike for an average premium of $0.48 each. The average net cost of the long-term bearish transaction amounts to $1.14 per contract. Thus, the put player is prepared to profit should shares of the underlying stock plunge 10.35% from the current price of $15.46 to breach the average breakeven point on the spread at $13.86 by November expiration. The transaction yields maximum potential profits of $2.86 per contract if BAC’s shares plummet 28.85% to $11.00 in the next five months to expiration day. If the investor is utilizing the spread to hedge a long position in the underlying shares, protection kicks in beneath the same $13.86 breakeven price described above, and maxes out if shares trade beneath $11.00.