V – Visa Inc. –Shares in the electronic payments and technology company are on the rise today, gaining as much as 3.3% to hit a one-month high of $184.40 on news the company, along with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Nike Inc., will replace Hewlett-Packard Co., Bank of America Corp and Alcoa Inc. in the Dow Jones Industrial Average later this month. Shares in Visa are up approximately 40% since this time last year, but trade roughly 6.0% below the record high of $196.00 secured back on July 25th.
Options volume on Visa rose to more than twice the average daily level, with 24,800 contracts exchanged by 3:40 p.m. in New York. Fresh interest building in weekly calls on Visa today suggests some traders are positioning for shares in the name to extend gains during the next few sessions. The most traded weekly contracts are the Sep 13 ’13 $185 calls, with around 1,900 lots in play versus open interest of 267 contracts. Time and sales data suggests most of the $185 calls were purchased at an average premium of $1.08 apiece. Buyers of the $185 calls stand ready to profit at expiration in the event that Visa shares rally another 1.0% over today’s high of $184.19 to exceed the average breakeven point at $186.08. The Sep 13 ’13 $190 calls are also changing hands this afternoon with around 940 lots traded against open interest of 84 contracts. Most of the $190 calls appear to have been purchased at an average premium of $0.26 each.
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