Vale Options Combination Play

Today’s tickers: VALE, BID, EBAY & YGE VALE  - Vale S.A. –  Earlier we reported that a large-volume three-legged bearish transaction had taken place on iron ore producer, Vale. Market sources have since informed us that the direction of the trade is the reverse of what had been indicated by raw time and sales data. The new information regarding the transaction alters our interpretation of the spread to bullish from the previously reported bearish view. Shares in the Brazilian firm increased as much as 0.82% during the session to secure an intraday high of $35.60, but are currently trading 0.20% high on the session at $35.38 as of 2:50pm. The options investor responsible for most of the volume in options exchanged on Vale today reportedly sold a large number of puts on the stock in order to buy in- and out-of-the-money call options in the May contract. The investor paid a net $2.24 per contract, selling 23,000 May $30 strike puts in order to buy 11,500 May $35 strike calls and another 11,500 calls up at the May $40 strike. The transaction positions the trader to benefit from bullish movement in the price of the underlying shares heading into Vale’s fourth-quarter earnings report on February 24, 2011, through to expiration day in May. BID  - Sotheby’s Holdings Inc. –  One options player pocketed big profits on a well-timed bullish bet in Sotheby’s calls this morning. The auctioneers’ shares are currently up 0.2% at $48.34 as of 11:30am in New York, but hit a 6-month high of $49.03 yesterday, driving the stock’s run up to 86.4% since August 31, 2010. The gavel-bearer populating Sotheby’s today initiated a bullish bet back on January 25, 2011, when shares in the name encountered a bump in rally-road and slipped to a three-month low of $38.23.…