Notable Thursday Option Activity: MRK, SONO, AA

Looking at options trading activity among components of the Russell 3000 index, there is noteworthy activity today in Merck & Co Inc (MRK), where a total volume of 67,211 contracts has been traded thus far today, a contract volume which is representative of approximately 6.7 million underlying shares (given that every 1 contract represents 100 underlying shares). That number works out to 67.3% of MRK's average daily trading volume over the past month, of 10.0 million shares..