Financials continue to rally

Today’s tickers: CIT, CSCO, AMX, STI, XTO, NTES & MCHP CIT CIT Group, Inc. – Shares of the North American bank holding company has jumped more than 10% to $3.01 amid the broad gains enjoyed by the financial sector today. CIT appeared on our ‘most active by options volume’ market scanner after one investor initiated a reversal on the stock. The trader sold 21,200 calls at the in-the-money October 2.5 strike price for 1.15 and then purchased 21,200 puts at the same strike price for 40 cents each. Perhaps the investor is looking to bank gains on today’s rally and protect the profits by getting long of puts. The trade resulted in a credit of 75 cents to the individual who is prepared to gain to the downside at any share price below $2.50 by expiration in October. CSCO Cisco Systems, Inc. – The networking and communications products company is off slightly by about 2% to $19.26. However, we observed bullish option traders looking for a rise in shares by expiration this month. At the May 20 strike price more than 18,900 calls were picked up for an average premium of 40 cents apiece. The breakeven on the trade at $20.40 requires that shares rise by just 6% from the current price in order for call-buyers to begin to profit to the upside by expiration. One month further, the in-the-money June 19 strike price attracted a trader to bank gains by selling 8,200 calls for a premium of 1.24. Perhaps this individual decided to throw in the towel and take in profits today for fear that shares may fall further over the next month and a half and erode the call premium even more. AMX America Movil SAB de CV ADR – The Mexican local and long-distance telephone services company has experienced a slight 1.5% rally in shares to stand at $36.88 today. We observed option traders loading up on puts in the May, June, and August contracts. The activity drove up the put-to-call ratio to more than 6-to-1 indicating that 6 puts were traded to each call option in action. At the near-term May 34 strike price some 4,500 puts were purchased for an average premium of 28 cents apiece. Further along in the June contract, bearish traders coveted 2,500 puts at the 35 strike for 1.50 each. Finally, the largest purchase was a chunk of 20,000 puts bought at the August 35 strike…