Quote from cnms2:
I see HUM in uptrend in all time frames, with a recent "healthy" retracement about 7% bellow 22 day EMA. Intraday charts indicate a possible long entry point.
IV is high 40-45%, from recent values of 28-32%.
Quarterly report is scheduled for Mon, Oct 31. HUM has a beta of .38, so it's not much affected by the market trend.
I'd go for a bull call spread Nov 40/45, placing a limit order around $2.6 if I traded only a couple of contracts, maybe a dime higher if I traded more because the volume is pretty thin (although there is enough open interest). The Nov 40 call bid/ask spread is wide at $0.4, but there were a few trades at $3.6 just a few minutes before closing.
Another possibility would be to try to leg into the spread opening the long leg firstly, then place an aggressive order for the short leg, and hope for some price action help.
My stop loss would be for the underlying around $41.5 (risk about $1.4) and the exit target around $46-47 (return around $3.1). This seem a reasonable reward/risk ratio, and it is about the same for the spread too.
I would go for the spread instead of the long call because of the high IV. The next lower strike is 35. The Nov 40/45 (HUMKH/HUMKI) bull call spread outperforms the long Nov 35 (HUMKG; in a ratio 3/10 for even money) if I'm right on my outlook, with a maximum performance around $45 which is close to my exit target.
But this is again a play straddling the quarterly report.
A calendar spread might bring a better return if the price doesn't move much, but would be more susceptible to a gap than a vertical spread. As expected: you can't get more without risking more.