For the third time this week, the put/call ratio was skewed by a large spread trade involving long-term puts in the Nasdaq 100 Trust (QQQ:Amex - news - commentary - research - analysis), traders said. An investor bought a large chunk of January 2005 45 puts and sold an equal number of the January 2005 55 puts.
Specifically, 73,000 contracts of each put series were traded, making them the most active of the session, according to the CBOE, and producing a sharp increase in overall put activity. (The fund manager was also actively trading the January 2005 45 put QQQ LEAPS -- another form of option -- Thursday, but not the 55 puts.)
"If you take out the quantities of these trades, the put call/ratio is far from being" 2.55, observed one options trader.
Jon Najarian, president of Mercury Trading, one of the largest market makers at the CBOE, dubbed the put spread trades "outlandish and huge," resulting in "the most extraordinary index put volume I've ever seen" The trades were rumored to be done by a British-based hedge fund, although he couldn't specify which one.