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Emerging Markets ETF Options Fly

Today’s tickers: EEM, GG, ARUN & XLI EEM  - iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index ETF –  Options volume on the EEM has topped 525,000 contracts in the first two hours of the trading session after one big emerging-markets bull banked substantial profits on a previously established position, and extended his optimistic view on the fund through May expiration. Shares in the EEM are down one penny on the session to stand at $49.86 as of 11:15am in New York. It looks like the strategist accumulated upside exposure on the ETF during the month of March, buying a 100,000-lot April $50/$52 call spread for an average premium of $0.20 per contract on March 8th and 9th, when shares in the fund were hovering around $43.89. The subsequent 13.5% rise in the price of the underlying since the transaction was initiated lifted premium on the calls, allowing the options trader to sell the 100,000-lot call spread for $0.46 per contract this morning. The call-spreader pockets average net profits of $0.26 per contract, or around $2.6 million, on this leg of the transaction. Next, the EEM-optimist constructed a fresh debit call spread in the May contract, buying 100,000 calls at the May $51 strike at a premium of $0.80 each, and selling the same number of calls at the higher May $53 strike for a premium of $0.22 a-pop. Net premium paid to initiate the transaction amounts to $0.58 per contract. Thus, the trader is poised to profit in the event that shares in the EEM rally 3.4% over the current price of $49.86 to surpass the effective breakeven point— and a new 52-week high— of $51.58 by expiration day next month. Maximum potential profits of $1.42 per contract, or $14.2 million, are available to the investor should shares in the ETF surge 6.3% to trade above $53.00 by May expiration. Finally, the sale of two sizable chunks of in-the-money April contract call options generated big gains for another EEM-bull this morning. It looks like the…
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