Time Warner Bull Channels Stock and Option Combo Play

  Today’s tickers: TWX, KBE, KMB & AET TWX  - Time Warner, Inc. –  A massive transaction combining Time Warner stock and options suggests one strategist expects bullish movement in shares of the media and entertainment company ahead of February expiration. Time Warner’s shares are currently trading 0.40% higher on the session at $33.30 as of 1:25pm. The combo-player initiated a delta neutral trade, selling 1,400,000 shares of the underlying at $33.00 each, and buying 40,000 calls at the February $34 strike for a premium of $0.56 apiece, on a 0.35 delta. This is another one of those stock and option combinations in which the investor wants to have his cake and eat it too. The short stock leg of the trade works in the event Time Warner loses value, but should the shares jump, the value of the calls is intended to swell and outpace losses on the now losing stock price. As the share price increases the delta on the calls moves higher meaning that the value of the calls appreciate at a faster rate leaving the investor better placed as a bull. In other words, gains from the rising value of the call options, given share price appreciation, will eclipse losses that accumulate from the short stance in TWX shares. Time Warner’s shares last traded above $34.00 back on May 30, 2010. KBE  - SPDR KBW Bank ETF –  Large prints in March contract call options on the SPDR KBW Bank ETF this morning appear to be the work of one strategist taking profits off the table and extending bullish sentiment on the fund through expiration in a few months time. Shares of the KBE, an exchange-traded fund that replicates the performance of the KBW Bank Index and invests in regional banks and other diversified financial services industries, are currently down 0.50% to stand at $26.68 as of 12:30pm in New York. It looks like the investor originally purchased a total of 27,100 calls at the March $26 strike, picking 20,000 lots for an…