SAP SE (SAP) is a German based business enterprise software company that provides digital solutions to businesses across the size spectrum. At the time of this post, SAP is currently trading at 67.44, up 3.54% on the day. Despite today’s rally, the stock is firmly within the lower portion of its 52 week trading range of 64.10-83.79, though it has managed to hold the 65.00 support level on a daily chart.

Earlier this morning at approximately 8:42AM CST, OptionHacker detected and flagged some unusually bullish options activity that came across the tape in the January ’15 67.5 strike calls. A large block of 1,000 contracts was purchased at the ask of 0.35 against an open interest of just 576 contracts, so we can surmise confidently that this was an opening transaction to establish a long call position. Just moments after this large block-buy, trading in SAP was halted pending an earnings related news release. Upon resumption of trading, SAP shot up over 4% on positive news surrounding preliminary Q4 revenues, and the call options that were bought for 0.35 traded as high as 1.35, a nearly 300% gain in a matter of minutes. This trade was another massive winner that was detected before the news by OptionHacker.

Trade: Trader bought 1,000 SAP Jan 67.5 Calls for $0.35
Risk: $35 per 1 lot
Reward: Unlimited
Breakeven: $67.85

Deutsche Bank AG (DB) is a Frankfurt, Germany based investment bank and international financial services provider. At the time of this post, DB is currently trading at 28.24, down 1.67% on the day. The stock again printed new 52 week lows at 28.00 earlier in today’s session at as it continues to barrel lower, down about 46% on the year off the highs near 52.00 which printed around this time last year.

Earlier this morning, OptionHacker detected and flagged some unusually large bearish options activity in DB. At approximately 10:02AM CST, 1,755 of the DB Feb ’15 25.0 strike puts hit the tape in an opening transaction. The buyer of these long puts lifted the offer for 0.40 per contract, and bought this large block against an open interest of just 585. As of this post, over 2,700 of these contracts have now traded on the day, most of them at the ask. It would appear that this activity flagged by OptionHacker would indicate that a trader is positioning for further downside movement in DB heading into next month’s option expiration on Feb 20th.

Trade: I bought the DB Feb 25 Puts for $0.40
Risk: $40 per 1 lot
Breakeven: $24.60

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY) is a New Jersey based consumer home goods retailer that operates over 1,500 brick-and-mortar store locations across the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. At the time of this post (10:30AM CST), BBBY is currently trading at 79.36, up 1.48% on the day. The stock remains in a steep uptrend and hit new 52 week highs on the session, raising the highs on its 52 week trading range to 79.51 against lows of 54.96 which printed in late June. BBBY is set to report earnings today, 1/8/2015 after the market close.

Over the last eight quarters of earnings data available, BBBY has traded mostly bearishly, moving lower on five out of eight sessions immediately following the EPS release. Historical volatility over this time period has been 5.8%, though the options market is currently pricing in a slightly larger implied move of around 6.29% based on the current price of the expiring weekly ATM straddle. This implied directional move would represent approximately a $5.00 change in the price of the underlying stock by tomorrow’s weekly options expiration. Although BBBY is currently trading well over the Ichimoku Cloud on the daily chart, the stock has potentially become over-extended, and coupled with its propensity to trade lower following earnings releases, I will be leaning bearish this name going into this afternoon’s EPS report.

Potential Trade: Buying the BBBY Jan 9th Weekly 77-75 Put Spreads for $0.50
Risk: $50 per 1 lot
Reward: $150 per 1 lot
Breakeven: $76.50

Dupont E I De Nemours & Co (DD) is an industrial conglomerate with operation in the agriculture, electronics, materials, and pharmaceuticals spaces. The company’s stock is currently trading around $73.71 in a 52 week range of $59.35-$75.82. The stock has been performing relatively well with shares rallying 16.7% over the past 12 months. On the back of this strong performance traders have been picking up bullish options positions this morning as the stock continues to rally on the day.

Earlier today a trader bought 4,496 DD Jan 23rd weekly 74.5 Calls for $0.79. This order hit OptionHacker at 8:48 CT as the stock was trading at $73.22. The stock has now traded as high as $74.17 on the day and these calls have seen a nice move higher with the stock. These calls have already traded as high as $1.29 on the trading day making this an extremely profitable trade. Our head trader bought these calls and has already taken multiple profit targets.

Trade: Bought 100 DD Jan 23rd weekly 74.5 Calls for $0.91
Risk: $91 per 1 lot
Reward: Unlimited
Breakeven: $75.41

Profit targets have already been taken as high as $1.35 on these calls making this trade an HUGE winner.

Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. (DKS) is a Pennsylvania based sporting goods retailer that operates just under 600 nationwide brick-and-mortar Dick’s Sporting Goods locations. DKS is currently trading at $54.45, up 10.58% on the session after a brief circuit-breaker halt was lifted just moments ago. The stock is now trading firmly in the upper portion of its 52 week trading range of $41.30-$58.87, and is pushing back towards $55.00 resistance on the daily chart following a buyout rumor originally posted by Reuters.

Just before the rumor that the company is talks to go private we saw a very bullish order hit the tape in DKS. A trader bought 2,000 of the DKS Jan 53 Calls for $0.25. These calls hit the tape moments before it was announced that DKS is in talks to go private. The stock ripped to $53.37 before being halted and traded as high as $55.90 after shares reopened. These calls have printed as high as $5.00 now making this trade a monster winner.

Trade: Trader bought the DKS Jan 53 Calls for $0.25
Risk: $25 per 1 lot
Reward: Unlimited
Breakeven: $53.25

eBay Inc. (EBAY) is a California based e-retailer that provides auction and traditional sales services to merchants, as well as providing payment processing services related to these transactions. The eBay brand umbrella also includes well known services such as Stubhub and Half.com. At the time of this post (12:30PM CST), EBAY is currently trading at 54.76, down 1.77% on the day. The stock is still trading within the upper portion of its 52 week range of 46.34-59.70, despite pulling back after recently testing the 58.00 resistance level on a daily chart.

Earlier this morning at around 10:47AM CST, OptionHacker detected and flagged some unusually bullish options activity in the EBAY Jan ’15 56.0 strike calls. Over 4,000 of these calls were purchased above the ask for 0.52, a large opening position that went off against an open interest of just over 3,500 contracts in the strike. With an initial cash outlay of approximately $211,900 pre-commission, we can surmise that a trader is establishing a bullish position in the EBAY options, looking to profit on a reversal of the recent pullback by next Friday’s weekly option expiration. With the stock currently trading below 55.00, this trader is expecting a strong rebound back towards the recently tested highs within the next two weeks.

Trade: I bought 200 of the EBAY Jan 56 Calls for $0.54
Risk: $54 per 1 lot
Reward: Unlimited
Breakeven: $56.54

Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras (PBR) is a Brazilian oil and gas corporation that operates primarily in the production and refinery of petroleum oil. As of the time of this post (1:20PM CST), PBR is currently trading at 6.08, down 10.06% on the day. The stock is currently pressing its 52 week lows after pulling back steadily through the 20.00 support level that broke convincingly in early September. The company has been battling a series of controversies over the last several years, beginning with corruption allegations in 2009. More recently, PBR has been identified by auditors as maintaining insufficient accounting standards, and as a result the company has postponed its Q3 earnings release indefinitely.

If the company does not report earnings this month they will be in technical default as they will have violated one of their bond covenants. The stock has been very weak and today we saw some large orders hitting the tape that imply near term downside in PBR. Earlier today a trader bought 10,050 of the PBR Jan 9th Weekly 6 Puts for $0.19. With only a few day until expiration this is an extremely large order. With a well defined risk to reward setup I like this trade for a short setup. I bought a small position in these puts for $0.20 and will take targets every $0.10 higher.

Trade: I bought the PBR Jan 9th Weekly 6 Puts For $0.20
Risk: $20 per 1 lot
Breakeven: $5.80

Canadian Solar Inc. (CSIQ) is a designer, developer and manufacturer of solar panels based in Canada. The company’s stock is currently trading around $24.40 in a 52 week range of $20.64-$44.50. The stock has been weak over the past year with shares falling nearly 29% over the past 12 months. Despite the weakness in the stock over the past year traders have been getting long CSIQ as a day trade setup during today’s trading session.

Earlier this afternoon a trader bought 761 of the CSIQ Jan 2nd Weekly 23 Calls for $0.95 while stock was trading $23.86. The stock ripped higher after these calls hit OptionHacker and shares of CSIQ traded as high as $24.60 meaning that a trader could have exit the calls or sold stock against them for a very fast profit. This was a very profitable setup especially considering that it was singled in a contract that expires today at the close.

Trade: A trader bought the CSIQ Jan 2nd 23 Calls for $0.95
Risk: $95 per 1 lot
Reward: Unlimited
Breakeven: $23.95

CEMEX, S.A.B. de C.V. (CX) is a Mexico based producer and distributor of ready-mix concrete solutions and other associated construction products. At the time of this post (11:50AM CST), CX is currently trading down 3.04% on the day, to 9.88. The stock has been trending extremely bearishly over the last month and a half and is now just $0.20 off the 52 week lows.

Earlier this morning at approximately 10:22AM CST, we detected and flagged some unusually large bearish options activity as 3,474 of the Feb ’15 10.0 puts went off at the ask for a cost of $0.65 per contract. Moments later, at 10:36AM CST, another large block buy of 2,809 contracts again lifted the offer at $0.65. The open interest in this option going into today’s session was a very modest 354, so we can confidently surmise that both of these large block purchases were opening transactions looking for further downside in the stock. With a total cash outlay of approximately $408,395 before commissions, it appears a confident trader is looking for a continued push lower, through 52 week lows going into the February monthly options expiration on February 20th 2015.

Trade: A trader bought 3,474 CX Feb 10 Puts for $0.65
Risk: $65 per 1 lot
Breakeven: $9.35

Sigma Designs, Inc. (SIGM) is a California based semiconductor and chip manufacturer specializing in integrated circuits used for television and home monitoring systems. At the time of this post (2:00PM CST), SIGM is currently trading higher by 15.44% on the day, up to 7.40 after continuing to rip higher off the market open. The stock is currently pressing its 52 week highs which were made on the session, and it appears a large bullish bet detected by OptionHacker earlier this morning both anticipated and expects this recent strength to continue.

At 10:21AM CST OptionHacker detected and flagged a large 885 contract buy-to-open transaction in the Feb ’15 7.5 strike calls that went off at the ask for $0.30. While the open interest in this strike was already at 584, we can still ascertain that this was an opening transaction as the block-buy lifted the offer at the time. Since OptionHacker flagged this unusual activity, the stock has continued to rally higher on the day, up approximately $0.50 in the underlying, leading to nearly a 100% gain already in the options that were bought. We will continue to keep an eye on this position going into the February monthly options expiration, but for the time being it appears bullish sentiment continues to drive this semiconductor name higher.

Trade: A trader bought 885 of the SIGM Feb 7.5 Calls for $0.30
Risk: $30 per 1 lot
Reward: Unlimited
Breakeven: $7.80

These calls have already traded as high as $0.60 on the day meaning a trader could have locked in massive profits in SIGM.