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The Kroger Co. (Kroger) is a retailer in the United States. The Company also manufactures and processes some of the food for sale in its supermarkets. The company has earnings due out on 3-3-11 (projected).
Over 10,000 contracts have traded today on total daily average option volume of just 2,665. The largest trade accounted for 10,000 contracts -- an Apr 22/24 strangle sale 5,000x @ $0.91. Color from Mike Bristow of the V-trader Group. $The Stats Tab and Day's biggest trades snapshots are included (below).
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The Options Tab (below) illustrates that the calls and puts are mostly opening (compare OI to trade size). This is a vol sale ahead of earnings in the second month -- so a straight vega bet.
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The Skew Tab snap (below) illustrates the vols by strike by month.
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The skew actually looks pretty normal. Even more odd, the Apr vol is up more than Mar today. As of this writing, Mar vol is at 32.81 (+1.1) and Apr vol is at 27.91 (+1.4),
Finally, the Charts Tab (6 months) is below. The top portion is the stock price, the bottom is the vol (IV30™ - red vs HV20™ - blue vs HV180™ - pink).
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We can see the vol is rising into earnings (as expected). On the last earnings cycle KR went down 13.5% in the few days following the release. IV30™ went up to 29.20 last cycle, and it's now above that level as of today. The vol sale is a bold move, we'll see what happens.
This is trade analysis, not a recommendation.
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