Pessimism on Alcoa Apparent as Bears Bulk Up on Put Options

  Today’s tickers: AA, SWKS, WDC & CSC AA  - Alcoa, Inc. –  Bearish options traders decided to pay Alcoa a visit this morning in order to pick up large numbers of put options in the November contract. Shares of the aluminum giant fell as much as 2.7% in the first half of the session to touch an intraday low of $12.77, but have recovered somewhat as of 11:50 a.m. to stand 0.60% lower on the day at $13.05. Pessimistic players piled into put options at the November $13 strike where more than 32,600 contracts changed hands by midday. It looks like the majority of the activity was initiated by one bearish individual who purchased approximately 23,000 puts at that strike at a premium of $0.55 per contract. The investor may be utilizing the puts to protect an existing position in the underlying shares. Alternatively, this transaction may represent an outright bearish bet on the aluminum maker. The put buyer starts to make money if Alcoa’s shares fall 4.6% from the current price of $13.05 to breach the effective breakeven point to the downside at $12.45 by expiration day next month. Alcoa’s overall reading of options implied volatility is up 6.6% at 36.02% as of 11:55 a.m. in New York trading. SWKS  - Skyworks Solutions, Inc. –  Shares of the chip making company that supplies semiconductors for cellular devices such as Apple’s iPhone rallied as much as 3.1% this morning to secure a new 52-week high of $21.98. Options traders populating the stock focused their attention almost exclusively in November contract put options despite the rise in the price of the underlying shares. The majority of options volume generated on SWKS today appears to be involved in a sizeable debit put spread. It looks like one investor picked up 7,500 puts at the November $21 strike for a premium of $1.02 each, and sold the same number of puts at the lower November $20 strike at a premium of $0.62 apiece. Net premium paid for the spread amounts to $0.40 per contract. The investor responsible for the trade may accumulate up to $0.60 per contract in profits if Skyworks’ shares reverse course to below $20.00 ahead of November expiration. The semiconductor company is scheduled to report earnings for the fourth quarter before the opening bell on November 4, 2010. This suggests the spread may be the work of an investor building up downside protection ahead of the…