Shares in Galena Biopharma Inc. (Ticker: GALE) slumped on Wednesday, dropping more than 15% to $4.38 during the first hour of the trading session after an article on The Street noted recent insider selling, the publication of a number of articles on Seeking Alpha (SA) that were designed to benefit Galena’s share price, and the subsequent removal of those articles earlier this week.
The full article by Adam Feuerstein is available on thestreet.com: http://bit.ly/1hc4nn3
Options traders were quick out of the gate this morning to brace for possible further selling pressure on Galena. The most traded contracts on GALE thus far in the session are the Feb $5.0 strike puts, which have traded roughly 4,500 times against open interest of 1,336 contracts. It looks like most of the in-the-money put options were purchased at an average premium of $0.60 each. Put buyers stand ready to profit at expiration next week should shares in Galena settle below the average breakeven point on the downside at $4.40.
Overall options volume on the stock is more than two times the average daily level as of 11:30 a.m. EST, with around 15,000 contracts in play on GALE versus an average daily reading of around 7,100 contracts.
