Investors are dumping shares in Yahoo, sending the stock down 5.0% to $40.08 after shares in Alibaba made their debut on the floor of the NYSE just before midday. Shares in BABA for their part initially traded up to a high of $99.70, a near 47% increase over the IPO price of $68.00. Typically, one would expect put options that are 5% out of the money with roughly 4-hours left to trade to see waning implied volatility. But, at the start of the trading session and ahead of the first trade for BABA, the Sep 19 ’14 40.0 strike put options were trading with 271% volatility or $0.30 per contract amid uncertainty as to how the start of trading for Alibaba would take shape.
After shares in BABA debuted, volatility in the 40.0 strike puts imploded, dropping almost immediately to 154% and sending premium on the contracts down to as low as $0.04 each. However, with shares in BABA at $90.70 as of 12:30 p.m. ET and having backed off of their intraday highs to trade below the initial traded price of $92.70, selling pressure on Yahoo is increasing and premium on those YHOO 40.0 strike puts has ripped to the upside. At last check, the 40.0 strike put options with just hours to go before expiration are changing hands at $0.60 apiece at roughly 150% implied volatility.
Overall volume in Yahoo options has surpassed 1 million contracts, more than twice the stock’s average daily options volume of 453,000 contracts.
