The last time I highlighted unusual option activity like today's trading in $HST put options, was at the start of the year. I was the first to bring a massive multi-million dollar bet on $LNCO downside to light. That trade turned into a $16 million + profit for the trader who entered it.
A similarly unusual option trade a few months ago in $LEAP saw a trader illegally bet $13k to net over $1,000,000. https://www.optionmillionaires.com/2013/leap-suspicious-13k-trade-could-net-over-1-million-when-the-market-opens-on-monday/
https://www.optionmillionaires.com/2013/lnco-line-enormous-and-unusual-option-bet-highlighted-months-ago-hits-paydirt/
Strange and unusual option action implies someone knows something the market doesn't.
Today highly unusual and suspicious trade activity occurred in the October $17 puts for $HST. Its more exciting watching paint dry than observing the daily movement of this stock. Today it was stuck in a .25 range, Friday a $.30 range. Logic would say this stock has a ZERO chance of falling 2%, or 3%, yet someone was willing to bet over $40,000 that the stock will drop well over 5% by Friday. Much like that $LNCO trade 10 months ago the trader entering these trades either has massive amounts of money to burn... or he/she knows something that the rest of us are not privy to.
Put simply, as I did with $LNCO, if $HST drops in price significantly this week we will know it was not a coincidence,and someone used information the public was not privy to. They used this information to make themselves a tremendous amount of money.
The $HST $17 puts opened the day with ZERO bid $.10 ask. No one wanted those options.... Why? because there is almost ZERO chance of the stock breaking below $17 before Friday. By the end of todays trading session those $17 puts were trading at $.15 x $.20. The total volume was over 6,500 contracts! Someone either much smarter than you and I, or who is able to get information the rest of us can't, placed a massive bet on significant downside for $HST. Unlike the $LNCO trade that took many months to work out, this trade has 4 days left. 4 days to confirm how corrupt this market can be. We saw it a few months ago with $LEAP.... are we going to see it again here with $HST?
UPB are you buying the puts?