Big Prints in Bearish Options on Market Vectors Gold Miners (GDX)

Texas Instruments Incorporated (NASDAQ:TXN) – Heavy trading traffic in Texas Instruments put options today indicates some traders may be bracing for shares in the name to decline in the near term, perhaps following the company’s first-quarter earnings report on April 22nd. Shares in the Dallas, Texas-based semiconductor maker are down 0.50% on the session at $34.89 as of 12:05 p.m. ET, but have rallied more than 10% year to date. Options activity in TXN is concentrated at the May $35 strike, with more than 20,000 puts in play versus open interest of 1,225 contracts as of the time of this writing. It looks like most of the puts were purchased during morning trading at an average premium of $1.29 apiece, thus positioning buyers to profit in the event that TXN’s shares decline more than 3.0% from the current level to trade below the average breakeven point at $33.71 by May expiration.

Caitlin Duffy
Equity Options Analyst

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