Options Trader Positions for Airline Recovery Story

Today’s tickers: UAL, HBI, SFLY & TOL UAL  - United Continental Holdings, Inc. –  The airline operator’s shares rose 4.3% this morning to an intraday high of $23.76, rebounding 9.7% off of its lowest point of the week at $21.65, but still trading substantially lower than last week’s closing price of $27.02. Shares relinquished some of the earlier gains this afternoon to stand 1.65% higher on the session at $23.16 as of 12:15pm in New York. At least one options strategist is positioning for UAL’s shares to continue recovering in the next couple of months. It looks like the investor employed April contract ratio call spreads to prepare for a sizable, albeit limited, correction higher by expiration day. The trader appears to have purchased approximately 3,000 in-the-money calls at the April $22 strike for an average premium of $2.49 apiece, and sold roughly 6,000 calls up at the April $27 strike for an average premium of $0.52 each. The net cost of the transaction amounts to an average of $1.45 per contract, and positions the trader to profit in the event that UAL’s shares rally 1.25% over the current price of $23.16 to surpass the average breakeven point on the upside at $23.45 by April expiration. Maximum potential profits of $3.55 per contract are available to the trader should shares in United Continental Holdings jump 16.6% to settle at $27.00 at expiration in a couple of months. The sale of twice as many higher-strike call options expose the investor to losses should the stock fly higher than he expects within the time remaining to expiration. Profits give way to losses on this strategy if shares in UAL jump 31.9% to exceed the upper breakeven price of $30.55 by April expiration day. The call options transacted in the ratio spreads represent opening positions given the minimal levels of open interest observed at either strike price.…