2009-03-11

Call Trading Increases on Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ: sentiment, chart, options) has been the focus of increasing optimism recently. The stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) has edged lower from 0.81 on March 2 to its current perch of 0.65. During this time frame, call open interest among options slated to expire in less than 3 months increased by 23.8%, while put open interest dropped by 0.7%.

What's more, the stock's SOIR is currently lower than all but 4% of the readings taken during the past year. In other words, short-term options players have been more optimistically aligned toward the stock just 4% of the time during the past 12 months.

On Monday, the April 55 call proved to be the most active, as roughly 3,000 new positions were added to the strike, pushing open interest up to 23,960. The April 60 call is the next heaviest, with open interest of nearly 30,000 contracts.

Technically speaking, the shares of JNJ are up more than 2% this afternoon, but are facing staunch resistance in the form of their declining 10-day moving average. JNJ has not finished a session above this short-term trendline since Feb. 10.

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