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Are shares of this application software name range-bound? One investor thinks so.
Related Symbols: VRSN
VeriSign Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) shares are currently trading up more than 1% so far on the day, moving higher with the rest of the market, and at least one investor sold a strangle in the application software company calling for a range bound share price for the next three months.
VRSN stock has climbed 32 cents to $26.57 a share, and the company did not announce any news today. VRSN has not announced its next earnings release date, but the market expects the report sometime around May 6.
Around 11:10 a.m. EST, an investor sold the June 25-27 strangle more than 7,300 times for roughly $2.30 per spread. The near-the-money June 25 puts crossed for 95 cents per contract, while the investor traded the June 27 calls for $1.35 per contract. The June 27 calls are home to current open interest of 553 contracts, while current open interest of the 25-strike puts is around 1,000 contracts, indicating the investor is putting on new risk in this short strangle position.
The 27-strike calls and 25-strike puts have an implied volatility of roughly 27%, compared to the 30-day historical volatility of 20%. If shares of VRSN are above $25 but below $27 at June expiration, the strangle seller could make a maximum profit of $2.30 per spread. If the stock swings significantly one way or the other, investors could incur unlimited losses. For this reason, strangle selling is a more risky bet that volatility will contract throughout the later-term and not necessarily bullish nor bearish.
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