Counting the Silver, FedEx Bulls and Industrial Bears

Today’s tickers: IVN, FDX, XLI, HGSI, FXI, VIP, XLP & NOK IVN  - Shares of the international mineral exploration and development company surged 20% during the trading session to reach an intraday high of $10.66. The Canadian stock was fueled by reports which revealed that changes to Mongolia’s laws will help the company to complete an investment agreement on the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project in the near future. One investor, who had positioned himself to profit from a rally in Ivanhoe, was seen banking gains today by selling to close a long call position. It appears he originally purchased some 17,000 calls for an average premium of 90 cents each around July 30, 2009. Today he shed all 17,000 contracts for a premium of 2.05 apiece. The investor has realized approximate gains of 1.15 per contract for a total of $1,955,000. Bullish activity was seen at the March 2010 15 strike price where it looks like investor purchased 5,000 calls for one dollar apiece. Traders long the calls will profit if shares rally another 50% to breach the breakeven price of $16.00 by expiration next year. – Ivanhoe Mines Limited – FDX  - Bullish action on FedEx this afternoon boosted the firm onto our ‘most active by options volume’ market scanner with the stock trading more than 0.5% higher to $68.40. Traders shed 8,500 put options at the October 60 strike price to take in an average premium of 1.03 per contract. The full premium will be retained by these individuals as long as the puts land out-of-the-money at expiration. Investors are happy to accept the 1.03 premium in exchange for bearing the risk that the stock slips lower, and falls beneath the breakeven point to the downside at $58.97. Losses begin to accumulate for traders if FedEx trades at a price lower than the breakeven point by expiration in October. We note that the stock has remained above $60.00 since July 16, 2009. – FedEx Corp. – XLI  - The industrials exchange-traded fund has risen less than 1% to stand at $25.50. One investor took hold of a large chunk of put options on the XLI by purchasing 40,000 puts at the September 24 strike price for 25 cents apiece. This trader may be bearish, in which case he aims to amass profits to the downside if the XLI declines beneath $23.75 by expiration next month. Alternatively, the investor may have purchased shares of the…