Here's how these folks operate.
First, they buy lots of PUTS at different cost basis, then they keep shorting the stock
til they get the price they want. The fundamentals have never been better for AKAM,
but they don't care about that. Their objective is simply to push it around for several days.
As they say, "This too shall pass...... buy some down here if you can."
A big put trade is looking for Akamai Technologies to continue its recent decline.
optionMONSTER systems show that a trader bought 4,000 January 45 puts for $6.45 and sold the same number of January 35 puts for the bid price of $2.15. The volume at each strike was more than the previous open interest, indicating new activity.
This vertical spread costs the trader $4.30 to open, which will be lost if it is held until expiration and AKAM remains above $45. The maximum gain is $5.70 if shares are below $35. (See our Education section)
This is an expensive put spread, but it is in the money . AKAM is down 1.8 percent to $43.06 this morning. The cloud-computing company was at a high above $48 just under a month ago but below $35 at the end of April before the last earnings report.
More than 9,600 AKAM options have changed hands overall today, compared to its daily average of just 2,152 in the last month.
Nice! That trader is going to get it handed to him. Akamai is in a solid uptrend, jumping from 34 to 48 was bound to give part back before moving forward. At 42, it's already had a short-term decline, the Puts buyer MISSED it.