Call One-by-Two in Halliburton

By Jud Pyle, CFA, chief investment strategist for the Options News Network

Halliburton (HAL) did not announce any news this morning, but at least one investor expressed bullishness on the company by purchasing a call ratio spread. The investor bought 2,000 April 31 calls for 1.95 per contract and simultaneously sold twice as many April 34 calls for 60 cents per contract to pay 75 cents per ratio spread.

In this call one-by-two, investors will make a maximum profit of $2.25 per spread if HAL shares close at $34 on April options expiration. If HAL shares drop below $31.75 (the breakeven price), investors cap their losses at 75 cents per spread. However, this trade is only moderately bullish, because investors incur unlimited losses if HAL shares rally higher than $36.25.

The April 31 calls have gained 40 cents so far today, while the April 34 calls are currently trading up 14 cents on the day. Current open interest of the April 31 calls is 7,500 contracts, and the 34-strike calls are home to current open interest of 3,200 contracts.

HAL shares are currently trading up 88 cents to $32.07. The stock reached a 52-week high of nearly $35 on Jan. 19, after trading in a range between $25 and $32 since October. It looks like at least one investor expects the stock to rally around 6% through the near term, but not much higher before losing money on this call one-by-two.

Jud Pyle is the chief investment strategist for Options News Network (www.ONN.tv) and the portfolio manager of TheStreet.com Options Alerts. Click here for a free trial for Options Alerts. Mr. Pyle writes regularly about options investing for TheStreet.com.

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