Silver Options Bears Boost Bets on Decline for Second Day
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Trading of bearish options on an exchange-traded fund tracking silver jumped to 3.7 times the four-week average, boosted by a single trade for a second day, as futures on the metal snapped a seven-day winning streak.
More than a quarter of all volume for puts to sell the iShares Silver Trust ETF was concentrated in 100,000 contracts in a strategy known as a butterfly spread, according to OptionsHawk.com, a Boston-based provider of options-market analytics. The trade profits most if the fund falls 7.9 percent to $36 before May options expire, and follows yesterday’s purchase of 100,000 July $25 puts.