Trading of bullish options on Russian stocks jumped to seven times the four-week average yesterday in the U.S. after oil traded near a two-year high and the ruble touched its strongest level in two months against the dollar.
More than 15,200 calls to buy the Market Vectors Russia ETF changed hands, the most in two months and five times the number of puts to sell. The shares rose 0.2 percent to $37.44 and touched $37.70, the highest intraday level since September 2008. The most-active contracts on the ETF were January $38 calls, which accounted for about four-fifths of the volume.
