Altera's Stock Soared 28%, But Some Of Its Options Rocketed 2200%

The 28% surge in Altera Corp.'s stock to $44.39 on Friday, after a Wall Street Journal report of buyout interest from Intel Corp. , has some options traders doing cartwheels. Call options expiring in April with a strike price of $36 -- 4.1% above Thursday's closing price -- traded as high as 35 cents per contract prior to the WSJ report, according to Interactive Brokers chief market analyst Andrew Wilkinson. The closing bid Friday, which did not actually trade, was $8.10 per contract, Wilkinson said, which is 2200% (23 times) above the pre-report high of 35 cents. There weren't too many that reaped those awards, however, as Wilkinson said there wasn't much open interest in the options ahead of the news, "just 106,000 contracts [total] at last count."

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