Options traders are betting that gold’s recent gains aren’t stopping any time soon, as the volatile start to the year and a weakening dollar make the metal an attractive safe haven.
The commodity hit its highest levels in nearly two months during Tuesday’s session, and investors took that opportunity to make bullish bets via the GLD gold ETF, which tracks a basket of related securities.
“[GLD] traded more than two times the average daily volume, very nearly three times the average daily call volume, and the most active options were the January 185-calls. Those are the calls that expire one week from this coming Friday — over 50,000 of those calls at about $1.54 apiece,” Optimize Advisors CIO Michael Khouw said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Fast Money.”
For buyers of those calls, the contracts break even at a price of $186.54 in GLD, which would represent a 2% increase from Tuesday’s close. Conversely, sellers are betting that the opposite will happen and are collecting premium as a way to bet that GLD will stay below that breakeven price.
GLD was trading 2% lower in Wednesday’s session.
