Simple question about put options.

Were the put option concentrated only on UAL and AA so heavily or were they wide spread across the entire plane industry?

Well you have to understand that on 9/7/2001 American Airlines released their third quarter projections-- Saying they expected to lose "considerably" more than they did in their second quarter for the same year-- that bad news coupled with the fact that the stock price was on a steady decline all summer of 2001 -- would cause some prospectors to rally on AA put options.

I believe AA also announced that they would be retiring their 727 fleet, as there were was much speculation of wide-spead lay-offs...All BEFORE 9/11/2001.

As for United, Put options were less in Spetember 01 than they were in both March and April of the same year. So those numbers were not all that out of line.

If someone would have bought AA puts the day before they released their second quarter earnings (Summer 01) they would have made roughly the same as purchasing in September. IIRC the stock was sitting at 38 per share in mid summer 01--and dropped to 28 before 9/11/01- In the weeks after 9/11 it dropped another 10. So, people were making money off of AA's desparity all summer long.

Piacenza: from what i gather, these were the only airlines so betted on at that time. Also some companies with main offices at the WTC. I'm still not up to speed on the details, but they're likely to come up in that other thread. I'll be focusing on that one and sorting things out to my own satisfaction this week.

Gwion: Excellent counter-argument information. You may be right on, but I can't say until I've researched more (all this is over my head - I have an aversion to money issues for some reason and a hard time grasping the mechanics). It's at least something to consider. Have you posted this in the other thread? (you know, the one I started).

While Qwinox brings up valid reasons to short AA (to make SOME money) this was PUBLIC INFO. SEC filings and MSM news...

For a single fund manager to buy 95% of the put options in supposedly a single trade is LUDICROUS based on a quarterly report... Everyone can read... this was not secret/inside info that would get him in ahead of the herd for 95% of the available options. This was not a 401(k).

Look at the big three they lose their asses every quarter and project even worse for the next... no one is monopolizing put options on GM.

[edit on 21-5-2007 by Pootie]

Just having a look at "Crossing the Rubicon" by Michael Ruppert. Possibly the best 911 book out there. It's a pretty long and tedious book, but everything is verifiable and there isn't one mention of explosives or anything which cannot be irrefutably proven.

Anyway, some facts on insider trading..

Between Sept 6-10 UAL put options rised 90 times above normal. And 285 times higher on the Thursday before the attacks.

American Airlines jumped 60 times above normal the day before the attack.

Bloomberg Business report stated no similar trading occured on any other airlines. (This was from the Israeli institute of counterterrorism)

Another interesting thing is a Reuters story on sept 10, "Airline stocks may be posed to take off". This stated that as airline stocks were at a 4yr low now is the time to buy.

There was also a single 2.5mil put option on UA which went unclaimed.

The put options is just one of many "passports" left behind to be found.

Originally posted by Krahzeef_Ukhar

There was also a single 2.5mil put option on UA which went unclaimed.

I'm not sure that a put option can go "unclaimed". At expiration the option is automatically exercised if it is in the money and the funds are automatically transferred into the investor's brokerage account.

www.sfgate.com.../c/a/2001/09/29/MN186128.DTL&hw=suspicious+profits&sn=006&sc=777

This is the reference he had to that statement.
"Suspicious profits sit uncollected"

Originally posted by Krahzeef_Ukhar
www.sfgate.com.../c/a/2001/09/29/MN186128.DTL&hw=suspicious+profits&sn=006&sc=777

This is the reference he had to that statement.
"Suspicious profits sit uncollected"

Thanks for the link! According to this story, the person who bought the puts on UAL only spent just over $2000. Not exactly a high-roller making a killing...

October series options for UAL Corp. were purchased in highly unusual volumes three trading days before the terrorist attacks for a total outlay of $2,070; investors bought the option contracts, each representing 100 shares, for 90 cents each. Those options are now selling at more than $12 each.

So whoever bought the UAL puts made a little over $20,000.

Also note that the article was written on 11/29/01, and apparently the options were October options which would have expired the 3rd Friday in October. With so much uncertainty after 9/11, along with the anthrax scare, it would make sense to hold onto these options since they would only increase in value if the market continued to drop. On 9/29/01 there was really no reason to think that the market would recover after what happened on 9/11 (especially the airline stocks).

Obviously the stocks didn't recover. UAL went bankrupt, and AMR went to about $1 a share. So holding onto the put options doesn't seem suspicious at all. I think this is a case of the media trying to sensationalize the story.

You may be right.

I was actually quite disappointed to read the article which didn't really match what was being implied in the book. I'm going to have to look up a lot more of these references I think. Almost considered not putting the link up as it doesn't really lend much legitimacy to everything else I wrote.

Not really in the spirit of ATS tho.