On the day that the options were listed (yellow arrow) and were trading at just over 1c, the MNB shares were sold off with around 1.7mill shares or roughly double the volume of the previous week's average and around 5 million options were bought that day. 1.7m shares at 5c =$85,000 and 5mill options at 1.3c = $65,000. Less options traded the following day and the sp recovered a little (white arrow). The next day (blue arrow) saw volumes in the options jump back up to over 4mill. The option price gapped up and closed well up but the shares opened higher and were sold down to close on their low. The three days starting the 15th had very low volumes on the options (no noticeable volume on 2 of 3 of those days) and the sp gradually recovered over those 3 days. Volumes in the options have moderated since- perhaps as buyers got their fill and because of the relatively much higher option price.
Looking at the data, it seems that the sp weakness to below 5c might have been substantially caused by selling of the shares to fund buying the options over the first few days of listing. After that rotation eased, the sp recovered to just below 5.5c, which is where it was trading in prior weeks, before it rallied hard on the 22nd to over 6c. Interestingly, the volumes in the options remained low on that 22nd with less sellers remaining and those sellers asking higher prices.
MNB Price at posting:
6.1¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
