Recent weeks have seen massively bullish options activity in oil and gas refiners. Tesaro Corporation (TSO), Valero Energy Corporation (VLO), and Phillips 66 (PSX) have seen the most option activity with traders placing large bets on further upside in all 3 companies. On Wednesday a trader bought 11,750 TSO Feb 55 Calls for $1.31 and bought 7,340 Nov 49 calls for $1.12. These are both very bullish orders that indicate there could be more upside in TSO. Shares of TSO are higher this week by 6.51%. VLO has also seen aggressive call buys in recent weeks. On October 10th a trader bought 14,251 VLO Dec 39 calls for $0.38. The position was then added to when on October 16th a trader bought 14,298 more VLO Dec 39 calls for $1.00. Shares of VLO have rallied over 5% this week on the back of this bullish options activity. We saw even more activity in refiners yesterday when a trader bought nearly 20,000 PSX Jan 72.5 calls for $0.55. PSX stock was trading at $61.78 at the time of the trade so it is clear that this trader has an aggressive target. Shares of PSX are higher on the week by 4.72%. Options activity continues to suggest further upside in all of these names and reveal that institutional money is very bullish refiners through the end of the year.
