Schaeffer's Option Activity Alert: Bearish Bets Build a Foundation for KB Home

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Mon Mar 30, 2009 2:11pm EDT

CINCINNATI--(Business Wire)--
KB Home (NYSE: KBH) was targeted by pessimistic option players last Friday.
During the course of the session, traders on the International Securities
Exchange (ISE) bought to open 5,627 puts, compared to just 228 calls. The
equity's single-day put/call volume ratio of 24.68 revealed that bearish bets
were nearly 25 times more popular than their bullish counterparts. 

Friday's activity represented the continuation of a skeptically skewed trend for
the homebuilder. KBH has garnered a 10-day ISE put/call volume ratio of 3.01,
with investors purchasing pessimistic options at triple the rate of the
optimistic alternative. This ratio ranks higher than 80.6% of other such
readings taken during the past year, revealing that speculative traders are
displaying a greater-than-usual bearish bias. 

With traders snapping up put options at a faster pace than usual, KBH's
Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) has climbed steadily. The
stock's SOIR touched a 52-week low of 0.72 as recently as March 13, but it
arrived today at 1.61, in the 73rd annual percentile. In other words, short-term
option players have been more pessimistically aligned just 27% of the time
during the past year. 

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Schaeffer's Investment Research
Elizabeth Harrow, 513-589-3800
eharrow@sir-inc.com


Copyright Business Wire 2009

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