Late Tuesday Blackstone made a $26bn bid for Hilton, trying to find the only thing that could potentially steal press from the KKR IPO. Shares of Hilton (NYSE: HLT) closed at $36.05 on Tuesday, and shot up over 26% to above $45 a share by this morning. Blackstone's bid is for $47.50 a share.
Unsurprisingly, there was rampant insider trading preceding the Hilton deal. The number of Hilton call options traded on Tuesday before the bid announcement exceeded the average daily trading volume by an ever-so-subtle 600%. The Hilton daily call option volume is usually around 2,900 but shot to 22,000, all before the deal was announced.
One fact that is sure to restore the confidence of the average investor is that not all of the inflated Hilton option volume was a result of insider trading. Some options were traded by following the lead of insider trading. From Dow Jones:
That's exactly what prompted Jon Najarian, a trader who tracks unusual activity for OptionMonster.com to buy call options on Hilton last week. He spotted a buyer of an unusually large amount of call options on June 27, he said, something that prompted him to alert his clients and add his own position in the calls.
Traders Bought Options Just Hours Before Hilton Deal News [Dow Jones via CNN Money]
Hilton Deal Bolsters Rivals as World Markets Climb [New York Times]
Posted by , Jul 05, 2007 12:12PM
sweet, sweet white collar crime. is there anything so american as still trying to follow in the footsteps of our european forebears with rampant insider trading, while paying taxes to our own govvie instead of the king?
that is a rhetorical question. of course there is not.
Posted by anon anon anon , Jul 05, 2007 12:45PM
Is it a crime to buy on insider information when you end up losing money?
Posted by jt , Jul 05, 2007 1:34PM
Yes, it is a crime of stupidity, and as the adage says, 'a fool and his money are soon parted'