800,000 shares @ $5.60/share * wirehouse commission $0.111/share = $89,000 gross commission.

Options: 8000 options, avg cost $0.75: $42,000 cost.

I’m not sure what it’d look like with Interactive Brokers or someone on that level, but if its an insider, a naive one at that, chances are they could very-well be with a wirehouse.

It was 800 THOUSAND shares, by the way. Not 800 MILLION. Last I looked COMS only has about 390m shares outstanding. $100m in commission on one trade would probably make a retail broker quite happy.

You simply wouldn’t find anyone who is going to write you $4.5m worth of premium in at the money COMS options. There is a limit to the absolute amount of money you can make with options which is limited by their liquidity. If you have lots of capital you need to make a return on, in a world free of ludic fallacies, it simply makes more sense to play the underlying stock.

I don’t necessarily disagree with your line(s) of reasoning, just saying you could apply the same Occam’s Razor type thinking to the alternative explanation, as well.

I would imagine whoever wrote the calls was buying stock against the position, which is, you know, fairly typical, I understand. But considering that even 1:1 hedging would only mean buying 800k common, and, again, 22m were traded, I really don’t get what you are trying to say. En-un-ci-ate, my dear Chet.

Not personally knowing the broker, as you evidently do, or even the institution and the counterparties involved, it would be difficult for me to get “the facts”. And I haven’t stated an opinion, merely posited an alternative, slightly more probable, explanation for something people have commented on. I hardly ever have any opinions, as my friends can attest.