Medikated
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General Motors announces new joint venture with ... Segway?
Posted Apr 7th 2009 12:50PM by Elizabeth Harrow
Filed under: General Motors (GM), Options, DJIA
Picture this: You're General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), and you've fallen on tough times. You've been forced to seek alms from the U.S. government simply to make ends meet. Recently, the Obama administration gave a resounding thumbs-down to your viability plan, and a bankruptcy filing seems increasingly likely. So, how do you try to prove you're still a thriving, relevant corporation? Partner with Segway!
That's right -- in a move that's sure to leave even Steve Wozniak scratching his head, General Motors is teaming up with Segway, Inc., purveyors of the commercially unsuccessful two-wheeled scooter, to create the PUMA (shorthand for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility). A prototype of the battery-powered vehicle will hit the streets of Manhattan today, though the PUMA likely won't make its way to the consumer market until 2012.
Although the Segway Personal Transporter quickly proved its irrelevance by being costly, sluggish, and irksome to motorists and pedestrians alike, GM believes that the PUMA's car-like enclosed compartment and greater maximum speed of 35 miles per hour will enhance its appeal. Judging by the prototype, GM is seeking to combine the aesthetics of the Smart car with the relative uselessness of the Segway.
The shares of GM are already trading rather low on the charts -- just fractionally above $2 per share at last check -- but option players are beginning to snap up puts at a faster pace than calls. During the past 10 days, traders on the International Securities Exchange (ISE) have bought to open 1.17 puts for every call on GM.
Peak put open interest in the April series rests at the deep in-the-money 5 strike, with 51,458 open positions. However, some bearish players are placing their bets even further south -- GM's relatively new April 1 strike has 33,509 put contracts in residence. Shares of the automaker haven't broken the buck just yet, with the stock's annual low standing at $1.27, but it seems that speculative investors aren't ruling out this possibility during the short term.
Elizabeth Harrow is an analyst and financial writer in the research department at Schaeffer's Investment Research. She is featured in the video series Schaeffer's Daily Q&A on SchaeffersResearch.com.
Posted Apr 7th 2009 12:50PM by Elizabeth Harrow
Filed under: General Motors (GM), Options, DJIA
Picture this: You're General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), and you've fallen on tough times. You've been forced to seek alms from the U.S. government simply to make ends meet. Recently, the Obama administration gave a resounding thumbs-down to your viability plan, and a bankruptcy filing seems increasingly likely. So, how do you try to prove you're still a thriving, relevant corporation? Partner with Segway!
That's right -- in a move that's sure to leave even Steve Wozniak scratching his head, General Motors is teaming up with Segway, Inc., purveyors of the commercially unsuccessful two-wheeled scooter, to create the PUMA (shorthand for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility). A prototype of the battery-powered vehicle will hit the streets of Manhattan today, though the PUMA likely won't make its way to the consumer market until 2012.
Although the Segway Personal Transporter quickly proved its irrelevance by being costly, sluggish, and irksome to motorists and pedestrians alike, GM believes that the PUMA's car-like enclosed compartment and greater maximum speed of 35 miles per hour will enhance its appeal. Judging by the prototype, GM is seeking to combine the aesthetics of the Smart car with the relative uselessness of the Segway.
The shares of GM are already trading rather low on the charts -- just fractionally above $2 per share at last check -- but option players are beginning to snap up puts at a faster pace than calls. During the past 10 days, traders on the International Securities Exchange (ISE) have bought to open 1.17 puts for every call on GM.
Peak put open interest in the April series rests at the deep in-the-money 5 strike, with 51,458 open positions. However, some bearish players are placing their bets even further south -- GM's relatively new April 1 strike has 33,509 put contracts in residence. Shares of the automaker haven't broken the buck just yet, with the stock's annual low standing at $1.27, but it seems that speculative investors aren't ruling out this possibility during the short term.
Elizabeth Harrow is an analyst and financial writer in the research department at Schaeffer's Investment Research. She is featured in the video series Schaeffer's Daily Q&A on SchaeffersResearch.com.
