Blackstone Draws Call Buyers

By Pete Najarian, co-founder of OptionMonster

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Blackstone(BX), one of the world's largest private-equity firms, hit a 52-week high for the third straight session Wednesday along with heavy upside options trading.

CEO Stephen Schwarzman said Wednesday that his industry has gotten past the worst of the recession, comments that may have encouraged the call buying that lit up OptionMonster's screens in large numbers. The trading was concentrated at the December 17 contracts, at which nearly 15,000 calls changed hands.

OptionMonster's real-time systems showed most of the calls trading in a strong buying pattern, with the largest blocks going for $1.45 and $1.55. The volume was far beyond the open interest of 1,161 contracts at the strike, which has averaged just 55 calls a day for the last month. ...