Options Check-Up: Bitauto Holdings, Ford Motor, and Plug Power Inc.

Among the stocks attracting attention from options traders lately are Beijing-based Internet issue Bitauto Hldg Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:BITA), American car giant Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F), and fuel cell specialist Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG). Below, we'll break down how option buyers are positioning themselves, and how much speculators are willing to pay for their bets on BITA, F, and PLUG.

• BITA has been a technical outperformer over the past 52 weeks, adding 84.8% to perch at $65. So far in 2015, however, the equity has shed about 7.7%, with BITA swallowing heavy losses this week after forming a triple top near the $95 level. Despite the recently negative price action, traders are favoring call options. Bitauto Hldg Ltd (ADR)'s 10-day International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) call/put volume ratio of 3.85 ranks just 10 percentage points away from an annual peak. Short-term options for the security are fairly inexpensive at the moment, as its Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 64% ranks in the 21st percentile of all similar readings taken in the past year.


• Shares of F have slipped, dropping 9.5% year-over-year to settle at $15.11, including a 2.5% year-to-date drop. Surprisingly, sentiment in the stock's options pits is bullish -- Ford Motor Company's 50-day ISE/CBOE/PHLX call/put volume ratio of 5.10 ranks in the 64th percentile of its annual range. If F continues to slide on the charts, an unraveling of this bullish mentality among speculators could cause the stock to fall even farther. Meanwhile, with the company's fourth-quarter earnings report coming up at the end of this month, short-term options on F have rarely been more expensive; the equity's 30-day at-the-money implied volatility of 30.3% arrives in the 96th annual percentile.


• PLUG has also been on the decline, losing nearly 28% year-over-year to fall to a meager $2.75, while underperforming the SPX by a whopping 38 percentage points over the last three months. Accordingly, sentiment in the options pits is overwhelmingly bearish -- the equity's 10-day ISE/CBOE/PHLX put/call volume ratio of 0.88 sits higher than 99% of all similar readings taken over the past year. Short-term options for Plug Power Inc are nearing bottom-of-the-barrel prices, as its SVI of 80% ranks in the 11th percentile of all similar readings taken over the past 52 weeks.