OPBL.OB - Its optionable!

[la-onda]

strong close, tomorrow will be fun IMHO 

[gman88]

This stock is going to make me a lot of money!!!

Look at the chart. It is about to blast off!

Optionable Announces Completion of Transaction for NYMEX Holdings to Purchase 19 Percent of Optionable Shares
Tuesday April 10, 5:41 pm ET

VALHALLA, N.Y., April 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Optionable, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: OPBL - News; "Optionable" or the "Company"), a leading provider of natural gas and other energy derivatives brokerage services, announced that pursuant to the binding term sheet announced on January 22, with three of its founding stockholders, have completed and signed definitive agreements with NYMEX Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NMX - News; "NYMEX"), pursuant to which NYMEX has acquired 19 percent of Optionable.

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In addition to the 19 percent stake in Optionable acquired by NYMEX from the founders, the Company has issued a warrant to NYMEX that would permit NYMEX to increase its stake in the Company to 40%. The warrant is exercisable for 18 months at an exercise price of $4.30 per share. The agreements also provide for certain marketing and technology initiatives between the Company and NYMEX.

Pursuant to the definitive agreements, NYMEX is entitled to nominate one Director to Optionable's Board. The Company has increased the size of its Board from four Directors to five and elected Benjamin Chesir, NYMEX vice president of new product development, as a Director.

Optionable CEO Kevin Cassidy said, "The completion of this transaction is a major strategic step for the Company, allying us closely with the world's largest exchange for the trading of energy futures and options contracts. I am convinced that our close relationship with NYMEX will be an important catalyst in helping drive and accelerate our future growth."

NYMEX Chairman Richard Schaeffer said, "The closing of this agreement marks an important milestone for NYMEX. We are looking forward to working with Optionable as a key contributor to our future expansion in options markets."

[cdrankwalter]

nice i may enter in the morning i agree i think this thing can test new highs very soon 9 - 10 , will pick up some shares in the am

[fous]

Optionable Inc is a small cap power play that with some very impressive growth and potential for a major role in the financial services industry. Optionable Inc is a provider of natural gas and other energy derivatives trading and brokerage services traded on the OTCBB exchange under the symbol OPBL.OB. We may look at OPBL and think it looks overvalued being that its trading at 59x's earning compared to the industries avg at 21.8. But considering its earnings growth rates there's a reason for OPBL's high earnings multiple. Currently OPBL's annual eps growth rate is at 392% compared to the industry average of 81% and the Qtr vs year ago qtr rate of 862% compared to the industries 110% which gives OPBL the right to trade at a higher multiple than that of its competitors. With future growth and release of the next couple earnings reports OPBL's high multiples will catch up with its valuation. OPBL also has a very attractive gross margin of 52% compared to the industries 22%.



Looking at OPBL's ratios compared to it competitors we can see that OPBL is an upcoming player with the potential to stake a major claim in the financial industry. Not only by looking at OPBL's growth story, but more importantly the New York Mercantile exchange has recently purchased a 19% stake in OPBL.OB. The New York Mercantile exchange is world's largest physical commodity exchange trading on the NYSE under the symbol : NMX. Having such a large player take a significant position in a small cap company like OPBL places a lot of bullish power in Optionable. For one, NMX sees a lot of potential in OPBL's business model and made a recent significant investment meaning they expect a lot of growth for OPBL in the future. We could also speculate that NMX may even eventually completely buy out Optionable in the future as its role on the NMX trading floor expands which would result in a large rally for Optionables share price. It is also likely that we will see OPBL making the move to a major exchange soon as its growth expands as well as considering it is now partially owned by an $11.74 billion company, that being the New York Mercantile Exhange.

Optionable also has some speculative PR's in the recent weeks highlighted below:

-Optionable Announces Acquisition of HQ Trading
Monday March 26, 9:39 am ET
CEO Comments
"Optionable CEO Kevin Cassidy said, "The HQ Trading team is extremely well- respected in the industry and this acquisition extends our client base as well as providing us a critical mass entry in the crude oil options market."
Peter Holmquist, owner of HQ Trading said, "We are excited to join forces with the Optionable organization and grow the crude oil brokerage segment of the business. Optionable leads other energy brokerage firms with its bold agility in delivering services, either through OPEX, the NYMEX floor, or voice-brokerage. Additionally, OPEX will propel Optionable as the market leader in technology-based commodity derivatives trading."

Optionable Announces Growth Initiatives
Thursday March 15, 4:05 pm ET
CEO Comments: Purchase's 2 membership seats on the NYMEX trading floor.

"The purchase of these trading rights is part of an overall strategy to expand our NYMEX floor operations as well as expand our product line both on the exchange and OTC," Cassidy said. "We believe this is a wise decision at this point because the cost savings over leasing the trading right will be substantial. Also, and very importantly, we will no longer be subject to increasing lease rate changes."
The Company also said that it has signed participation agreements with 30 new users for its OPEX® trading platform since the beginning of the year, all with blue-chip clients, and that requests for the use of the software are increasing. OTC-cleared trades that are executed are cleared through the award-winning NYMEX Clearport®."

OPBL's financial condition is also looking very attractive with total assets growing nearly 4x's over the last 4 reported quarters compared to total liabilities only doubling setting OPBL's current ratio at an attractive 3.4 compared to the industry average of 2.3. Generally when a companies assets are double that of their liabilities, in other words, there current ratio is 2.0 +, then company is considered to have short term financial strength and the ability to meet its short term obligations. On top of their short term financial strength OPBL carries no long term debt so fundamentally OPBL is looking very healthy and set for future growth in eps/share price.

Technical Analysis:

OPBL has made an astonishing run up as high as 1200% in a little over 6.5 months so this is a very momentous trend. Recently after price hit its all time high of 9.10 in late Feb. OPBL has retraced in a short term down trend to retest support near $5/share which is when I began looking for a position. Though judging by the chart and me being a technical analyst at heart, it appeared Optionable was in the works of a bearish head and shoulders pattern with a chart confirmation on a breakdown of $5/share, so I held off for entry until I received further confirmation of a bullish reversal.

After riding support for around a week on the 50ema and right shoulder of the bearish H&S pattern. On 4/05/07 we had a very bullish white marubozu candle stick breaking out of the descending bearish channel as well busting through short term horizontal resistance at 6.88. The breakout from this descending channel as well as breaching the highs of the right shoulder of the bearish head & shoulders pattern indicates a failure of the H & S pattern and a confirmation of a continuation of a bullish reversal. Today's candle stick is a bearish shooting star so it is expected that there could be some short term consolidation before any continuation of the bullish trend continues.



For profit targets, $9/share will be an attractive area as it will be a struggle to breakout as 9.10 is OPBL's all history high so I imagine there will be a battle near $9 with short term traders taking profits on the swing near this heavy resistance area. Though considering OPBL's growth prospects and NYMEX's stake in the company, prices above $9.10 in the near future are certainly not out of the question. Disclosure: I have a position in OPBL.OB at 6.85

Regards,
Cameron Fous

[thai626]

I joined the club.  I made the mistake of not buying at 6.60 so now I have to pay a little more.  It appears that it will be worth it though.  If it does drop to 6.60 or so, I may think about adding some more.  Good luck all!

[la-onda]

9EMa as support 

[Se7en]

Bought yesterday at 6.60$

This could be great news!


Optionable Announces Trading of NYMEX Light Sweet Crude Oil Options on OPEX(R)
Thursday April 12, 4:05 pm ET


VALHALLA, N.Y., April 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Optionable Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: OPBL - News), a leading provider of natural gas and other energy derivatives brokerage services, announced today that NYMEX Light Sweet Crude Oil Options will be available on Monday, April 16, 2007 on OPEX, the Company's electronic trading platform.


Optionable CEO Kevin Cassidy said, "Not only are we pleased to offer NYMEX Light Sweet Crude Oil Options to our clients, we are especially proud to be the first one to offer it electronically, on OPEX, our real-time electronic platform."

Optionable President Edward O'Connor said: "Crude oil is the world's most actively traded commodity, and the NYMEX Division light, sweet crude oil futures contract is the world's most liquid forum for crude oil trading, as well as the world's largest-volume futures contract trading on a physical commodity. We believe that the Light Sweet Crude Oil Options will answer the needs of energy market participants."

Light, sweet crude oil is preferred by refiners because of its low sulfur content and relatively high yields of high-value products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil, and jet fuel.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070412/lath076.html?.v=86

[la-onda]

out with 4% profit

fyi:
April 16, 2007 -- Commodity brokerage firm Optionable is on a tear with fast growth and a sizable investment from the Nymex, but a look behind the numbers reveals a history of extensive related party transactions and a key investor with a checkered legal background. Valhalla, N.Y.-based Optionable jumped into the spotlight recently when Nymex Chairman Richard Schaeffer took a 19 percent stake in the company and its revenues shot up by nearly 200 percent to $16 million from $5.8 million.

This has helped its stock more than double since the beginning of the year, to close Friday at $6.94.

But behind the commodity derivative brokerage's numbers is a significant reliance on related party transactions and on one major customer, which, when combined, account for almost 50 percent of the company's revenue.
Capital Energy Services, a floor brokerage jointly owned by Optionable President Ed O'Connor and Chief Executive Kevin Cassidy, accounted for 24.8 percent of the company's revenues last year.

The Bank of Montreal, according to Optionable's 10-K filing, accounted for another 24 percent of revenues.

The related party business proved to be more lucrative for Optionable, generating 77 percent gross margins, compared with 56 percent for transactions with nonrelated parties.
Sources told The Post that a single trader at BoM, commodity trader David Lee, was responsible for that business. Last year, BoM represented 18 percent of Optionable's revenue. A call to Lee was not returned.

O'Connor acknowledged the reliance on BoM and said it concerned him, but added, "a couple of other customers are becoming pretty key for us."

Hedge fund manager Mark Nordlicht founded Optionable in 2000, apparently with the backing of his father Jules, a veteran commodities trader, who now holds about 2.19 million shares.

The elder Nordlicht is also well-known as one of the principals of an 1978 illegal oil-trading trading ring federal prosecutors alleged sheltered $27 million in profits through manipulation of the oil futures market.

Nordlicht pleaded guilty to orchestrating sham trades, paid a $10,000 fine and was ordered to perform two years of community service.
Optionable's O'Connor said of Nordlicht: "He's a passive investor."
To generate more business, O'Connor said that Optionable is pondering handing out "incentives" - in the form of warrants to purchase the stock - to generate additional order flow for its electronic trading business.
As of February, according to its 10-K filing, the electronic trading part of its business amounted to 17 percent of over-the-counter revenues.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04162007/business/its_all_in_the_family_business_roddy_boyd.htm

[gman88]

The article you are referring to was a lie. The NY Post removed it yesterday. Click on the link, to confirm it has been removed.

[422fwhp]

May take my small profit as well....radar'd....fell below the 9sma

[REALDEALS21]

Up almost 9% today ! 

[thai626]

The key is to breakout above 7 IMO.  Then we're going to rock and roll to nine.  This looks like it has great potential.

[gman88]

For the first time in a 2 weeks OPBL has found buyers. People want to get long ahead of next weeks earnings (AMC on Tuesday, May 1 ).

[amstocks82]

The Friday sell-off of OPBL.ob was large and appears to have happened due to the large losses at the Bank Of Montreal (BOM) which lost $404 million in natural gas trading.

http://www.antandsons.com/2007/04/panic-selling-hits-optionable-buying.html

Then this article provides much the same information:
"According to Optionable's 10-K filing, BMO accounted for 24 percent of its revenues last year. Investors took note of this, and sent Optionable's stock down $1.45, or almost 21 percent, to $5.56 yesterday. "

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04282007/business/banks_400m_loss_on_gas_bets_singes_n_y__firm_business_roddy_boyd.htm

So it looks like what happened is that the BMO was trading out of the money options for natural gas and there was not as much volatility in the price of natural gas as they had expected. This caused them big problems with the value of the options as they would obviously decline as the volatility decreased.

The bank closed out many of their options positions and plan to "scale back" options trading to a more sustainable level.

What does this mean for OPBL?

Well, it is possible that the BMO will stop using OPBL and that will mean a large hit to earnings. To be fair, although 24% of OPBL's revenue was through BMO last year, this is likely less than half that now. OPBL's business has been growing rapidly and most likely others will soon replace the business lost from BMO.

In the interim, it looks a little rocky for OPBL. Will the sell off continue Monday or will investors believe the drop was already too large?

[la-onda]

In my calculation it is more than 24 %.
just be careful...