Options activity suggests charmed run for Blackberry maker

The Blackberry Pearl is fitting like a Cinderella shoe for Research In Motion – and the tech ticker’s shares look poised for a run! RIM share prices have boomed recently on bumper earnings, takeover mutterings involving the likes of Microsoft , and most recently new line of colors and features for its Blackberry Pearl smart phone. Reports that rival Motorola is in cahoots with its recent acquisition target Good Technology to develop a mobile e-mail service to compete head-to-head with the Blackberry maker barely caused a ripple in RIM’s utterly charmed share-price trajectory today. This morning’s 3% gain in share prices to $85.58 has lent added cachet to its option series, with nearly 60,000 contracts play, but of note to us is the past week’s big build in open interest in the January ’08 calls. The 100-call strike has witnessed a more than threefold increase in open interest over the past five trading days, suggesting a huge upside move in RIM share prices after New Year. The 4,350 lots that traded here today were logged to the middle of the market at premiums around $6.10 – up more than 25% in price, thus implying a break above $106 for RIM shares by January’s expiry.