Five Dollar Options. Hertz

The stock Hertz, the car rental company. First it's "year-to-date-chart" and a it's "three month chart". The three-month-chart looks slightly better. In the last couple of weeks it hasn't done very much. It did however have a big jump about six weeks ago.

What do I know about this company? Nothing much but the car rental business could be kind of slow because fewer tourists are visiting the U.S. and with all of the U.S. governments slashing of services fewer government employees are using car rentals services. That plus there was a big mix up a liitle while back where Hertz went all in on Tesla vehicles and ended up dumping them and taking a bath. Now this.

On a different note Carvana jumped $48.21 today. The used car market seems to soldier on with some people buying used rather than new because everything costs so much. Used car prices still remain high. So here is the deal. This stock could jump up but who knows when. Here is the five series of Hertz Calls which expires this Friday. These options don't buy you enough time.

They are also difficult to play because the spread on the bid and ask is always to far apart. It's always that way and the next week out options are also difficult to play for the same reason. The option makers have to hedge their bets and rightly so.

What do you think of the January 23th 2026 Calls with a five dollar striking price? There is next to no volume on them which is not really a good sign. Traders are always suspicious of stocks in the $5.00 five range until they catch some good news and start to move up.

When this stock jumps it does so quickly. It takes news to jump. Fresh news coming from a force that changes the game and sends the company off in a different direction. I hate to say this but talk of another company taking over it would send the stock price upwards. Just by chance Amazon is said to be partnering up with Hertz in this space. Is that news enough? Apparently not as indicated by the stocks current price. The verdict is still out as how well this new relationship will play itself out. It's a somewhat competive and somewhat regional industry to be in, however it's also one which is adapting to change. Not all players survive. Vroom shut down it's online car sales in 2024 and Shift filed for bankruptcy.

Hertz could jump to $5.50 by the end of the week. Looking further out in time beyond January the option premiums on Hertz still look to be somewhat reasonable. Here is an example of a six month out "five-series" of Call options on Hertz.

A daily volume today of 52 contracts might mean someone purchased a block of fifty of them. I think these options are interesting however there is one big caveat. If any kind of strenght comes into this sector of the market management might decide to seize the moment and pull out the carpet. They could announce a ten for one reverse stock split to attract more institutional buyers. Then at a new trading price of $50.00 per share there is always the risk of the stock falling back to a lower support price like in the $45.00 trading range. What a quandary to be in. Five years ago this stock traded north of $30.00. Doing a reverse stock split might breath some new life into this situation. Let's check back on this action in one month's time. ** On a different note, in the last 30 days here is a look at where the traffic to this website is coming from.

* A Tuesday suprise. A big suprise!