Normally, traders work for an hour or more after the exchange's closing to process transactions, but activity had stopped dead.

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While it would take additional data to confirm, I suspect (based on technicals that I will get to in a moment) that this activity represents options traders closing out front-month February calls in favor of back-month March calls.

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Traders had shorted more than 103 million shares of Bank of America (nyse: BAC - news - people ) as of mid-December, indicating a frenzy of arbitrage activity prior to the closing of the bank's acquisition of MBNA (nyse: KRB - news - people ).

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Traders had shorted more than 103 million shares of Bank of America as of mid-December, indicating a frenzy of arbitrage activity prior to the closing of the bank's acquisition of MBNA. Based on the number of shares shorted and Bank of America's average daily trading volume, it would take more than nine days to close out all those positions.

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George Ferguson said the idea was not about "closing roads but opening them to people" and said he hoped to see "entrepreneurial activity".

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