All good things must come to an end. In the case of my ownership of General Growth Properties stock (GGP was its ticker before bankruptcy filing), the end is near. Why? Anyone following GGP will already know this, but just in case you don't, the price per share moved from $4 to $7 in a matter of a couple weeks. This move, and the reasons for it, mean it is now time to part ways with a very good stock pick (originally bought in April at $0.63 / share).

Three good things happened for GGP in the past two weeks:

Direxion Daily Real Estate Bear 3X (ETF) (NYSE: DRV) leads the ETFs with the biggest decline of the day. DRV dropped 5.27% today as Real Estate sector had a good trading session today.

ELEMENTS Benjamin Graham Small Cap Value ETN (NYSE: BSC) is down 5.06% after yesterday's surge of around 5%. BSC closed at $10.53.

Ultra MSCI Japan ProShares (NYSE: EZJ) is down 3.96% as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (ADR) (NYSE: MTU), Toyota Motors (NYSE: TM) and Honda (NYSE: HMC) closed in the red zone. Mitsubishi (MTU) is 2.19% down, while Toyota (TM) dropped 1.15% and Honda (HM) lost 1.5%.

ProShares UltraShort Real Estate (ETF) (NYSE: SRS) is down 3.42% as Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE: SPG) surged 4.71%. Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE: VNO) is another member of the Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index that gained today. VNO jumped 2.41%. SRS corresponds to twice the opposite of the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index.

Today’s tickers: SLV, EWT, CL, BG, ILMN, COH, TMO, SPG, BG, ADSK & SLM

SLV - iShares Silver Trust ETF – A bull call spread in the January 2011 contract on the silver ETF today suggests shares of the SLV may rally significantly over the next year and two months time. Shares of the SLV are currently up 0.5% to $18.23. The silver-bull purchased a ratio call spread by buying 3,000 calls at the January 23 strike for an average premium of 1.93 apiece, and selling 6,000 calls at the higher January 30 strike for about 90 cents each. The net cost of the transaction is reduced to just 13 cents per contract. Shares of the fund must rally at least 27% before the investor breaks even at a price of $23.13. The trader stands ready to accumulate maximum potential profits of 6.87 per contract if the stock surges up to $30.00 by January 2011.

EWT - iShares MSCI Taiwan Index ETF – A massive bearish play on the Taiwan Index exchange-traded fund caught our attention this afternoon with shares of the EWT down 0.5% to $12.64 in late-day trading. It appears one investor established a bearish risk reversal in the December contract to position for potential share price declines through expiration. The trader sold 31,000 calls at the December 13 strike for 20 cents premium apiece, spread against the purchase of 31,000 puts at the lower December 12 strike for 20 cents each. The sale of the calls exactly offset the cost of buying the puts. Essentially the reversal is a “free” bet that shares of the EWT will trend lower ahead of the 2010. The investor responsible for the transaction is likely long shares of the underlying fund and seeking protection to the downside. If shares fall beneath $12.00, the value of the underlying position is protected. However, if shares of the fund rally by expiration, the trader risks having shares of the stock called from him at $13.00 apiece.

CL - Colgate-Palmolive Co. – Speculation that Reckitt Benckiser Group may acquire Colgate-Palmolive spurred an all-out call option feeding frenzy on CL today and lifted shares of the U.S. company to a new 52-week high of $86.33. Investors flooded the November and December contracts, scooping up call options to position for further upward movement in the price of the underlying. The sudden surge in demand for Colgate-Palmolive options in the midst of takeover chatter boosted…

Bunge Ltd. (BG) – Option traders were fast to predict continuing gains in global agri-producer, Bunge Ltd., as they aggressively bought call options aimed at harnessing further gains in its shares. With shares trading a little above $60 this morning, sharp-shooters forced call premiums at the November 60 strike upwards starting at 70 cents up to 1.25 as around 3,000 calls were exchanged within a matter of minutes. After a brief dip back down during the course of the morning Bunge’s share price attracted more attention and jumped to $62.64 for a 5.8% gain on the day. Those November calls rocketed to a premium of 2.70 per contract offering huge immediate gains to early-bird buyers. By noon more than 4,500 contracts have changed hands. The same picture was evident at the December 65 strike call where 5,500 calls have traded. About 2,000 contracts were purchased for as little as between 70cents and 1.00 before 10am and have since more than doubled to 1.95. The call activity caught the market napping and created a 15% jump in implied volatility driving premiums higher still.

Illumina Inc. (ILMN) – Shares in the company that develops the toolkit for genomic researchers slipped 7% Wednesday to $29.05 on a day when EraGen announced a strategic partnership with Illumina to access its molecular tools technology. Option activity of 21,000 lots was above normal at 14-times the typical average volume. In the short-term investors appeared to sell call options at the 30 strike expiring in December in favor of bearish puts at the 25 strike. That would indicate whatever the catalyst for today’s drop in its shares (we don’t think the alliance with EraGen ought to send them into reverse gear) is likely to remain a negative factor through year end. Last month Illumina not only disappointed at earnings but also revised its forecast down. Thereafter, however, investors appeared to expect better things from the company. More than 5,500 call options were eagerly sought as the share price shrank, with investors paying up to 1.90 per contract to lock into fixed buying rights on shares ahead of January expiration implying a 10% recovery from present. The activity caused option implied volatility to rise about 20% to 49% today.

Shares of Real Estate Investment Trusts have rallied almost 90 percent since the market bottomed in March, but the jury is out on whether this recovery is warranted given the difficulties facing commercial real estate. To gain some clarity on this issue, we talked to Paul Curbo, portfolio manager for AIM Real Estate (IARAX), AIM Select Real Estate Income (ASRAX) and AIM Global Real Estate (AGREX).

What are the catalysts behind the rally in REIT shares?