UnitedHealth shares are doing something unusual ahead of earnings

The only thing more expensive than health insurance is perhaps the costs of insuring shares of health insurers. Case in point: UnitedHealth Group, which reports earnings Tuesday. Implied volatility is running at twice realized volatility ahead of the October 13 quarterly earnings release. In other words, options prices - the cost of insuring the underlying stock - are expensive, which sets up well for short premium strategies. In the case of UnitedHealth shares, traders can sell November premium to cut the cost of a longer-dated January call by more than half. UnitedHealth heads into Tuesday's report with much of the damage from its prior missteps already priced in.