Unusual Options Activity

The energy sector continues to slide lower, and traders are betting that the trend will continue. A number of bearish trades have been made against Occidental Petroleum (OXY). The most active was the October 30th $10 put. Expiring in just 35 days, shares would need to fall about 3 percent from their current price of $10.30 to move in-the-money. Over 2,153 options traded against an open interest of 111, for a 19-fold rise in volume. The buyer paid about $0.82 per contract, ...
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The November 2020 $27 calls on Snap Inc. (SNAP) saw an 88-fold jump in volume, with over 28,560 contracts trade hands from an open interest of 321. The option, expiring in 57 days, is a bet that shares will rally just under 10 percent from their current price near $25.75. The option buyer paid about $2.29 for the option, so shares would need to trade as high as $29.30 to profit come expiration, a much bigger hurdle. Shares of the social media ...
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The October $132 call options on The Walt Disney Company (DIS) saw a massive surge in trade. Over 8,800 contracts traded hands on Tuesday. Compared to the open interest of 155 contracts, the activity represented a 57-fold rise in volume. With shares around $126, the stock would need to rise just under 5 percent in the next 23 days for the option to close in-the-money. The buyer of the options paid around $1.47, so shares would need to rise closer to $133.50 ...
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The March 2021 $80 call options on Wynn Resorts (WYNN) saw a huge 51-fold surge in volume, with over 10,100 contracts trading hands on Monday against an open interest of just under 200 contracts. The bet, expiring in about six months, would close in-the-money if shares rallied about 10 percent from the current price near $72. The trader buying the contracts paid about $10, or $1,000 per contract. In order to make money at expiration, shares would need to surge up to $90, ...
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The November $21 put options on Snapchat (SNAP) saw a massive 165-fold surge in volume, with over 30,200 contracts trading hands on Friday. The bet, expiring in 60 days, is nearly 10 percent out-of-the-money, given the recent share price of $23.82 on Friday. The trader buying the contracts paid about $1.25 per contract. For the option to profit at expiration, shares would need to slide under $20 between now and November. Shares of the social media company are up nearly 40 percent in ...
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NIO Inc (NYSE: NIO) is a Chinese company that manufactures electric vehicles that are sold in the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. The company was recently upgraded by Goldman Sachs from neutral to buy and began to really take off after Nikola Corporation (NASDAQ: NKLA) began trading on June 4. The company also announced record deliveries in May on June 4, 2020. As the positive news piles up, so has the option ...
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Trader makes in-the-money bet on recovery. The April $75 calls on Qualcomm (QCOM) saw a 17-fold rise in volume, going from 253 open contracts to having over 4,350 trade hands. The bet, expiring in 46 days, is already about $2.30 in the money given the recent share price of $77.30. The trader buying the shares paid about $5.90 per contract. For the option to profit at expiration, shares would need to be back over $81. Even with the recent market rout, shares of Qualcomm ...
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Trader bets on move higher through April. $35 call options with an April expiration on Micron Technology (MU) recently saw a 40-fold rise in volume. The option went from 101 open contracts to over 3,900. The bet, expiring in 49 days is unusual in that this trade made a deep in-the-money bet. With shares around $54, the option is about $19 in-the-money, and should move dollar-for-dollar with shares. The trader also paid about $19 to get into the trade, so there’s nearly no ...
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