Unusual Options Activity

Trader bets on 80 percent rally in shares this year. January 2021 calls with a $270 strike price on Spotify Technology (SPOT) saw a five-fold increase in volume, going from 157 open contracts to over 825. The bet, expiring in 358 days, would call for an 80 percent rally in shares from the current price around $148. The trader paid about $1.05, or $105 per contract, so any rally in Spotify shares this year would likely lead to outsized returns on this trade. Shares ...
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Trader bets space tourism company’s shares will go to the moon this year. January 2021 calls with a $25 strike on Virgin Galactic Holdings (SPEC) saw a 12-fold rise in volume, going from 295 contracts to over 10,300. The bet, expiring in 358 days, is that shares will hit at least $28.25, adjusting for the $3.25 that the option buyer paid in premiums. The $25 strike price is currently about 35 percent higher than where shares currently trade near $18.50. For the buyer ...
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Trader bets on current rally to continue. The May 2020 $70 call options on Las Vegas Sands (LVS) saw a 12-fold rise in volume, going from 812 open contracts to over 10,200. The bet, expiring in 114 days, is that shares will continue higher. And with LVS shares at $71 right now, the trade is already $1 in-the-money. The buyer paid about $4.65, or $465 per contract, so shares would need to be close to $75 to profit at expiration. Shares of the casino ...
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Traders bet on drop this week. $50.50 put options expiring on Friday, January 24th, on Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) saw a 43-fold rise in volume, going from 102 open contracts to over 4,350 trade hands. The bet is that shares will fall about 1 percent from their price near $50.95 in the next four trading days. The option buyer paid $0.73 on average per contract, so shares would need to decline under $49.75 for the buyer to profit at expiration. Shares of Advanced Micro ...
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Traders bet on rally to continue. The February 14th $28 call options on Nike (NKE) saw a 14-fold rise in volume, going from 104 open contracts to nearly 1,500. With 25 days to go until expiration, the buyer of these options is betting on a 3.5 percent move higher in shares from the current price around $104.30. The option buyer also paid $0.45 to get into the trade, so the trade won’t profit at expiration unless shares hit at least $108.45 or higher. Shares ...
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Traders bet on relief rally after earnings miss. Shares of Wells Fargo (WFC) took a hit after reporting earnings earlier this week, and at least one trader is betting that some of that recent loss will be unwound in the coming days. That’s based on the 20-fold rise in volume on the February 7th, 2020 $49 calls on the company. With 21 days until expiration, and shares right around $49, these options are at-the-money, and could start moving higher dollar-for-dollar with a recovery ...
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Traders bet on recovery from yesterday’s drop. Yesterday, shares of retailer Target (TGT) slid about 7 percent as the company announced poor holiday sales. But at least one trader sees the drop as temporary. That trader started to buy the January 31st $120 calls, expiring in just 15 days, creating a seven-fold rise in volume on the options. Paying about $1.05 per contract, that trader will need to see shares recover to just over $121 from around $117, or move higher by about ...
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Traders bet on continued rally this month. The January 31st $95 call options on Best Buy (BBY) saw a 16-fold rise in volume, going from 174 open contracts to seeing over 2,800 contracts trade. The bet, expiring in 16 days, is that shares will rise another $4 from their price near $91, or another 4.3 percent. The call buyers paid $0.41, or $41 per contract, so shares would need to trade closer to $95.50 by the end of the month for the buyers ...
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