Saturday, April 27, 2024
There was quite a bit of unusual options action in the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) last week. Energy has been in the spotlight with the price of crude oil plunging in recent days. However, a large ratio call spread in XLE suggests that energy stocks may have more room to rise this year. […]
A massive options trade occurred last week in iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG). HYG is a massively popular high yield bond fund that also has a very active options chain. A put spread was recently sold on HYG with over 150,000 contracts per leg. This trade is likely meant to boost “yield” […]
Once you are able to determine where unusual options activity is occurring, the next step is looking at the time and sales list. This is the granular trade information, where you can sort the list and look at what the biggest trades have been, and what caused the underlying instrument to show up on your […]
When searching for and analyzing unusual options activity, it’s important to understand all the data being presented. Key variables include volume, relative volume, bearish versus bullish activity, and upcoming earnings/event dates. Having a grasp of these data points will help traders better grasp why unusual activity may be occurring.
Chinese stocks saw a significant amount of options activity last week when Chinese regulators appeared to ease up on some restrictive practices. Chinese internet giant Alibaba (BABA) was up 15% in a day, while trading over 1 million options. It looks like some of the biggest block trades were bullish call purchases in September and […]
Electric vehicle stocks haven’t been nearly as active as they were during the heart of the Covid crisis. However, Nikoka (NKLA) options traded over 200,000 contracts on a busy day last week, which is 4x the regular amount. In this case, it appears that a large institutional position was either rolled to July or closed […]
Several key retail stocks sold off sharply last week as inflation and supply chain issues took a toll on earnings. Target (TGT) was hit the hardest and dropped 25% in a day. Costco (COST) and Walmart (WMT) also saw their share prices decline. Options action was mixed on TGT, with some options traders potentially looking for a […]
With all the global uncertainty in the financial markets these days, gold has been a popular investment. One way to gain gold exposure is by using VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX). Gold miners are expected to thrive with gold trading around $1,900 per ounce. One trader sold a large block of puts last week in […]
Netflix (NFLX) missed earnings and was down 35% in just one day last week. That’s a massive amount for a stock that big to be down in a single day, and of course, it came with a huge amount of options action. NFLX options traded nearly 1.5 million contracts, which is over 12x the normal […]
Social media giant Twitter (TWTR) got a massive boost to the share price recently when the news came out that Elon Musk took a 9% stake in the company. He has since been named to the company’s board. Musk has a huge cult-like following, so many investors assume it will be bullish for the stock. […]
