U.S. stocks closed lower on Wednesday (Aug 17), with indexes volatile after minutes from the Federal Reserve's meeting in July suggested policymakers may be less aggressive than previously thought when they raise interest rates in September.
Options Broad View
There is also noteworthy activity in the options market, where a total volume of 38,492,055 contracts was traded on Wednesday. Call options account for 59% of total options trades.
There are 7.15 million SPDR S&P500 ETF Trust options traded on Wednesday, up 25% from the previous day. Call options account for 42% in overall option trades, higher than the previous day.
Top 10 Option Volumes
Option traders pour into SPY and QQQ options before and after the Federal Reserve releases the minutes of its July 27 policy meeting. There are 2.78 million Invest QQQ Trust ETF option contracts traded on Wednesday, up nearly 27% from the previous day.
The VIX options also trigger investors' interest, with 602K contracts traded on Wednesday. The VIX now sits at 19.9, a relatively low level since mid-April.
It is worth noting that options activity among WSB stocks has shown an increase in consecutive days. Meme stocks include Bed Bath, AMC Entertainment, and FuboTV have fluctuated greatly in recent days.
Bed Bath & Beyond has risen more than 400% from a late-July low as retail investors embraced it. However, the company has fared less well on the fundamental side of things lately.
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. skidded as much as 18% in postmarket trading after Ryan Cohen files to unload stakes much as 7.78 million shares of Bed Bath & Beyond, along with some call options.
Shares of AMC Entertained tumble 13.9% on Wednesday, prompting a volume of 538.8K options contracts traded on Wednesday. Particularly high volume was seen for the $25 strike call option expiring this Friday, with 35,679 contracts trading on Wednesday. However, there are still 21,203 long positions unclosed as to Wednesday.
Unusual Options Activity
In addition to Meme stocks and the retail sector, options activity in SoFi Technologies also show an increase these days, with 266,059 contracts trading on Wednesday. Particularly high volume was seen for the $7.5 strike put option expiring August 19, with 20,649 contracts trading on Wednesday.
TOP Bullish & Bearish Single Stocks
Top 10 bullish stocks: BABA, SHOP, BBBY, META, SQ, PYPL, BBIG, NFLX, PINS, AAPL
Alibaba saw options trading volume of 330,649 contracts, call options account for 64%. Particularly high volume was seen for the $90 strike put option expiring this Friday, with 9, 050 contracts trading on Wednesday, representing approximately 905,000 underlying shares of BABA.
Top 10 bearish stocks: MANU, WBA, GOLD, CLVS, FUBO, AAL, AMC, SOFI, GNU, PLTR
Dow member Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc pauses a five-day win streak ahead of Thursday' ex-dividend date. The stock is down down 2.78% at $40.87 on Wednesday, after news that Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart (WMT) must pay a combined $650.6 million to two Ohio counties due to damage done by the opioid epidemic.
Note: The option trade volume was converted to delta volume in order to calculate the equivalent buy/sell side stock share imbalance volume.
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