Option Movers | Call Contracts Tied to VIX Surged on Monday

Tiger Newspress2022-08-23

Wall Street ended sharply lower on Monday (August 22). The S&P 500 lost 2.12%, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 2.52%. Investors fretted about a U.S. Federal Reserve gathering later this week in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, that is expected to reinforce a strong commitment by the central bank to stamp out inflation.

Options Broad View

A total volume of 34,291,441 contracts were traded on Monday, down 24% from the previous day. Call options account for 50% of total options trades.

There are 7.27 million SPDR S&P500 ETF Trust options traded on Monday. Call options account for 41% in overall option trades. Particularly high volume was seen for the $410 strike put option expiring August 24, with 84,515 contracts trading on Monday.

Top 10 Option Volumes

Top 10: SPY, QQQ, AAPL, IWM, AMZN, BBBY, TSLA, VIX, AMD, F

Options related equity indexes are still top choices for investors, with 2.53 million Invest QQQ Trust ETF options contracts trading on Monday.

Total trading volume for VIX options, however, rose sharply from the previous day. The Cboe Volatility Index soared 15.53% on Monday. Particularly high volume was seen for the $24 strike call option expiring August 24, with 2,163 contracts trading on Monday.

Source: Tiger Trade APP

Unusual Options Activity

Occidental Petroleum saw options trading volume of 309,174 contracts, call options account for 74%. Particularly high volume was seen for the $70 strike call option expiring August 26, with 50,292 contracts trading on Monday, representing approximately 5,029,200 underlying shares of OXY.

Options interest in meme stocks Bed Bath & Beyond remained high, with 793,712 contracts trading on Monday. Particularly high volume was seen for the $10 strike put option expiring August 26, with 31,847 contracts trading on Monday, representing approximately 3,184,700 underlying shares of BBBY.

Zoom also saw usual options activity. There are 184,451 volume contracts trading on Monday, call options account for 42%. Particularly high volume was seen for the $65 strike put option expiring this August 26, with 8,403 contracts trading on Monday.

Zoom shares dropped 8.3% after-hours following the company’s reported Q2 results and guidance cut. Q2 EPS came in at $1.05, better than the consensus estimate of $0.94. Revenue grew 8% year-over-year to $1.1 billion, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.12 billion.

Source: Market Chameleon

TOP Bullish & Bearish Single Stocks

This report shows stocks with the highest volume of bullish and bearish activity by option delta volume, which converts option volume to an equivalent stock volume (bought or sold).

If we take the total positive option delta volume and subtract the total negative option delta volume, we will get the net imbalance. If the net imbalance is positive there is more bullish pressure. If the net is negative there is more bearish pressure.

Top 10 bullish stocks: SPY, AMC, IWM, QQQ, HYG, VIXY, ARKK, NKLA, PINS, BAC

SPY had the highest bullish wagers, with traders getting long 5 M deltas on balance. IWM and QQQ also saw bullish option activities.

Source: Market Chameleon

Top 10 bearish stocks: AAPL, F, AMZN, UVXY, SPXU, MULN, EWZ, VRM, CLOV, IPOF

Caution appears to be setting in ahead of this week's key Fed symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, while hawkish commentary from a European Central Bank official is agitating monetary policy tightening concerns.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 2.55% on Monday. Apple, Amazon are among top 10 bearish stocks.

However, there is a call option sweep with bullish sentiment in AMZN stock. It expires in 25 days on September 16, 2022. Parties traded 45,000 contracts at a $95.0 strike. The total cost received by the writing party was $176.3 million.

Ford Motor shares slid roughly 5% Monday, following news of a $1.7 billion jury verdict involving a fatal rollover accident in one of its older-model heavy-duty trucks.

Disclaimer: Investing carries risk. This is not financial advice. The above content should not be regarded as an offer, recommendation, or solicitation on acquiring or disposing of any financial products, any associated discussions, comments, or posts by author or other users should not be considered as such either. It is solely for general information purpose only, which does not consider your own investment objectives, financial situations or needs. TTM assumes no responsibility or warranty for the accuracy and completeness of the information, investors should do their own research and may seek professional advice before investing.

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