Option Movers｜IWM's $190 Call in Focus; Marathon Digital Had 72% Call Options

Market Overview

U.S. stocks ended lower on Monday(Dec 4), interrupting last week's rally, as investors turned cautious ahead of employment data due this week that could alter expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates early next year.

Regarding the options market, a total volume of 39,523,072 contracts was traded, down 15% from the previous trading day.

Top 10 Option Volumes

Top 10: SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, Invesco QQQ Trust-ETF, iShares Russell 2000 ETF, Tesla Motors, NVIDIA Corp, Apple ; Amazon.com; Uber ; Microsoft

Source: Tiger Trade App

Small-cap stocks rose on Monday, with the Russell 2000 rallying about 1% and bringing its gain this year to almost 7%.

There are 1.75M Russell 2000 option contracts traded on Monday. Call options account for 55% of overall option trades. Particularly high volume was seen for the $190 strike call option expiring Jan 19, 2024 with 60,660 contracts trading.

Unusual Options Activity​​

Source: Market Chameleon

Shares of cryptocurrency firms such as Coinbase Global (COIN.O), Riot Platforms (RIOT.O) and Marathon Digital (MARA.O) rallied between 5% and 9% after bitcoin crossed $40,000 for the first time this year.

A total number of 462,265 options related to Marathon Digital was traded on Monday, of which call options account for 72%. A particularly high trading volume was seen for the $15 strike call options expiring Dec 8, with a total number of 31,707 option contracts trading on Monday.$MARA 20231208 15.0 CALL$ 

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: AMD, FCX, CMCSA, DVN, NKE, INTC, CVS, PARA, USB, COF

Top 10 bearish stocks: MSFT, KVUE, BBWI, WBD, NVDA, AAPL, AMZN, BAC, TFC, C

Based on option delta volume, traders sold a net equivalent of -1,507,358 shares of Microsoft stock. The largest bearish delta came from selling calls. The largest delta volume came from the 08-Dec-23 370 Call, with traders getting short 383,115 deltas on the single option contract.$MSFT 20231208 370.0 CALL$ 

Source: Market Chameleon

If you are interested in options and you want to:

• Share experiences and ideas on options trading.

• Read options-related market updates/insights.

• Learn more about options trading if you are a beginner in this field.

Please click to join Tiger Options Club