Intel’s shares closed at USD 92.13, down 0.72%.
Options activity in INTC showed a sharp contrast between a large premium-collection put sale and a long-dated volatility purchase, while overall order flow leaned bearish. The tape featured a $28.10 million net-credit double short put package and a $14.96 million net-debit long straddle-style CALL+PUT combination. Despite a visible call-side participation, put-heavy risk positioning and downside-oriented blocks dominated the session, leaving a clearly negative directional tone across the bulk-order footprint.
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Options Indicators
INTC’s implied volatility is 65.98%, while its IV percentile stands at 38.25%, which places current option pricing in a neutral historical range rather than an unusually expensive one. At the same time, the IV/HV ratio of 0.84 suggests implied volatility is running below realized volatility, indicating that options are not being priced aggressively relative to the stock’s recent actual movement and appear somewhat reasonable from a volatility-pricing perspective.
The Call/Put volume ratio is 1.44.
Large Trades
A net-credit same-direction put sale worth $28.10 million was the largest displayed trade, structured as a double short put combination expiring on August 21, 2026, with short 110.0 puts and short 105.0 puts. Using the preprocessed figure, the package brought in a net credit of $28.10 million, which points to a premium-collection strategy rather than an outright long-volatility bet. With INTC referenced at $92.13, both strikes are in the money, so this positioning carries meaningful downside assignment risk and reflects a neutral-to-bearish stance in the sense that the trader is willing to own or defend stock materially above the current price while monetizing elevated put premium and implicitly betting the shares stabilize rather than collapse further.
A $14.96 million net-debit CALL+PUT combination was the other highlighted block, consisting of a long 100.0 put and a long 100.0 call, both expiring on January 21, 2028. This is effectively a long straddle-style volatility bet centered on the 100 strike, entered for a net debit of $14.96 million. Relative to the $92.13 stock reference, the put is in the money while the call is out of the money, giving the position exposure to large moves in either direction with long-volatility characteristics. The strategic intent is not premium collection but paying upfront for convexity, suggesting the buyer expects a sizable future move and wants two-sided optionality over a long time horizon. Overall, bulk-order flow was bearish, with $15.72 million in bullish premium versus $54.65 million in bearish premium, a net bearish gap of $38.94 million. The conclusion is clearly negative in directional tone: despite a few bullish synthetic-long and call-buy structures, the tape was dominated by put-heavy activity and downside-oriented risk positioning, while even the largest premium-selling put structure still reflects a market comfortable harvesting downside-rich premium rather than expressing confident upside conviction.
Strategy Reference
For a lower assignment probability on the short-put side, sellers could consider an out-of-the-money strike such as the 85.0 put in a nearer-term expiration rather than the in-the-money 110.0 and 105.0 strikes highlighted in the large double short put sale.
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