Mysterious retail whale bets over $100 million on continued Nvidia upside
On Thursday, $Nvidia (NVDA)$ call options saw an explosion in opening activity, with 16 different strikes seeing over 10,000 contracts traded.Two key expirations stood out:The largest trade was a 41,000 contract opening buy in the December 20th $110 calls, likely an add-on to the "Million Dollar Man's" existing position.A massive purchase across the March 21, 2025 upside strike chain, focusing on far out-of-the-money calls.Let's analyze whether these enormous trades signal continued bullishness on Nvidia.$NVDA 20241220 110.0 CALL$ Regular readers will be familiar with the "Million Dollar Man" who rolled his calls up to the December $120/$110 call spread back on August 30th, open
Who are the whales buying massive Nvidia call options?
One of the most jaw-dropping option flows on $Nvidia (NVDA)$ this year.After scanning the options activity, I almost choked on my water. An unknown trader went on an outright buying spree of Nvidia calls expiring March 21, 2025, across strikes ranging from $181 ($NVDA 20250321 181.0 CALL$ ) all the way up to $189 ($NVDA 20250321 189.0 CALL$ ). Single-leg buys, with trade values starting from millions per strike.The volume data suggests even larger trade sizes, with at least 10,000 contracts purchased per strike. The total size is questionable as it doesn't seem to reconcile with real-time trading data. We'll n
The large $40 call position in the 3x leveraged Direxion China Bull ETF ($YINN 20260116 40.0 CALL$ ) that we discussed on October 3rd was closed out yesterday.While 2026 expiries don't necessarily require such urgency to exit, this trader made two crucial mistakes compared to other large option players, leaving them with little choice but to close:Failure to take profits by rolling the position.The inherent deleveraging risk in 3x leveraged ETFs.We've repeatedly stressed the importance of rolling one-sided directional bets to lock in profits and re-load for further upside. Institutions will often roll profitable call positions to higher strikes, preserving capital while redeploying profits to stay exposed. This removes an
$Nvidia (NVDA)$Institutions took some pain in rolling their covered call position higher, likely re-evaluating last week's strikes after the unexpected rally:Bought $NVDA 20241018 145.0 CALL$ Sold $NVDA 20241018 138.0 CALL$ This widens the strike range, setting next week's upside target around $140. Can consider selling calls around those levels for next week.I actually hope institutions keep being this aggressive with their rolls - it would allow Nvidia to keep rallying week after week.What caught my eye was a large at-the-money put buying flow in $STMicroelectronics (STM
Bulls and bears will fiercely battle it out in Chinese stocks this week.
As usual, will look to do call/put sell spreads - for Nvidia: Sell $NVDA 20241011 115.0 PUT$ + Sell $NVDA 20241011 130.0 CALL$ . For Tesla: Sell $TSLA 20241011 220.0 PUT$ + Sell $TSLA 20241011 270.0 CALL$ .Last Friday's strong non-farm payrolls suggests the economy remains solid, supporting further upside in equities.While Nvidia is showing signs of breaking above $130, and $131 is very viable, I expect a pullback before Friday.The relentless stock strength is also boosted by institutions aggressively selling cover
Chinese Stocks:In less than two weeks, Chinese stocks have reached targets that typically take 2 months, leaving observers in awe. More importantly, this may become the new norm going forward, similar to Tesla's move in June. Widespread mobile usage and efficient fund transfers have enabled capital to be deployed at unprecedented speeds. Experts will likely author books coining terms for this phenomenon.Currently, the ETF flows hold limited reference value. For KWEB, it's mostly outright call buyers taking profits and rolling, redeploying a portion of gains without hesitation. For FXI, many are covered stock holders, but notably, some major flows sold far-dated at-the-money calls like $FXI 20241220 33.0 CALL$ , suggesting
$Nvidia (NVDA)$Based on the call option flows, the price action next week could resemble last week's, especially considering Friday's non-farm payrolls may disappoint expectations. So the $110-$130 range still looks viable.Last week, institutions rolled their covered call spread position higher:Sold $NVDA 20241004 123.0 CALL$ Bought $NVDA 20241004 128.0 CALL$ For Tesla, they mentioned the delivery report could impress, so covered call sellers may want to wait until after those numbers.For FXI, there are still no notable bearish flows. The focus remains on covered stock strategies like selling calls or buying p
Despite the upcoming non-farm payrolls data next Friday, the price action suggests the National Day rally shouldn't face major hurdles, so feel free to enjoy the holidays.$Nvidia (NVDA)$Next week's trading range is expected to be $110-$130.Institutions sold covered calls at the $130 strike: $NVDA 20241004 130.0 CALL$ In line with this range, I sold $110 puts and $130 calls.$Tesla (TSLA)$The source of conviction for a National Day rally. Let me first apologize to the Goldman analyst I wrongly criticized earlier - Tesla's price action next week could unexpectedly impress.For their covered call roll, institutions selected an aggressive $27
It seems this year's trend is to move in one big swing, just like Tesla, and now Chinese stocks as well.$KraneShares China Internet ETF (KWEB)$Those trading the major KWEB flows on Wednesday likely didn't expect them to be realized the very next day.The two main KWEB flows were an outright call buy and a short straddle.The call buy was in the $KWEB 20241101 33.0 CALL$ . They just closed it out and rolled to the $KWEB 20241018 36.0 CALL$ .We've discussed before that institutions tend to take profits on outright bullish options by rolling to higher strikes for calls, or lower strikes for puts.This allows them to 1