To The Moon

U.S. stocks closed sharply lower Thursday, led by banks and technology stocks. Bank stocks plunged across the board, with the Philadelphia Bank Index dropping 7.7%, its worst one-day decline since June 2020 and its lowest since late October 2022.

The Silicon Valley bank mine explosion has raised huge concerns about the U.S. financial sector. Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo and jpmorgan Chase turned negative in options trading, making it into the bear's top 10.

Today, investors looked ahead to the US non-farm payrolls report due later in the day to predict the Fed's likely path of interest rate hikes.

Indicator description:

This indicator tells you if there is more bullish or bearish net option volume on the day. If we take the total bullish trades and subtract total bearish trades, we can see if there is more bullish or bearish volume on balance.

Respectively, if there are more traders betting the stock price will rise, it will result in a positive option delta volume.

The figure below shows you a breakdown of the delta volumes based on the trade type (bought calls, sold calls, bought vertical spreads, sold vertical spreads, etc.).

And a list of the top 10 option contracts by options delta volume. It helps you quickly find which expirations and strikes traders are targeting. And you can easily see if traders are focusing mostly on calls, puts or even rotating into or out of one option to another.

Top Three Bullish：

1. $Alphabet(GOOG)$

Google closed at 92.66%, down 2.1% on the day.Based on optiondelta volume, traders bought a net equivalent of 456,510 shares of stock. The largest bullish delta came from buying calls.Tech stocks tumbled on the Silicon Valley Bank fallout, but traders were positive about Google's 10-day outlook.The largestdelta volumecame from the 10-Mar-23 95 Call $GOOG%2020230310%2095.0%20CALL$ $GOOG 20230310 95.0 CALL$ , with traders getting short 212,925 deltas on the single option contract. 

2. $T-Mobile US(TMUS)$

T-Mobile, the wireless technology services company, fell above its 200-day moving average. Based on optiondelta volume, traders bought a net equivalent of 146,181 shares of stock. The largest bullish delta came from buying vertical calls. Daily volume for large institutions exceeded the 30-day average. But based on the delta mean distribution, the outlook for the next 30 days is not good.The largestdelta volumecame from the 21-Jun-24 115-160 Call, $TMUS%2020240621%20115.0%20CALL$ $TMUS 20240621 115.0 CALL$  $TMUS%2020240621%20160.0%20CALL$ $TMUS 20240621 160.0 CALL$ 

with traders getting long 173,090 deltas on the vertical spread.

3. $FedEx(FDX)$

Fedex, which has been above its 30-day moving average for five months, paid a $1.15 dividend on March 10. Based on optiondelta volume, traders bought a net equivalent of 143,385 shares of stock. The largest bullish delta came from buying calls. Daily volume for large institutions exceeded the 30-day average.The largestdelta volumecame from the 10-Mar-23 205 Call $FDX%2020230310%20205.0%20CALL$ $FDX 20230310 205.0 CALL$ , with traders getting long 120,123 deltas on the single option contract.

Top Three Bearish：

1. $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$

Tesla fell 4.99 percent Thursday, falling below its 100-day moving average, due to a surge in bank stocks. Based on optiondelta volume, traders sold a net equivalent of -2,798,080 shares of stock. The largest bearish delta came from selling calls. Sell put options saw the second most active volume. Both bulls and bears are on the defensive. Based on the delta mean distribution, the outlook for stock prices over the next 30 days is not positive.The largestdelta volumecame from the 10-Mar-23 180 Put $TSLA%2020230310%20180.0%20PUT$ $TSLA 20230310 180.0 PUT$ , with traders getting long 2,790,910 deltas on the single option contract.

2. $Bank of America(BAC)$

Bank of America fell 6.2% on Thursday after a storm at Silicon Valley Bank. Based on optiondelta volume, traders sold a net equivalent of -1,734,420 shares of stock. The largest bearish delta came from selling calls. Buy put in second place and sentiment is extremely bearish. Large institutions, professional investors, retailers and small brokerages all saw daily trading volume above the 30-day average. Based on the delta mean distribution, the outlook for stock prices over the next 120 days is not good.The largestdelta volumecame from the 21-Apr-23 34 Call $BAC%2020230421%2034.0%20CALL$ $BAC 20230421 34.0 CALL$ , with traders getting short 428,437 deltas on the single option contract.

3. $Citigroup(C)$

Citigroup fell 4.1 percent on Thursday, hurt by the Silicon Valley Bank mine. Based on optiondelta volume, traders sold a net equivalent of -1,267,907 shares of stock. The largest bearish delta came from buying puts. Large institutions, professional investors, retailers and small brokerages all saw daily trading volume above the 30-day average. Based on the delta mean distribution, the outlook for stock prices over the next 120 days is not good.The largestdelta volumecame from the 17-Mar-23 50 Put $C%2020230317%2050.0%20PUT$ $C 20230317 50.0 PUT$ , with traders getting short 366,210 deltas on the single option contract.

Comment:

• This report shows option order flow sentiment for the top holdings in the S&P 500 ETF.
• The top 10 bullish holdings has a net option volume delta value of 1 M.
• The top 10 bearish holdings has a net option volume delta value of -11 M.