Short-term options trades have become increasingly popular in recent months. These types of trades can be used for both speculation and hedging. For instance, a strategist apparently decided that the day of the FOMC meeting was a good time to buy a bearish put spread on iShares US Real Estate ETF (IYR). This two-week block […]

Analyzing block trades in options (very large trades) can be enlightening, but it can also leave you scratching your head at times. For example, last week someone appeared to sell a strangle nearly 50,000x (selling both a call and a put around the stock price) in Nu Holdings (NU) . This strategy will make over […]

 For investors who follow steel stocks, there may be some good news on the horizon. Steel companies have taken a hit in recent months, including Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF), which is down 14% year-to-date. However, a trader purchased what appears to be a bullish call spread in CLF options that expires in August. This 10,000-lot vertical spread […]

An intriguing 3-legged options trade occurred in ride-sharing giant, Uber (UBER) last week. This strategy, known as a put spread collar, traded 24,000 times and has an August expiration. The purpose of this trade is generally to protect the downside for those that own the stock. With a put spread collar, the downside loss is […]

 Some stocks are good for investing and others are better for trading. Bitcoin has become a popular trading instrument and may end up being at least somewhat uncorrelated with other asset classes. Currently, ProShares Strategy Bitcoin ETF (BITO) is a popular way to trade bitcoin (that uses bitcoin futures). Coming in June, the 2x Bitcoin […]

While it’s interesting to see what options are trading in terms of absolute volume, it can also be useful to look at relative volume. For instance, Broadridge Financial (BR) traded over 125x its normal options volume one day last week. The banking software company typically only trades 40 contracts per today, so seeing a 2,000-lot […]

The regional banking failures continue, with First Republic getting gobbled up by JP Morgan Chase (JPM) and now PacWest (PACW) searching for strategic options. That means the company is looking for ways out of the current situation and will likely result in a merger or acquisition with a bigger bank. At least one trader may […]

While options block trades can potentially provide insight into what the smart money is doing, it’s impossible to know for sure what the goal of a big trade is. For instance, a 22,000-lot call spread expiring in October appears to have been purchased in iShares 20+ Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) options. This would seem to […]

Globalstar (GSAT) is a satellite communications company. The stock price is under $1, but the company has a market value of almost $2 billion. Last week, an options trader seemingly purchased a block of 10,000 calls in GSAT that expire in July. This could be a bet on earnings next month or simply a bullish […]