No new stock highs, no problem: Options traders bet they're coming in these names — SkimNews
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- S&P 500 futures sit at all-time highs, but Tuesday saw 75 NYSE stocks make new 52-week lows versus just 14 new highs — an extreme breadth divergence that has options traders piling into bullish bets anyway.
- Call-to-put volume ratios climbed to their highest level since May (and for SPY, since the first week of August), with even institutional market-makers reportedly caught offsides by Monday's rally and forced to buy upside calls.
- Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) posted its highest call-to-put ratio in at least a year, with ThinkOrSwim pricing putting the odds of the Nasdaq 100 touching a new high by week's end above 67%.
- Meta Platforms options volume is running more than four times its 30-day average, with implied volatility skewed toward calls and a 52% chance of hitting $790 (last year's closing high) by Oct. 2.
- Intel, up 35% over the past month, carries an implied volatility of 69 and roughly coin-flip odds of exceeding its prior closing high near $140 by Oct. 30.
- Micron gained more than 3% Tuesday alongside a 6%+ surge in Sandisk, with options pricing pointing to a Micron new high by Oct. 23 and Sandisk by Dec. 18.
- The Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) rose 2% Tuesday, but market-makers price only a 34% chance of a new high by Dec. 18 as its implied volatility has collapsed since summer.
Why it matters: When institutional market-makers get caught offsides and options traders price 67% odds of a Nasdaq new high on the same day 75 NYSE names hit 52-week lows, it reveals extreme conviction in a narrow leadership trade. With Intel already 35% higher in a month and Micron up 3%, the options market is treating these names as the engines of the next leg up — but the 34% DRAM odds and 50% Intel coin-flip show traders are also hedging the risk that collapsing breadth finally drags the leaders down.
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