A huge trade just happened on the Nasdaq 100. Bulls are taking notice
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- A trader spent $24 million on a three-part QQQ call spread on Thursday needing the Nasdaq 100 to make an all-time high by July 31, making it the third-biggest options trade of the day.
- The main leg was a $30 million purchase of 28,000 736-strike calls expiring July 31, paired with selling $6 million in 730/740-strike calls, pushing the breakeven to roughly $750 — under $2 above QQQ's early-June high.
- Prosper Trading Academy CEO Scott Bauer warned the spread structure cuts cost but raises breakeven: "If the index just grinds he's going to get killed."
- The Nasdaq 100 has been effectively flat since May 14, last making a high on June 3, with most QQQ options volume clustered around the $710 strike.
- QQQ options activity totaled $1.6 billion Thursday, with $944 million in calls — though ThinkOrSwim data showed roughly equal contracts bought and sold on both sides.
- Nuclear company Oklo saw the day's second-biggest trade: $46 million in January 2028 200-strike calls plus $21 million in mid-December 90-strike calls, against a $50 stock price.
Why it matters: A single trader committing $24 million to a Nasdaq 100 all-time-high call — the day's third-biggest options trade — signals high-conviction bullishness in a market where the index has gone nowhere since May 14. But Bauer's warning that the spread structure will 'get killed' in a grinding market means the bet needs an explosive rally, not continued sideways action, to profit by July 31.
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