Apple, Amazon Options Both Lean Defensive Into Earnings
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- Apple options traders are bracing for a 3.4% post-earnings move, more than double the stock's median 1.5% move over its past four reports, according to Cboe LiveVol data.
- Of Apple's $634 million in Wednesday options premium, more than $470 million was tied to calls — but much of it was calls sold rather than bought, leaving net trade sentiment slightly bearish per SpotGamma and Barchart analysis.
- The most popular Apple options contract by volume Wednesday was the 330-strike puts expiring Friday, which require a more than 3% drop to pay off, per SpotGamma and Barchart.
- Amazon saw $615 million in Wednesday options premium with the majority tied to puts, but traders appeared more likely to sell that volatility than buy it, yielding net positive trade sentiment of nearly $3 million and 100,000 deltas per Barchart.
- Traders expect Amazon to move 6.6% after its earnings print, roughly in line with the 7% median move from its past four quarters, per Cboe LiveVol.
- Apple is up 25% year-to-date with a 7% rally since the S&P 500 peaked on June 2, while Amazon sits exactly flat on the year — a divergence the article ties to their mixed options flows.
- The piece frames these prints against a recent big-tech pattern in which earnings winners and losers have decoupled: Alphabet and Tesla fell together last week, and Microsoft rallied while Meta fell the night before.
Why it matters: The split options positioning underscores how two mega-cap tech names with very different 2025 trajectories — Apple up 25%, Amazon flat — are each carrying concentrated, defensive hedges into the same earnings session. With Apple's 3.4% implied move more than doubling its recent median and Amazon's 6.6% move matching historical norms, even roughly in-line prints could trigger outsized volatility as the $634 million and $615 million in Wednesday options open interest unwinds.
