A knockout move. Someone opened a 100,000-contract call combo with a notional value of nearly $10 million — buying 100,000 contracts of this week's 230 call$NVDA 20260828 230.0 CALL$ while selling this week's 240 call$NVDA 20260828 240.0 CALL$.
Ten million dollars on weekly options — is this just throwing money around, or do they actually know something? Either way, if NVIDIA's stock rallies to 230 after tomorrow's earnings, it would give the U.S. stock market a serious boost just ahead of the Jackson Hole symposium.
But then what? Triple Witching will inevitably bring a pullback. That said, with this bullish block trade providing support, selling puts into earnings won't lose money. And if the stock rallies tomorrow, selling calls would also be a viable strategy.
A pure shakeout — likely to last about a month. The long-dated long calls couldn't take it anymore and rolled directly: the November-expiry 120 call was rolled down to the 110 strike$INTC 20261120 110.0 CALL$ .
A friend asked me today when is a good time to buy long calls. The answer: when you feel the market isn't worth buying calls anymore. A crash won't shake out retail investors — time is the best shakeout tool.
Overall, the stock is expected to oscillate in the 130–165 range in the near term, so the current level is more suitable for selling calls — even though DRAM has a long-dated block trade on the 57 call $DRAM 20270115 57.0 CALL$ .
The downside floor has been further lowered to 110 $SPCX 20260904 110.0 PUT$ . Although there is a buy-side block trade on the 210 call $SPCX 20260918 210.0 CALL$ , as we all know, breaking above 200 before Triple Witching is nearly impossible — let alone 210. I suspect this is a bait order designed to trap those who don't understand options block trades.
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