While many investors brush off options, many others like to “follow the flow.” In other words, they want to know what the big funds and institutions are doing. We can follow their footsteps when looking for unusual options activity.
Thankfully, there’s a leaderboard of options activity for both calls and puts, helping us keep track of it all when we see outsized volume.
With that in mind, let’s look at 10 stocks with some heavy call flow over the last week.
Alibaba (BABA)
Kicking off the list at No. 1 on the leaderboard is Alibaba (US:BABA). With earnings due up on Feb. 23rd, option speculation is in play. However, the largest action took place on Feb. 15th, on both the call and put side.
That’s as one trader bought $10.74 million worth of the June $210 puts and as there was $15.93 million worth of action in the June $195 puts.
Then on the flip side, someone sold $10.1 million worth of the June $195 puts — a bullish options trade. A few minutes later, another $23 million worth of the same puts were sold.
Amgen (AMGN)
After being stuck in a nasty downtrend over the last few weeks, at least one trader is seeing the bullish case for Amgen (US:AMGN). It was odd, though.
With just 2 days until expiration, they were large sellers of deep-in-the-money puts. With Amgen shares trading around $240 at the times of the trades, someone sold $6.1 million worth of the February $275 puts, $1.58 million of the $270 puts and $3.1 million of the $260 puts. e
Intel (INTC)
Despite its struggles, Intel (US:INTC) has seen some strong bullish options activity lately. That’s as one trader sold deep-in-the-money put options — a bullish options trade.
Specifically, they sold $1.55 million worth of the January 2024 $52.50 puts and $3.55 million worth of the January 2024 $47.50 puts. It’s worth mentioning that a day later on Feb. 16th, one trader also sold over $650,000 worth of the January 2025 $40 puts.
Snowflake (SNOW)
There’s been a lot of momentum in growth stocks lately and someone is looking for it to continue in Snowflake (US:SNOW).
On Feb. 17th, one trader bought $1.5 million worth of the July $230 calls, a deep-out-the-money trade as shares were trading near $155 at the time. A few hours later, they plunked down another $1.34 million in the same calls.
Just after the first trade occurred, someone sold $2 million worth of the at-the-money April $150 puts and just after the second call trade occurred, someone sold another $2.2 million worth of the April $150 puts.
Given that the call trades were a few hours apart yet the large put sales closely followed the call positions, they are likely connected as the put sales are financing the call purchases.
Exxon Mobil (XOM)
Exxon Mobil (US:XOM) had plenty of options activity over the last few days, most of which culminated on Feb. 14th and 15th.
On the 14th, one trader sold $3.6 million worth of the out-of-the-money April $130 calls, with shares trading near $117.50.
A day later, someone sold $2.75 million of the in-the-money March $135 puts and $1.28 million worth of the April $135 puts. They also sold $4.22 million of the March $165 puts and $2.46 million of the April $160 puts. In all, that was over $13 million worth of put sales in those four trades.
Enphase Energy (ENPH)
Shares of Enphase Energy (US:ENPH) have really been struggling lately, down 22.5% so far this year, but at least one trader is looking for some upside.
That’s after someone collected $4.16 million in premium by selling the February $250 puts. Unless the position was closed before expiration, these deep-in-the-money puts were likely assigned, as shares were trading near $215 at the time of the trade and ended Friday’s session near $205.
Ford (F)
Ford (US:F) had a ton of notable options trades over the last week, including one trader buying more than $500,000 worth of March 24th $13.35 calls.
Another trader sold $772,000 worth of the March $12.35 puts, which looked like a potential strangle trade as $405,000 worth of the March $13.35 calls were also sold.
Lastly, it’s hard not to point out the $1.21 million worth of the January 2025 $12.35 puts that were sold.
Salesforce (CRM)
One trader caught our attention in Salesforce (US:CRM) last week with some big activity in the March $190 calls and now another one has this week too.
That’s after one trader paid $1.53 million for the in-the-money June $140 calls, while Salesforce stock was trading near $163 at the time of the trade.
Chevron (CVX)
Big oil seems to be a theme this week, as Chevron (US:CVX) also caught some action. All of that came on Feb. 15th with action in the puts.
That’s as one trader sold $4.6 million of the deep-in-the-money February $185 puts with Chevron trading near $168 and as another trader bought $1 million of the February $187.50 puts.
Lastly, someone else bought $1.5 million of the deep-in-the-money March $190 puts.
Nio (NIO)
Last but not least, we have Nio (US:NIO), which had plenty of action last week. Most notably, it included $634,000 worth of the January 2025 $10 puts.
It also includes $1.02 million in the March $10 calls, which were slightly in-the-money at the time of the trade. At the same time, it’s hard to ignore the $413,000 of the April $10 puts that were also bought.
This article originally appeared on Fintel
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