Market Overview

Wall Street stocks ended higher and gold held near $3,000 per ounce on Monday(Mar. 17) after mixed economic data and ahead of talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed at ending the Ukraine war.

Regarding the options market, a total volume of 45,371,037 contracts was traded.

Top 10 Option Volumes

Top 10: Nvidia, Tesla, CBOE Volatility Index, Intel, Apple, AMD, Alibaba, Palantir, Amazon, Strategy

Shares of Tesla Motors fell 5% on Monday.

Hedge fund short sellers have made $16.2bn betting against Tesla’s shares as the value of Elon Musk’s electric car company has halved over the past three months.

There are 2.15 million Tesla Motors option contracts traded on Monday. Put options account for 52% of overall option trades. Particularly high volume was seen for the $240 strike put option expiring Mar. 21, with 83,090 contracts trading. $TSLA 20250321 240.0 PUT$

Alibaba rose 4.6% on Monday after the Chinese government said yesterday that it would implement a plan to boost consumer spending in the country.

China's government released its Special Action Plan to Boost Consumption on Sunday, highlighting a few areas that could help fuel economic growth. Specifically, the government wants to boost consumer spending, increase domestic demand, and even stabilize its stock market.

There are 512.67K Alibaba option contracts traded on Monday. Call options account for 75% of overall option trades. Particularly high volume was seen for the $150 strike call option expiring Mar. 21, with 33,808 contracts trading. $BABA 20250321 150.0 CALL$

Unusual Options Activity

Intel stock was the biggest gainer on the Nasdaq and one of the biggest on the S&P 500 on Monday, trading up nearly 7% following a report on incoming CEO Lip-Bu Tan's plans to turn around the struggling chipmaker.

Citing two people familiar with Tan's thinking, Reuters reported that he is considering "significant changes" to Intel's manufacturing processes and its artificial intelligence (AI) strategies.

There are 858.85K Intel option contracts traded on Monday. Call options account for 72% of overall option trades. Particularly high volume was seen for the $25 strike call option expiring Mar 21, 2025, with 52,762 contracts trading. The $25 strike call option expiring this Friday surged 195% on Monday. $INTC 20250321 25.0 CALL$

TOP Bullish & Bearish Single Stocks

This report shows stocks with the highest volume of bullish and bearish activity by option delta volume, which converts option volume to an equivalent stock volume (bought or sold).

If we take the total positive option delta volume and subtract the total negative option delta volume, we will get the net imbalance. If the net imbalance is positive, there is more bullish pressure. If the net is negative, there is more bearish pressure.

Based on option delta volume, traders bought a net equivalent of 973,359 shares of SoFi Technologies Inc. stock. The largest bullish delta came from buying calls. The largest delta volume came from the 21-Mar-25 Put, with traders getting long 647,366 deltas on the single option contract.

Top 10 bullish stocks: Robinhood, SoFi Technologies, Intel, Vale, Kenvue, Petroleo Brasileiro, Tiger Brokers, Alibaba, GlaxoSmithKline, Quantum Computing

Top 10 bearish stocks: Vodafone, Oscar Health, Tesla, Pfizer, First Majestic Silver, Apple, AMD, VAALCO Energy, Tencent Music, Amazon

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