NIO Inc (NYSE: NIO) is a Chinese company that manufactures electric vehicles that are sold in the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. The company was recently upgraded by Goldman Sachs from neutral to buy and began to really take off after Nikola Corporation (NASDAQ: NKLA) began trading on June 4. The company also announced record deliveries in May on June 4, 2020. As the positive news piles up, so has the option activity. The call option activity on Tuesday was 1.3 times the average with 45% of the volume getting filled at the ask p...

The April $75 calls onQualcomm (QCOM) saw a 17-fold rise in volume, going from 253 open contracts to having over 4,350 trade hands. The bet, expiring in 46 days, is already about $2.30 in the money given the recent share price of $77.30. The trader buying the shares paid about $5.90 per contract. For the option to profit at expiration, shares would need to be back over $81. Even with the recent market rout, shares of Qualcomm are still up about 50 percent in the past year.Action to take: Like most stocks right now, shares look oversold and due for a bounce higher. Over the longer-term...

$35 call options with an April expiration onMicron Technology (MU) recently saw a 40-fold rise in volume. The option went from 101 open contracts to over 3,900. The bet, expiring in 49 days is unusual in that this trade made a deep in-the-money bet. With shares around $54, the option is about $19 in-the-money, and should move dollar-for-dollar with shares. The trader also paid about $19 to get into the trade, so there’s nearly no time premium. Semiconductor names have been hit hard in the past few trading sessions, as coronavirus fears have spread. Even with the steep drop, Micron has...

Trader bets on bounce in shares next month. Over 1,050 contracts traded on the March $136 call options on The Walt Disney Company (DIS). This is an eight-fold rise from the prior open interest of 135 contracts. The option, expiring in 22 days, is a play on shares moving $5 higher from around $130 right now. That’s about a 5 percent jump. Shares have sold off heavily recently as coronavirus fears are likely to impact tourism and travel, in turn lowering revenues at the company’s theme parks. And the company recently announced a new CEO. Shares of Disney are up 17 percent in the past year,...

Trader bets on further decline on coronavirus pandemic.  With the global economy set to slow thanks to the coronavirus, traders are hedging their bets. One is betting that United Parcel Service (UPS) will continued to decline from here. That’s based on the 15-fold rise in volume on the April $97.50 put options. From 320 open contracts, over 4,900 recently traded hands. The bet expires in 51 days. It is less than one dollar out-of-the-money thanks to the current share price just over $98.30. Any further weakness in shares will move the option in-the-money. The trader paid about $3.60 fo...

Trader bets on rally through April.April 3rd call options with a $70 strike on Gilead Sciences (GILD) recently saw an 18-fold rise in volume, going from 117 open contracts to over 2,100 trade hands. The bet, expiring in 38 days, is that shares will head higher. As shares are around $69.50, the bet is almost at-the-money, and could move dollar-for-dollar higher with shares. The buyer of the option paid about $2.71 per contract, so shares would need to get over $72.70 at expiration for the buyer to profit. Shares have traded as high as $71.19 in the past year, meaning the trader expects share...

March 27th $22 call options onBarrick Gold (GOLD) saw a 32-fold rise in volume lately, going from 103 open contracts to nearly 3,300. The bet, expiring in 32 days, will move in-the-money if shares rise just over $1.15 from their current price, or about 5.5 percent higher. The buyer of the options also paid about $0.38, or $38 per contract to make the trade. They’ll need to see shares move 7.3 percent higher in the next month. The interest in gold continues after the metal posted a strong year in 2019, and as coronavirus fears sweep around the world. As one of the major gold miners, Ba...

March 13th 2020 call options with a strike price of $167.50 on3M (MMM) recently saw a 40-fold rise in volume. From 220 open contracts, over 8,800 traded hands. The bet, expiring in 21 days, is that shares will rally from here. The strike price of the option is about 5.1 percent higher than the current share price. The buyer of the option also paid about $0.98 per contract, so shares would need to clear $168.50 at expiration to profit. Shares of the diversified manufacturing company have been out of favor with the market in the past year, with a 23 percent decline. Shares are down abou...