In This Article:
(Bloomberg) -- Investors sold large volumes of Nvidia Corp. call options Tuesday as shares faltered after hitting the first record high since November.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Early in the session some 200,000 lots of $140 calls expiring Jan. 17 traded along with 600,000-700,000 contracts of Feb. 21-expiry calls that allowed holders to buy shares at levels ranging from $159 to $165. The calls were mostly sold, according to Chris Murphy, co-head of derivatives strategy at Susquehanna International Group.
The selling appears to be reversing a slew of call buying seen during the past few sessions ahead of a presentation by the chipmaker’s CEO Jensen Huang late Monday at the CES trade show in Las Vegas, where he unveiled a raft of new products. Shares fell 6.2% to $140.14, erasing Monday’s 3.4% gain.
Nvidia is back trading around Thursday levels, and the February calls “we highlighted Friday and Monday are being sold aggressively, as are the Jan. $140 calls,” said Murphy.
Total option volume reached 6.73 million at of 4:23 p.m. New York time, the highest since Nov. 21. A shift in February options implied volatility highlights the selling, with calls slipping to a discount to bearish puts, from around even on Monday.
“There was a big lift in Nvidia skew yesterday and it looked like calls into the morning were really bid up, meaning people were really aggressively buying calls,” said Brent Kochuba, founder of SpotGamma. “Then we saw some of the heaviest call selling that we’ve seen at least in the last 30 days.”
(Updates market activity)
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
-
Luxury Brands Need to Get Over Their Youth Fixation to Offset Drag From Trump’s Tariffs
-
The US’s Worst Fears of Chinese Hacking Are on Display in Guam
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.