Today, the weekly 9/30 series is being targeted by both Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) options traders
The 20 stocks listed in the table below have attracted the highest
weekly options volume during the past 10 trading days. Stocks highlighted are new to the list since the last time the study was run, and data is courtesy of Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White. Two notable names are e-tail stock
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and streaming content concern
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX).
AMZN is fresh off an
all-time high of $812.60, after J.P. Morgan Securities bumped its price target up to $1,000 -- just the latest analyst to
predict a move into quadruple-digit territory. At last check, the stock was still up 1.5% at $811.53, pushing its year-to-date advance beyond 20%.
These technical achievements have sparked an acceleration in options trading today. The weekly 9/30 series is especially popular, account for the 10 most active strikes. In the lead is the weekly 9/30 810-strike call, where buy-to-open activity is detected. In other words, the buyers believe AMZN will extend its gains through Friday's close, when the series expires.
Today's call buying echoes what we've seen in recent weeks at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). Specifically, during the last 10 sessions, traders have bought to open 1.19 calls for every put, and the corresponding call/put volume ratio ranks near the top one-quarter of all readings recorded in the past year.
NFLX calls have also been hot of late. The stock's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 1.39 ranks in the bullishly skewed 89th percentile of its annual range. Even after shifting our focus to near-term open interest levels, the call-tilt remains much the same. Specifically, NFLX's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.81 registers below 87% of all readings taken in the last 12 months.
Today, the weekly 9/30 series accounts for eight of the 10 most active strikes. Drilling deeper, traders may be purchasing new positions at the 96- and 97-strike calls, hoping for additional end-of-week gains.
Their optimism may be stoked by the fact Netflix, Inc. shares are red-hot. Benefiting from a price-target hike to $125 from $116 at J.P. Morgan Securities, the stock has jumped nearly 3% to trade at $97.34. Nevertheless, NFLX
still must overcome its 200-day moving average, not to mention the round $100 level, which have both acted as
stubborn layers of resistance in recent weeks.
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