Bank of America stock is sporting a 20% deficit for 2023
Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) stock is up 0.8% to trade at $26.29, brushing off a minor price-target cut from UBS to $35 from $36. The security is down more than 20% in 2023, and fresh off its third-straight weekly loss, though the $25 level appears to have contained last week's pullback.
Options traders could've been encouraged by the bank giant's volatility, as it made it onto Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White's list of stocks with the highest weekly options volume over the past two weeks. According to White's data, 1,158,336 calls and 1,541,053 puts were exchanged in that time frame, with the June 2024 15-strike put standing out as the most popular.
Options traders have been substantially more bearish than usual. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), BAC carries a 10-day put/call volume ratio of 1.04 that sits in the 97th percentile of annual readings.
What's more, the security's Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) sits at an elevated 95 out of 100, suggesting it exceeded option traders' volatility expectations over the last 12 months.