Market Overview
U.S. stocks ended down on Thursday (Sept 10) after producer price data for August and surging oil prices stoked worries the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates next week, while climbing Treasury yields made stocks less attractive.
Regarding the options market, a total volume of 63,365,268 contracts was traded, of which 53% were call options.
Top 10 Option Volumes
Top 10: AAPL, NVDA, TSLA, SPCX, MU, META, ORCL, INTC, AMZN, PLTR
Apple Inc. closed at $326.57, up 3.56% on Thursday. The options market saw two standout large trades in AAPL on Thursday. A $4.38 million net-debit bull call spread targeting the $360 level by October 2026 dominated the flow, while a $3.70 million short put sale in the January 2028 $290 strike signaled an accumulation-oriented bullish stance. Both structures were out of the money relative to the $326.57 reference price.
A bull call spread with a $4.38 million net debit was the most important displayed combination trade, built by buying 12,000 AAPL October 16, 2026 $340 calls and selling 12,000 October 16, 2026 $360 calls. With AAPL referenced at $326.57, both strikes were out of the money, so this structure reflects a moderately bullish directional bet on upside over the longer term rather than an aggressive moonshot. Because it is a call spread, the trader reduced upfront premium versus an outright call purchase by capping gains above $360, which suggests a disciplined bullish view targeting appreciation into that strike range while controlling cost.
A $3.70 million short put sale in the January 21, 2028 $290 put was the other displayed large trade, with 1,700 contracts sold. Since the $290 strike sat below the $326.57 reference price, the put was out of the money, making this a bullish income-oriented position that benefits if AAPL stays above the strike and time decay works in the seller’s favor. Strategically, this trade signals willingness to accumulate stock at an effective lower entry zone if assigned, while expressing confidence that downside risk remains contained over a very long-dated horizon.
Overall, the bulk-order flow leans clearly bullish: the largest featured trade was a net-debit upside call spread, and the second highlighted trade was an out-of-the-money put sale, while the broader large-trade mix also shows bullish structures dominating the tape. Taken together, the flow points to institutional positioning for continued upside or at least stable-to-higher price action in AAPL rather than preparation for a meaningful bearish reversal.
Unusual Options Activity
$Tesla Inc. closed at $363.56, down 1.16%. The session featured a standout USD 46.98 million deep in-the-money long put combination, while a separate synthetic call worth USD 646,200.00 offered a smaller bullish offset. Overall institutional-sized flow leaned clearly bearish, with large traders paying substantial premium for downside exposure or urgent protection, even as low IV percentile suggested relatively cheap option premiums across the rest of the board.
A directional put-buy combination worth $46.98 million was the standout large trade of the day, built through two long put legs: a buy of the September 18, 2026 $450.00 put and a buy of the September 11, 2026 $400.00 put. Because this structure contains both a Buy Put and another Buy Put, it is best identified as a same-direction long put combination rather than a spread, with the preprocessed size shown as a net debit of USD 46.98 million. With TSLA referenced at $363.56, both strikes were in the money at execution, which makes this a very aggressive downside expression using already-intrinsic puts. Strategically, this points to a trader paying a substantial premium for bearish exposure and/or sharp downside volatility, suggesting conviction that TSLA could experience a significant drop or that downside protection was urgently needed over the stated expirations.
A synthetic call option worth USD 646,200.00 was also displayed, created by pairing a buy of the September 11, 2026 $380.00 call with a sale of the September 11, 2026 $360.00 put. Under the classification rule, a Buy Call plus a Sell Put is a synthetic call, and its size is measured as the sum of the two leg amounts. Both options were out of the money versus the $363.56 reference price, so this was a relatively low-premium way to express upside participation while taking on put-side assignment risk below $360.00. The structure reflects a moderately bullish stance, as the trader positioned for TSLA to move higher while partially financing the call through short put premium.
Overall, the large-trade picture leans clearly bearish. The dominant feature was the enormous in-the-money long put combination, and even though the tape also included a bullish synthetic long and several smaller bullish call-focused trades elsewhere in the bulk orders, those were not large enough to offset the strong downside message from the biggest money flow. In short, institutional-sized activity suggests caution to negative expectations for TSLA, with the market’s larger players appearing more focused on downside protection or a meaningful bearish directional bet than on sustained upside chasing.