Options traders are betting on fireworks when the results of this week's marquee big tech earnings report cross the wire.
Apple has had a volatile start to 2021, swinging around quite a bit en route to its current year-to-date gains of just 1%, and many traders are expecting another big shift after the bell Wednesday.
"Right now, the options market is implying a move of about 5% after [Apple reports]. That, too, is consistent with the 4.7% the company has averaged over the past eight reported quarters. The most active options were the weekly 135-strike calls. Over 43,500 of those calls traded for about $2.60," Michael Khouw, chief investment officer at Optimize Advisors, said Tuesday on CNBC's "Fast Money."
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Those calls expire this Friday at a break-even stock price of $137.60, or 2% higher than where Apple closed Tuesday's session. That's well within the realm of possibility given Apple's post-earnings history and its current implied move, but it wasn't the only popular bet to make in Tuesday's session.
"The 135-puts, which also expire on Friday, were the second most active [contract]. Those were trading for about $2.90. Interestingly, it was mostly retail flows on the call buying, and it was mostly institutional flows on the put buying," said Khouw.
Apple was trading modestly lower in Wednesday's session.
