Unusual Option Activity on Antero Resources Corp. (AR) May Indicate Bullish Sentiment in the Long Term

September 28. 2021

10:10 ET

Hydrocarbon exploration company Antero Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:AR) is having an exciting last few weeks. In fact, AR, headquartered in Denver, is trading at +10.58% over the last five days; seemingly with no specific catalyst. An article released by NASDAQ posed the question, “Are options traders betting on a big move?”; so, let’s take a look at the options flow on Antero Resources.

The image above shows us the daily options volume for AR over the last 10 days. The call volume for AR has ranged from as low as 1,236 on September 22, to as high as 22,465 on Monday, September 27. The put volume, on the other hand, has ranged from a low of 302 on September 22, to a high of 7,325 on September 23. It is the volume on Monday, September 22 that has raised some eyebrows.

After adjusting the filter on the Unusual Whales Flow tool to $50k minimum premium, ask-side orders placed on September 27, we see some strong bullish sentiment. The options receiving the most attention are $20 call strike for February 18, 2022, and the $30 call strike for January 20, 2023. The volume and premiums spent, as well as the long-date expiration on those contracts, seem to indicate an expectation for Antero Resources to maintain a bullish trend in the future. This sort of long-term expectation allows the investor(s) a wide time-window for changes; and an exit plan should things go awry.

This seems to match up with Antero’s Historical options flow, as well. As we can see in the image above, historical flow for AR has been 59.2% bullish; indicating a lean toward upward expectations for the hydraulic fracturing company. Moving on to the premium heatmaps for Antero Resources (found by selecting “Show Charts” on the flow tool), we can also observe the favoritism for those long dates calls, as well as a smaller but notable tendency toward the October 15, 2021 expiration date.

At the time of publication, Antero Resources (NASDAQ:AR) is trading at $18.60, or +10.58% (+$1.78) over the last 5 days; or -2.67% on the day.