Unusual Options Activity in Lucid Group, Inc. (LCID)

Today, December 22, 2021, in the market capitalization-weighted index NASDAQ Global Select Market Composite (NasdaqGS), we saw unusual or noteworthy options trading volume and activity today in Lucid Group, Inc., which opened at $37.91.

• There were 2,092 contracts traded on the $34 strike put option, dated for December 31st, 2021, bought to open at the ask.  The open interest on this chain was 852 as of this morning’s open.
• A tip from the flow:  trades appended with 🛍️ emoji can be intuited as bought or sold to open.  Be mindful!  Trades without the 🛍️ emoji might still have been bought or sold to open.

These orders come after John Rosevear of The Motley Fool begged the question:

“Lucid vs. Rivian – Which EV Stock Should You Buy, If Either?”

This chain has steadily been increasing in open interest, up from 341 on the 17th to 701 yesterday, the 21st.  However, the volume of 7,054 today is markedly greater than the 852 open interest, so therefore we can intuit that these contracts were bought or sold to open.

To view more information about LCID's daily flow breakdown, click here to visit unusualwhales.com.

Unusual Options Activity in MGM Resorts International (MGM)

Among the underlying components of the NYSE, we saw unusual or noteworthy options trading volume and activity in  MGM Resorts International (MGM), which opened today at $44.61.

• There were three sets of 2,000 contracts traded on the $43, $46, and $49 strike call options, all dated for December 31st, 2021 and bought to open at the ask.
• Only the $43 strike call options had an open interest less than its volume, being 5,900 to 2,000 respectively, seen below.

Be mindful:  These trades were marked as “floor” trades.  Floor traders work on the floor of an exchange.  When a floor trader executes a trade, exclusively for their own account, it must be reported on an exchange by the "floor" tag.

On the Unusual Whales blog is a report on floor traders' performance.  Here is a snippet:

More interestingly, we found that floor traders do not bet on crazy far OTM calls. Instead, most of the purchased weekly calls are ~10% ITM, with about a 40% chance to turn a profit. And when it comes to OTM calls, nearly half of these trades end up making gains and roughly a third of them can hit 50% and above.

78.9% of the premium traded at these premium levels are in bullish bets, with 100% as ask-side orders, and 78.9% are in call premiums.

To view more information about MGM's flow breakdown, click here to visit unusualwhales.com.

Looking Back on Unusual Options Activity in Affirm Holdings, Inc. (AFRM)

Yesterday, we reported noteworthy options trading volume and activity in Affirm Holdings, Inc. (AFRM), which opened then at $21.30.  Affirm opened today at $100.94, and as of this writing this morning, it is trading around $102.39 (or down approximately 1.20%).

• There were 2,961 contracts traded on the $110 strike call option, bought to open at the ask, dated for May 20th, 2022.  These trades were then cancelled, for any number of reasons, and then were replaced with the exact same number of contracts, strike, and date a few minutes later.

Per our report yesterday, there was significant volume on this chain, seen above, settling at 8,468 contracts traded on the day, up from the open interest yesterday of 375.  As of this morning’s open, 6,945 contracts remained in circulation, and there has not been significant volume today, implying the whale remains in their positions taken.

To view more information about AFRM's flow breakdown, click here to visit unusualwhales.com.

Happy Holidays!

As this is the last submission before the hiatus in our unusual options dailies...

We at Unusual Whales would like to wish all our readers a very merry, relaxing, and joyous holiday!

Give the Gift of Flow this Holiday Season!