Latest news with #optionsflow
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Options Flow Alert: Bulls Making Their Move in Apple Stock
Apple (AAPL) put in a huge bullish candle on Friday and the options flow suggests some traders are betting on a further upside. Let's break down the unusual options flow and what it might signal about the stock's potential direction. More News from Barchart Options Traders Price in Volatile Nvidia Earnings Reaction After U.S. Government Deal on AI Chips Shopify's Higher FCF Margins Can Push SHOP Stock Higher Option Volatility And Earnings Report For Aug 11 - 15 Markets move fast. Keep up by reading our FREE midday Barchart Brief newsletter for exclusive charts, analysis, and headlines. Options Volume and Flow Analysis This options flow data from Apple on Thursday represents one of the most bullish institutional positioning patterns seen in recent trading sessions, with over $24.8 million in net bullish sentiment and a massive positive delta imbalance of 1.56 million. The scale and conviction of these trades, featuring multiple million-dollar call purchases across various strike prices and expirations, suggests major institutional players are positioning for significant upside movement in Apple's stock price through early 2025. Net Trade Sentiment: +$24,819,000 (strongly positive) Delta Imbalance: +1,564,545 (heavily bullish) The options flow reveals aggressive call buying across a wide range of strike prices, with the largest single trade being a $6,007,500 call purchase at the $230 strike expiring February 20, 2025. Multiple million-dollar call trades are scattered across various strikes including $180, $225, $245, and $260, indicating broad-based bullish conviction rather than concentrated bets. Most strikes remain out-of-the-money, suggesting traders are positioning for significant upside movement in Apple's share price. There is heavy concentration in November 2024 and February 2025 expirations, with the November trades likely targeting earnings results and holiday season catalysts, while the February 2025 positioning suggests a longer-term bullish thesis extending through the first quarter of 2025. Technical Picture Apple's stock has broken back above the 21 and 50-day moving averages and is showing sign of accumulation. The recent breakout above these key technical levels coincides with increased volume, suggesting institutional buying support. This technical strength aligns with the bullish options positioning we observed, where traders are betting on continued upward momentum through early 2025. Risk Considerations Despite the bullish options flow, Apple faces several near-term risks that could impact performance. The company is navigating increased regulatory scrutiny in both the US and Europe regarding App Store policies. China remains a critical market vulnerability, with geopolitical tensions and local competition from Huawei potentially affecting sales. Additionally, the iPhone upgrade cycle may be slowing as consumers extend replacement periods amid economic uncertainty. Trading Implications While the bullish sentiment provides potential trading opportunities, traders might consider leveraging multi-leg options strategies that balance potential upside with controlled risk. A covered call strategy, for instance, offers an attractive method to generate income while maintaining a constructive market outlook. More directionally-focused traders could explore bull call spreads as a risk defined strategy that requires less capital. Company Details The Barchart Technical Opinion rating is a 40% Buy with a Strengthening short term outlook on maintaining the current direction. The market is in highly overbought territory. Beware of a trend reversal. Apple rates as a Strong Buy according to 19 analysts with 2 Moderate Buy, 14 Hold and 2 Strong Sell ratings. Implied volatility is 25.40% which gives AAPL an IV Percentile of 42% and an IV Rank of 19.17%. Apple's business primarily runs around its flagship iPhone. However, the Services portfolio that includes cloud services, App store, Apple Music, AppleCare, Apple Pay & licensing and other services which become the cash cow. Moreover, non-iPhone devices like Apple Watch and AirPod have gained significant traction. In fact, Apple dominates the Wearables and Hearables markets due to the growing adoption of Watch and AirPods. Solid uptake of Apple Watch also helps Apple to strengthen its presence in the personal health monitoring space. Apple also designs, manufactures and sells iPad, MacBookand HomePod. These devices are powered by software applications including iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS operating systems. Apple's other services include subscription-based Apple News, Apple Card, Apple Arcade, new Apple TV app, Apple TV channels and Apple TV, a new subscription service. Conclusion The significant options flow in Apple suggests some well-informed traders are positioning for potential upside. However, as with any options trading strategy, careful analysis, risk management, and a comprehensive understanding of both technical and fundamental factors are crucial. Please remember that options are risky, and investors can lose 100% of their investment. This article is for education purposes only and not a trade recommendation. Remember to always do your own due diligence and consult your financial advisor before making any investment decisions. On the date of publication, Gavin McMaster did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on
Forbes
28-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
What Is Unusual Whales? A Platform For Options Flow And Congressional Trade Tracking
Unusual Whales is an excellent platform for retail traders seeking actionable insights from options ... More flow data to political trading activity to leverage for profit. Unusual Whales was launched in 2020 during an era defined by retail traders holding their own against Wall Street during the GameStop short squeeze. This period highlighted the necessity of institutional-level data and trading tools for main street investors which previously would have been inaccessible due to financial or arbitrary constraints. Unusual Whales, a financial data and analytics platform, now exists to fill this gap by providing access to options flow data, institutional activity and political trading activity. In this guide, you'll learn how the platform works, the key offerings and constraints of the platform, and whether it's right for you based on your experience level and trading needs. What Is Unusual Whales? Unusual Whales is a platform for options flow and congressional trade tracking, founded in 2020 by an anonymous team of traders and data analysts. Their mission is to level the playing field by making market insights available to retail traders, whether they're advanced in their trading ability or beginners. The platform pulls options flow and congressional trades data from exchanges and filings and provides these alongside proprietary tools to democratize informed trading. How Unusual Whales Works Unusual Whales works by displaying options activity in real time from exchanges and political trading activity from STOCK Act filings. This platform makes institutional-level data and tools available to retail traders, making it easier for traders to acquire alpha whether they're discerning trends from whale trades, spotting anomalies in trade activity which could indicate future price moves or capitalizing on market sentiment. Traders can make use of advanced screeners and set filters to identify profitable trades. Unusual Whales has been doubling down on increasing access to congressional trade tracking by making data from the STOCK Act database available and searchable through its platform. Like the Dub app, users can find out how politicians and their associated members are trading, and trade along them to achieve the high returns of the public servants who are potentially trading on insider information. Users can detect trends through politician trade tracking, search for trades by politician or party, or find action in specific sectors or by ticker. Key Features Of Unusual Whales Unusual Whales offers a suite of advanced tools and advanced data access for both institutional and retail traders. With these tools and this data, traders can trade on insights whether they're reviewing options flow, block trades or the trades of politicians. Unusual Whales' Real-Time Data feature delivers a real-time feed of options flow, block trades and trades by institutional players. Users can detect trends immediately as trades occur, and set alerts for trade activity for both their phones, desktops or even Discord servers. Unusual Whales' stock and options screeners offer traders the ability to search through millions of trades by characteristics like ticker, sector or trade size. Users can scan for unusual activity, big price changes or anomalies within options flow. Users can also set up custom screens and set alerts as well as filter across trades by expiration data or level of institutional activity. Politician Trade Portfolios is an innovative feature, similar to the Autopilot app, which displays trades by Senators, members of the House and their families and staff. Users can review these trades by sector or time period, and review the success or failures of these trades by individual or party. Politicians Trade Portfolios also enables users to detect trends based on politicians' trade activity. Whales Activity Monitors is a useful feature which shows institutional-sized trades and large block trades in both equities and options. Users can use this feature to detect trends in specific sectors, for certain stocks, and within filters like trades by market cap or price range. This feature also enables users to set alerts for when large trades occur in general. Options Flow Scanner offers users a scanner of options trades which are institutional-sized. Users can filter by expiration, sector, price range and more. This feature can be used to review trades within a certain time frame and to detect a breakout or reversal for a particular ticker. The Congressional Trades Tracker reveals trades by Senators, members of the House and other political actors. This feature enables traders to review transactions by sector or company as well as purchases or sales of equities by party or political position. Traders can use the Tracker to detect patterns which may result in future price movements as well as predict future actions by Congress or the White House by trade action. Options flow reveals institutional activity by whales across options trades like puts, calls and spreads. Options flow can be used to review market sentiment from large trades and to detect reversals or the breakout of a trend from trading activity. Options flow can also be used by traders to assess risk versus reward for trades. Criticisms and Concerns To Know Unusual Whales is a useful platform for advanced traders but the data offered could be overwhelming for beginner investors who don't know how to leverage it for successful trading. Another downside of the platform is that its widespread offering of real-time data could reduce the data's edge for traders. Finally, the platform's price tag of $50+ a month could be a bit pricey for investors who don't fully utilize all of the data offered or who don't trade at the volume of higher-volume traders. On the congressional trading side, if too many traders are trading on data like a certain congressperson's trades, this could decrease the efficiency of the market while also inflating the politician's positions. Politicians' trades may also not be informed despite their wealth of information access, resulting in losses for investors. Congressional trade filing delays can also result in losses in traders if politicians exit the position before the next filing date. What Type of Investors May Use Unusual Whales? Unusual Whales is ideal for experienced retail traders looking for an edge by gaining access to institutional trading activity. For example, an options trader could gain an edge by detecting an early signal of an institutional trading play through Unusual Whales. Day traders also utilize the platform to monitor options flow. The platform's political and congressional insights are also useful for investors who are trying to detect political trends and leverage this for trading. Through congressional trading data, investors can predict potential geopolitical or legislative moves on the horizon like a military action or change in trade policy. Bottom Line Unusual Whales is an excellent platform for retail traders seeking actionable insights from options flow data to political trading activity to leverage for profit. With activity monitors for institutional trades and advanced filtering and alert abilities, sophisticated traders can find the signal necessary to effectively trade along with a community of like-minded investors making waves in the market. Unusual Whales continues to add new tools and data access, increasingly making it an ideal option for retail traders seeking alpha. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Is Unusual Whales Free To Use? Unusual Whales does offer limited free access but for its advanced tools, data and API access, you'll need to pay for subscriptions starting at $50 a month. How Accurate Is Unusual Whales' Congressional Trade Data? Unusual Whales' congressional trade data is very accurate as it sources its data from official STOCK Act filings and updates this data in nearly-real time. Is Unusual Whales Beginner Friendly? Unusual Whales offers advanced analytics and trading tools which do have a learning curve for beginners but if sufficiently motivated, beginners can learn and utilize the tools and data offered. Where Does Unusual Whales Get Its Data From? Unusual Whales gets its options flow data from market exchanges and congressional trade data from STOCK Act filings.
