Snap Hits 7-Session High Amid Heavy Put Buying

Snap Inc SNAP has gathered some solid momentum in recent days, opening a market session above $22 for the first time since March 10 Thursday. But the higher the shares climb, the more large bearish bets options traders are making on Snap.

One place retail stock traders can always look to for a bit of insight into what “smart money” institutional investors may be thinking is the options market. While plenty of retail investors trade options, unusually large orders typically come from professional traders or traders with extremely deep pockets.

Early options trading activity in Snap was mostly bullish. Five of the six unusually large options trades reported by Benzinga Pro from March 13 to March 21 were call buys at strike prices of $20 or higher. However, on Wednesday, there were no less than three large put sweeps throughout the day’s session. Sweeps are large options orders that are split across multiple exchanges to get executed as quickly as possible.

3 Orders

Here’s a breakdown of the three orders:

    10:12:48 a.m. SNAP Option Alert: Fri $22.5 Puts Sweep (19) at the ask: 1000 @ 1.0 vs 38 OI; Ref=$21.7725
    2:16:02 p.m. SNAP Option Alert: Apr 28 $19 Puts Sweep (2) at the ask: 2402 @ 0.551 vs 516 OI; Ref=$21.59
    3:59:27 p.m. SNAP Option Alert: Fri $21.5 Puts Sweep (17) at the ask: 2000 @ 0.324 vs 430 OI; Ref=$21.85

The traders placing these bearish trades are either hedging bullish positions are expecting Snap to close out the week well below $22.50. The April put buyer is making a large bet that Snap will see significant downside within the next month and is eventually headed back under $19.

Related Links: Snap's Fortunes May Be Tied To Apple And Vodaphone

What Snap's Early Option Activity Tells Us About The Stock

Date of Trade
ticker
Put/Call
Strike Price
DTE
Sentiment
Posted In: NewsShort IdeasOptionsMarketsMoversTechTrading Ideasoption alert
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