Market Overview

The Dow rose 1% ​on Tuesday, outperforming the benchmark S&P 500 while the healthcare sector provided Wall Street's biggest boost and technology was its biggest drag.

Healthcare led gains among the S&P 500's 11 major sector indexes, hitting a record high. Eli Lilly was the S&P 500's biggest index point contributor while UnitedHealth, Merck & Co, Johnson & Johnson and Amgen helped boost the blue-chip Dow industrials.

Top 10 Option Volumes

Top 10: NVIDIA, SpaceX, Netflix, CoreWeave, Apple, Tesla Motors, Micron Technology, Amazon.com, Intel, Advanced Micro Devices

Source: Tiger Trade App

Alphabet closed at $340.28, down 1.13% on Tuesday. Large options activity was highlighted by two distinct structures. The largest trade was a calendar call spread with a net debit of $102,000, while a separate $1.38 million long call purchase at the $400 strike signaled direct bullish conviction. Overall, the bulk-order flow leaned constructive, with traders favoring longer-dated upside exposure and controlled premium collection rather than outright bearish protection.

Options Indicators

Alphabet’s implied volatility is 38.75%, and with an IV percentile of 80.08%, current option volatility sits in an elevated range, indicating that options are priced expensively relative to their own recent history. The IV/HV ratio of 1.75 further suggests implied volatility is running well above realized volatility, showing that the options market is embedding a notably richer premium for forward uncertainty.

The Call/Put volume ratio is 1.91.

Large Trades

A call spread-style calendar combination with a net debit of $102,000 was the largest highlighted trade, built through buying the 350.0 call expiring February 19, 2027, selling the 380.0 call expiring February 19, 2027, and selling the 350.0 call expiring November 20, 2026. With both a long call and short calls embedded, this is best viewed as a multi-leg call spread/calendar structure rather than a simple outright bullish bet. All three legs were out of the money versus the $340.28 reference stock price. The small net debit suggests a relatively efficient entry cost, pointing to a strategic intent centered on directional upside with defined structure, while also using short premium to partially finance the long-dated upside exposure. The trade appears to express a moderately bullish view, but one that is tempered by premium collection and strike capping rather than aggressive open-ended upside chasing.

A call buy worth $1.38 million was the other displayed large trade, involving the purchase of 3,036 contracts of the 400.0 call expiring January 15, 2027. This strike is out of the money relative to the current share price, so the position reflects a clear upside speculation or longer-dated bullish positioning that requires a meaningful rally in Alphabet to realize intrinsic value. As a single-leg long call, it carries straightforward bullish intent: the buyer is paying premium for leveraged upside exposure into early 2027.

Overall, the large-trade flow leans bullish on balance. The dominant structures show traders willing to pay for upside exposure in longer-dated calls, while the biggest combination trade also indicates a more measured stance through financed call exposure rather than pure premium outlay. Taken together, the bulk-order activity suggests constructive sentiment toward Alphabet, with investors favoring controlled bullish positioning over outright bearish protection.

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Unusual Options Activity

Advanced Micro Devices closed at $534.74, down 0.62%. Options flow showed a pronounced bearish institutional tilt, led by a $6.70 million double-long put structure and a $1.65 million single-leg put purchase. Both trades were out of the money at execution, indicating buyers were paying premium for downside exposure rather than immediate protection. The broader large-trade mix confirmed the cautious-to-negative sentiment, with put buying dominating bullish activity.

Large Trades

A directional two-leg put purchase with a net debit of $6.70 million was the largest displayed trade, consisting of long 430.0 puts expiring 2027-03-19 and long 410.0 puts expiring 2027-04-16. This is a same-direction double-long put structure rather than a synthetic position, and it represents a net premium outlay aimed at a sizable downside move or elevated volatility over a longer horizon. With AMD referenced at 534.74, both strikes were out of the money at execution, so the buyer is positioning for a meaningful decline rather than immediate intrinsic protection. The use of two lower-strike long puts across different expirations reinforces a bearish, high-conviction directional stance while keeping risk limited to the premium paid.

A single-leg put buy worth $1.65 million targeted the 460.0 strike expiring 2026-12-18. With the stock at 534.74, this put was also out of the money, making it a clear downside bet or hedge against a substantial pullback into late 2026. As a long put, the trade benefits from falling shares and potentially rising volatility, and the sizable premium committed suggests the buyer was willing to pay meaningfully for bearish exposure rather than express the view through a credit-based structure.

Overall, the bulk-order flow leans bearish on AMD: the featured trades are both outright put purchases, and the broader large-trade mix shows downside-focused positioning dominating bullish activity. That combination points to cautious-to-negative institutional sentiment, with traders appearing more interested in paying for downside exposure and protection than in pressing an upside breakout.