Unusual Options Activity Spotted in These Reopening Stocks

Unusual Options Activity, Pete Najarian believes, predicted yesterday and today’s market bounce. Pete was on CNBC’s Halftime Report today highlighting that as well as UOA in four reopening stocks and one bonus mega cap tech name. Those stocks were Carnival Cruise Line (CCL), MGM Resorts (MGM), Alcoa Corporation (AA), General Motors (GM), and Microsoft (MSFT).

Unusual Options Activity Predicts a Big Bounce For Markets

First, Pete wanted to give his insight on recent volatility in the market, and how that fear didn’t necessarily carry over to the options market. 

“Here’s the interesting part about Monday. Everything looked terrible, right? Markets are getting absolutely smashed. They’re getting hit to the downside. All three — the Nasdaq, the Dow, and the S&P all moved significantly to the downside. BUT, the interesting part was on the options side of things, we were seeing buyers. And as a matter of fact, we did not see the kind of spike in the volatility that I think a lot of people were expecting us to see.“

Listen to Pete’s full segment on the mismatch in options volatility below.

According to Bespoke research, December has been the most volatile month of this year. That’s interesting because typically, December is among the least volatile months for stocks. In times of market uncertainty, traders need to use every tool they can to look under the surface and find what’s driving the action. There’s no better place to look than in Unusual Options Activity. 

Unusual Options Activity Forecasts a Big Breakout in Pfizer

On today’s Halftime Report, Pete highlighted Pfizer (PFE), a stock that has seen three separate Unusual Options Activity reports over the past month. Even though December has been rocky, Pfizer is up 17.51% for the month at the time of writing. 

UOA strikes again. Source: Google Finance

On the show, Pete said he would continue to hold shares of Pfizer (and sell calls against the position) despite the huge move to the upside. 

Don’t fret if you missed out on Pfizer. Pete’s got 5 fresh picks, complete with over seven-million dollars worth of calls and spreads. Listen to him break down all the Unusual Options Activity in the segment below.