Chips and Bears: Options Signal a Turning Point

Semiconductor stocks are drawing heavy options bets this week. MU tops ORTEX's negative-bets ranking. It's up 284% year-to-date. That rally may be attracting profit-takers via puts.

SNDK sits close behind. Sandisk has surged an extraordinary 695% in 2026. Options flow shows negative bets piling in. Traders appear to be hedging or outright fading the move.

NVDA and AMD also appear in the top negative-bets list. Both stocks carry RSIs above 59 and 73 respectively. That puts AMD in technically overbought territory.

On the bullish side, META leads for positive options bets. The stock is up 11.6% this year. Its RSI sits at 76 — the highest among mega-caps. Call buyers appear undeterred by the extended reading.

Away from tech, WHR stands out as a contrarian play. Whirlpool is down 53% year-to-date. Its options score is elevated and analyst upside sits at nearly 51%. Options activity suggests some traders are betting on a reversal.

BA also drew attention after Trump highlighted a 111-plane deal with Türkiye and Bangladesh. Boeing news flow tends to spike options volume quickly.

The overall picture is mixed. Bullish bets cluster in mega-cap tech and media. Defensive put activity targets the year's biggest semiconductor winners. That divergence signals traders are not uniformly bullish — they're rotating hedges into the stocks that ran hardest.