Big Tech Earnings Drive Heavy Options Traffic

Options markets are bracing for the biggest earnings week of autumn, with Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon all due to report before Friday.

Micron Technology sits at the top of both bullish and bearish options flow tables this week. That two-sided positioning suggests traders are buying straddles ahead of an expected volatility event. Micron's RSI has dropped to 38, putting it in near-oversold territory despite a 207% gain year-to-date.

Meta draws attention on the bearish side. Negative options bets rank it fourth by dollar value this week. Its RSI stands at just 35.7, the lowest of the Big Tech group. The stock is down 2.7% year-to-date while peers have climbed. Analysts still see 31% upside, but the options market reflects near-term caution ahead of Q3 results.

Advanced Micro Devices carries the third-largest put flow among US stocks. Shares are up 141% this year. That gain may be prompting some traders to buy downside protection before earnings.

Intel also reports this week. Options flow is elevated on both sides. Intel has surged 136% year-to-date, a sharp reversal from its multi-year slump, and the stock's RSI of 32.8 hints at exhausted momentum despite the large annual gain.

One name that stands out away from mega-caps: CoreWeave carries the tenth-largest negative options bet pile in the US. The AI cloud provider is down 24% year-to-date, and its short score sits at 67. That combination of bearish options flow and elevated short interest points to persistent skepticism about the company's path to profitability.

Wikipedia page views for JPMorgan U.S. Tech Leaders ETF and Capital Group Dividend Growers ETF each ran 10 standard deviations above their own histories as of 21 October, per ORTEX alt data. Retail attention at that level often precedes a surge in options volume on the underlying names inside those baskets.