Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz is reshaping options markets. Traders are repositioning fast across energy, defense, and semiconductors.
MU — Micron Technology — sits atop the negative options bets leaderboard. The stock is up 162% year-to-date. Bears are loading puts aggressively. The May 15 and June expiries are the busiest clusters. That signals traders expect a pullback after the run-up.
Semiconductors dominate both bull and bear camps. MCHP carries a 55% YTD gain. Bearish bets are stacking up there too. AMD and NVDA show heavy negative options flow despite strong recent momentum.
On the bullish side, GD — General Dynamics — posted a 100% positive options score over seven days. Iran war headlines are pulling money into defense. RTX shows a similar setup. Both names have active June expiries in focus.
Healthcare is another standout. Options flow there is 100% positive. The stock is down 7% year-to-date. That gap between price action and options sentiment points to a potential bounce trade.
INVZ — Innoviz Technologies — is seeing a call surge ahead of Thursday's earnings print. Short sellers remain dug in. That combination sets up a potential squeeze if results beat.
Gold and oil proxies GLD and USO show busy near-term expiries. Traders are buying weekly options through late May. That reflects short-term hedging activity linked to Iran tensions.
The broad market via SPY shows expiries every single day through May. Daily options volume is elevated. That suggests heightened macro uncertainty rather than a clear directional call.
ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
