Unusual Options Activity in Wells Fargo & Company (WFC)

Today, January 07, 2022, among the underlying components of the NYSE, we saw unusual or noteworthy options trading volume and activity in Wells Fargo & Company, which opened at $53.86.

• There were 3,400 contracts traded on the $54 strike call option, expiring today.
• Additionally, there were 3,400 contracts traded on the $56 strike call option, dated for next week, January 14th, 2022, traded at the bid of $0.4 of a bid-ask spread of $0.38 to $0.50.
• There open interest on the $54 chain was approximately 13,000, and as that chain is expiring today, it may be intuited that these contracts were being closed.
• However, the 3,400 contracts on the $56 chain was greater than its existing 2,821 open interest, so therefore it can be assumed this trader was rolling their contracts from today out to a higher strike and for next week.

These orders come after Bram Berkowitz of The Motley Fool reported that:

“Shares of Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) traded more than 11% higher for the week as of 12:37 p.m. ET on Thursday, as the company benefited from bullish sentiment on Wall Street and rising long-term rates.”

The volume, as such, is entirely novel and overshadows the previous open interest on the chain, implying these contracts were in fact either bought or sold to open, not closed.

Read more about how to identify rolled contracts on the Unusual Whales Flow by clicking here.

To view more information about WFC's daily flow breakdown, click here to visit unusualwhales.com.

Unusual Options Activity in Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)

Again in the NYSE, we saw unusual or noteworthy options trading volume and activity in Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), which opened today at $171.46.

• There were at least 2,713 contracts traded from a plethora of traders on the $175 strike call option dated for March 18th, 2022, primarily traded at the ask.

These trades were detected using the new Unusual Whales Hottest Chains & Tickers panel, seen here.

These orders come after reports revealing that $JNJ’s COVID-19 vaccine offers durable protection, study shows.

This chain had 318 open interest as of this morning’s open and the volume thus far today is a clear indication that contracts are being opened.  Based upon the aforementioned data, the majority of these trades are at the ask, implying purchased calls, or a bullish sentiment overall.

To view more information about JNJ's flow breakdown, click here to visit unusualwhales.com.

Unusual Options Activity in Blink Charging Co. (BLNK)

Finally, in the Nasdaq Capital Market (NasdaqCM), we saw unusual or noteworthy options trading volume and activity in Blink Charging Co. (BLNK), which opened today at $24.00.

• There were 5,000 contracts traded on the $30 strike call option, dated for February 18th, 2022, sold to open at the bid.
• Additionally, there were another 5,000 contracts traded on the $30 strike put option for the same date, bought to open at the ask.
• Altogether, these orders represent a bearish synthetic short, in which a trader both longs puts and shorts calls as a part of a multileg strategy.

These orders come after BNK Invest reported that:

“In trading on Wednesday, shares of Blink Charging Co (Symbol: BLNK) entered into oversold territory, hitting an RSI reading of 29.5, after changing hands as low as $26.45 per share.”

As can be seen, this strategy anticipates a downtrend in Blink going forward, only profiting as its price goes down.  The power of selling the calls in addition to purchasing the puts is collecting some credit to afford the amount of contracts traded here; however, there is unlimited risk to the upside if Blink begins to move up beyond the breakeven price.

To view more information about BLNK's flow breakdown, click here to visit unusualwhales.com.

For more information on unusual options activity, subscribe to the Unusual Blog or visit unusualwhales.com.