$SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(SPY)$ Friday's nonfarm payrolls data is the big test, but Wednesday's ADP small employment report showed only 44,000 new jobs — missing expectations — which has made the market less certain about a September rate hike. It's not out of the question that SPY could retrace to 760 over the next two weeks. After that pullback, it's expected to remain in a high-level consolidation range. $SK hynix(SKHY)$ All seven storage companies have now reported earnings: Samsung, Hynix, Micron, SNDK, Kioxia, WDC, and STX. There's nothing wrong with the earnings themselves — the only problem is that prices got too expensive and got in the way of the cloud providers. How could a Korean storage comp

$SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(SPY)$ This is the most aggressive single-leg bullish bet I've ever seen: $SPY 20260821 785.0 CALL$  — a block trade buying the August 21-expiry 785 call, opening 85,000 contracts. $SPY 20260814 775.0 CALL$— a block trade buying the August 14-expiry 775 call, opening 85,000 contracts. $SPY 20260918 820.0 CALL$ — a block trade buying the September 18-expiry 820 call, opening 26,000 contracts. Notably, the 785 call is a roll — the previously mentioned $SPY 20260821

$SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(SPY)$ I think these two lines are all the headline this article needs today. No need to analyze any other stocks. SPY has rallied to 775 — just close your eyes and pick any stock, and you'd make money. SPY dropped a massive block trade on the market — the August 21-expiry 775 call $SPY 20260821 775.0 CALL$ opened 50,000 contracts (buy-side). And today, more large bullish call trades continued to open during the session: 49,700 contracts of the August 14-expiry 775 call l$SPY 20260814 775.0 CALL$ , and 20,000 contracts of the September 18-expiry 820 call

Wall Street Is Squeezing Both Sides — Every Bull and Bear That Discloses a Position Gets Crushed After taking down bullish trader Leopold last week, the market opened on Monday with a short squeeze that caught bears off guard. Following Leopold's announcement that he was liquidating his fund, well-known short seller Burry declared on July 30 that he was continuing to short Micron and NVDA — adding to his Micron short at 880 and his SOXX short at 506. Then Monday brought a massive rally, effectively putting the shorts back on the fire. Both bulls and bears got burned, but SPY came out on top again. This aligns with our analysis from last Friday — SPY's rise is a political mandate. $Microsoft(MSFT)$ Where does the funding for SPY's political mandate

"Stock God" Leopold was margin-called and forced to transfer his holdings — Citadel Securities swooped in and picked them up at a bargain price. The very next day, the market rebounded sharply with a massive surge. There's something worth reminding everyone about: Citadel Securities acquired Morgan Stanley's options market-making business in 2025 and is likely the largest options market maker in the market today. As we all know, options liquidity is provided by market makers, so Leopold's large block buy orders were essentially visible chips in the eyes of the market makers. This reminds me of the old saying — "the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind." The large block trades I've been tracking might just be fat lambs waiting to be sheared in the eyes of the market makers

The July FOMC confirmed no rate hike — that's good. The U.S. stock market really can't handle any more turbulence right now. It may seem "reasonable" that only South Korea and Japan are plummeting, but in reality, it's not reasonable at all. The 100,000-contract IGV weekly call position $IGV 20260731 88.0 CALL$ was closed before Tuesday's close. Although IGV continued to rise today, for weekly options with less than five days to expiration, the trading discipline is exactly that — open on the day, close on the same day or the next. The noteworthy point is that I initially thought this trade was betting on upside from MSFT and META earnings, and that after closing it would at least roll into a new position. But the block trad

The biggest difference between this week and last: negative sentiment toward memory chips is finally spreading widely. Last week was "buy the dip with full confidence"; but after CXMT's listing Monday, plus news of mass-produced Chinese DUV, fears of surging supply crushed an already fragile uptrend. For some names, a monthly pullback has turned into a quarterly one, and panic is fully setting in. Yet Tuesday's semiconductor crash didn't drag the broad market down—which, to me, isn't a good sign. Last week someone traded 70,000 contracts of the Aug 19 29 call$VIX 20260819 29.0 CALL$  . If the market won't correct even now, what is this VIX call betting on? Surely not a rate hike at Wednesday's FOMC?

$SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(SPY)$ A week of major pullback. SPY target remains the same as last week — looking at 710–720. Speaking of which, here's something interesting: software ETF saw a massive bullish (expiration-day) call order last Friday. This week's 88 call $IGV 20260731 88.0 CALL$ opened 100,000 contracts — that's $20 million spent on weekly options. And it actually rose on Monday. So can we chase IGV? Naturally, no. Currently, semiconductors and software are seesawing — the reason is that sentiment has temporarily shifted toward the software sector, which has richer cash flows. Notably, IGV's top holding is Microsoft. There is broad consensus that this week's earnings wil

$SK hynix(SKHY)$ In the current range-bound market, U.S.-listed SK Hynix has a key weapon that the Hong Kong-listed 7709 $CSOP SK Hynix Daily (2x) Leveraged Product(07709)$ lacks: options! The Hong Kong ticker can only trade the underlying stock for price differences, while U.S.-listed SKHY allows you to Sell Puts during high volatility, turning range-bound movement directly into cash flow. Indeed, we've seen many large Sell Put orders over the past two days. Why is now particularly suitable for Selling Puts? SK Hynix reports earnings on 7/29, and pre-earnings IV has been pushed very high, making premiums especially rich. In addition, while the memory sector may not rally much in the short term, its long

I haven't written an article in a long time, and choosing to pick up the pen today feels rather meaningful—Big Tech's valuations got collectively marked down on this day, because the nature of their business has changed, from asset-light to asset-heavy. Some may remember the HALO (heavy assets, low obsolescence) concept that Goldman Sachs championed in the first half of the year. As it turns out, HALO just means "hard to die"—it doesn't mean "won't fall." When Big Tech collectively goes HALO, the broad market falls, and when the market falls, all stocks get dragged down with it. But on Thursday, semiconductor stocks—especially memory chips—held up remarkably well, because memory is the party being paid: it absorbs the cash flow coming from the HALO names. So when other stocks get marked do

$SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(SPY)$ Following the bullish 800 calls, SPY is now seeing a new wave of aggressive long positions — large blocks of deep OTM call options:$SPY 20271217 1095.0 CALL$  $SPY 20271217 1100.0 CALL$  $SPY 20271217 1110.0 CALL$  $SPY 20271217 1120.0 CALL$ . Total premium flow: under $8 million. These December 2027 expiries (1095, 1100, 1110, 1120 strikes) each saw 10,000 contracts opened on Wednesday, direction buys. These calls have deltas below 0.1 — e

$Direxion Daily Semiconductors Bull 3x Shares(SOXL)$ The large put order $SOXL 20260612 170.0 PUT$  closed faster than expected — marking the end of this round of selling. The bears had hoped to push this down to the 10-day or even 20-day moving average. But dip buyers showed up in force, far outnumbering the panicked sellers. Expect more one-day pullbacks like this in the future — but not necessarily more follow-through. $Sony(SONY)$ Sony's base case: 25. Bull case: 30. On Monday, a 60k contract order hit the July 25 call $SONY 20260717 25.0 CALL$ . Another 9k were add

$SPY$ S&P 8,000 isn't just a random headline. It's backed by recent positioning — a number of far-dated call options at the 800 strike have seen significant volume: $SPY 20270319 800.0 CALL$ $SPY 20260930 800.0 CALL$ $SPY 20270617 800.0 CALL$  These were opened at different times: early April, mid-April, and just a couple of days ago. Looking at the expirations, no one expects this to happen overnight — Q3 at the earliest. But at this pace, I wouldn't be surprised if SPY hits 800 by June. The catalyst behind this surge is simple — and I've mentioned it before: Anthropic's revenue da

$INTC$ An absolutely absurd rally. I thought recommending sell puts yesterday was aggressive — turns out it was still too conservative. Some large call buys have appeared, like $INTC 20260821 110.0 CALL$  and $INTC 20260618 130.0 CALL$ . That said, judging by the tape, some of those may have been closed by the end of the day. Put strikes are roughly where expected — around 70. Selling puts at that level is fine, or just wait for a pullback. For holders: not every potential pullback requires exiting a position. Some may try to sell high and buy back lower — but this year, that's a great way to get left behind. $NVDA$ Same view as yesterday: range-bound

$NVDA$ For the first time in nine months, NVDA looks ready to break into a new range. We're now in the phase of testing the upper bound — expectations point to 225–235. Given NVDA's massive market cap, a 10–20% surge isn't exactly typical. That makes selling puts a more comfortable way to chase the move. The strike depends on your risk tolerance. $AMD$ AMD should hit 400 this year. Pullbacks are good entry points. Right now, the bears are targeting the 5-day moving average at 310 and the gap at 300. If this were last year's market, I'd say AMD would either rally into earnings or hold 330 in a tight range, then pull back post-print — a perfect entry opportunity. But after Intel's earnings, those old rules may not apply. That said, Friday's jump likely priced in much of the upside. So the po

$INTC$ Selling premium in this market is tricky — you never know which stock will catch a hot narrative and get flooded with retail flow. Looking at recent chip earnings, even good expectations aren't enough if the numbers fall short. Intel's earnings should be solid, with full-year guidance likely raised. But some of the run-up is already priced in. Selling puts is still the safer approach — consider the 60 strike $INTC 20260424 60.0 PUT$ . There were quite a few 50-strike puts positioned for a pullback. But given the current CPU hype, 50 will attract strong dip-buying. Most put flow seems to have abandoned the 50 target, shifting focus to the 55–60 range. Earnings could still produce a sell-off. That said, I wouldn't rec

$NVDA$ You have to admit — 200 is a tough ceiling. This week's institutional spread: sell the 202.5 call $NVDA 20260424 202.5 CALL$ , buy the 207.5 call $NVDA 20260424 207.5 CALL$ . Expecting a broader chip pullback after Intel earnings — that 182.5 put $NVDA 20260424 182.5 PUT$  is still open. That said, NVDA likely stays above 190 this week. $TSLA$ Institutional spread this week: sell the 400 call $TSLA 20260424 400.0 CALL$ , buy the 420 call $TSLA 20260