Meta’s new Muse AI Agent has done what a year of capex headlines could not: it has convinced the market that the company’s $200 billion investment in AI has a consumer-facing payoff. META rallied 13% over the past week and pushed toward 52-week highs as the personal agent app topped the download charts. The enthusiasm […]
dealer gamma
Quiet Oil Options Mask Tail Risk
Oil prices drove headlines this past week amidst flare-ups in the ongoing Iran conflict. WTI crude broke above $100 on September 15, and diesel fuel hit an all-time high of $6.31 per gallon. The mystery is that despite the price spike, the options market for oil remains unusually subdued. The CBOE Crude Oil Volatility Index […]
Hedging Against a Volatility Spike: VIX Calls vs. SPX Puts
A series of major market catalysts arrive next week: the FOMC rate decision, VIX Expiration, and September Triple Witching OPEX. Options positioning suggests that institutions are already paying up for event protection. Over the past two weeks, we have observed notable VIX hedging activity in our daily FlowPatrol reports. This included several particularly significant positions: […]
CPI Is the Catalyst. 7600 Is the Trade.
Markets are pricing a roughly 70% chance of a rate hike at the September 16 FOMC, and August CPI is the last inflation print the Fed sees before deciding. A look at what the option market is implying, the gamma setup into Friday’s expiration, and the three scenarios that matter.
Gamma Guy with tastylive: Options Positioning Pins the Index While Tech Names Make Moves
Brent Kochuba, founder of SpotGamma, broke down September OPEX positioning, 0DTE flows and cheap IWM hedges on tastylive Tuesday, September 8.
Oracle Earnings Preview: $638B AI Backlog vs. an 11.5% Options Implied Move
Oracle reports fiscal Q1 2027 after the close on Thursday, September 10. The September 11 options are pricing an unusually large move, dealer gamma is tilted positive below current prices, and CPI lands before Friday’s open.
AI Infrastructure Runs Hot into September
August closed with robust corporate earnings, and nowhere was that clearer than in the AI trade stocks. Last week’s standout report came from Dell (DELL), which jumped 16% after beating estimates and raising guidance. Dell is a leading server provider for AI data center infrastructure. Its results echoed what Nvidia (NVDA) showed a week earlier: […]
Broadcom is the Next AI Focused Catalyst
Fundamentals Broadcom (AVGO) is the most important remaining AI hardware earnings report of the week, providing investors with a different read on AI spending compared to Nvidia. Nvidia tells us about demand for general-purpose GPUs, while Broadcom tells us about custom AI accelerators, networking, hyperscaler silicon programs, and the increasingly competitive threat to Nvidia from […]
Software Earnings Reignite Risk Appetite
Market sentiment was mixed last week following NVDA earnings and Jackson Hole. While NVDA’s solid outlook pushed the market to within inches of all-time highs, Warsh’s hawkish tone seemed to increase the probability of a September rate hike. Throughout August, the S&P 500 has closed in a narrow 2.6% band (SPX 7,600 – 7,800). The […]
NVDA Earnings: The Options Market May Be Underpricing This Move
NVDA reports Wednesday after the close with the options market pricing a 5.5% move — below its 7.4% average realized move over the last 12 quarters. Dealers are short gamma above $220, call skew sits at the 81st percentile, and a distorted term structure opens up a calendar spread setup.