Top 10 Options Trading Volume:

NVIDIA Corporation(NVDA.US): Closed down 3.12%, with total option volume reaching 5.16 million contracts, an increase of 2.81 million from the previous day, with put options accounting for over 37%. Open interest stood at 20.98 million contracts. 

Tesla Motors, Inc.(TSLA.US): Closed down 1.41%, with total option volume at 2.27 million contracts, up 472,100 from the previous day, a 0.26 times increase over the prior day. Open interest was 6.57 million contracts. 

Tesla plans to recall some imported Model S, Model X, and domestically produced Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles manufactured between July 16, 2023, and December 14, 2024, totaling 335,700 units. In the recalled vehicles, the reverse current during power-up may damage the power components on the mainboard of the driving computer, leading to anomalies in the rearview camera functionality, potentially causing the reverse image not to display, thus affecting the driver’s rearview vision during reversing and increasing the risk of collisions, posing a safety hazard.

Apple Inc.(AAPL.US): Closed down 0.39%, with total option volume reaching 1.01 million contracts, a decrease of 179,500 from the previous day, down 0.15 times from the previous day. Open interest was 4.63 million contracts. 

As of the close on Friday (January 25), Apple has fallen over 11% since the start of the year, performing the worst among the seven tech giants. Its performance is also significantly lagging behind the 4% gain of the S&P 500 index.

Meta Platforms(META.US): Closed up 1.73%, with total option volume reaching 910,000 contracts, up 596,800 from the previous day, more than doubling the previous 30-day average. Open interest was 1.67 million contracts. 

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated on the social platform Threads on January 24 that about 1GW of online computing will be realized in 2025, and by the end of the year Meta will have over 1.3 million GPUs. Meta plans to invest between $60 and $65 billion in capital expenditures this year and significantly expand its artificial intelligence team. Zuckerberg also stated, “We have the capital to continue investing in the coming years.”

MicroStrategy Incorporated Class A(MSTR.US): Closed down 5.21%, with total option volume reaching 810,000 contracts, an increase of 107,900 from the previous day, a 0.15 times volume increase from the previous day. Open interest was 2.29 million contracts. 

PUT/CALL: Counts the percentage of open put and call option holdings for the listed stocks during the trading day.

Options Activity Tracking:

Meta Platforms(META.US): Closed up 1.73%, with significant moves in multiple option contracts:

• META_250124_P_645.0, the put option with a strike price of $645.0 expiring on January 24, 2025, had a volume of 32,200 contracts and fell 99.92%.
• META_270115_C_1250.0, the call option with a strike price of $1250.0 expiring on January 15, 2027, had a volume of 46,400 contracts and rose 11.89%.
• META_250124_P_640.0, the put option with a strike price of $640.0 expiring on January 24, 2025, had a volume of 41,000 contracts and fell 99.84%.
• META_250124_P_650.0, the put option with a strike price of $650.0 expiring on January 24, 2025, had a volume of 13,800 contracts and fell 82.53%.

TJX Companies, Inc.(TJX.US): Closed up 0.11%, with the call option TJX_250131_C_125.0, having a strike price of $125.0 and expiring on January 31, 2025, trading 15,900 contracts and rising 11.11%.

vol/oi: The ratio of options volume to the number of open positions in the contract, with higher vol/oi indicating that the market is creating an abnormal number of new positions.

Options IV Unusual Movements:

NANO Nuclear Energy(NNE.US) closed up over 4%. The total option volume for the day reached 66,900 contracts, with call options representing 85% of the total volume. Implied volatility was at 170%.

Read More: A quick look at the pros and cons of index options!

Note: Implied volatility is an estimate of the expected fluctuation of a stock's price and is derived from the price of its options. High and low levels of implied volatility signify market sentiment and option supply and demand dynamics. Feeding into an option's premium, implied volatility, alongside time value and directional movement, embodies the core aspects influencing option pricing. Traders navigate their strategies within this three-dimensional framework.

Volume reflects the aggregate volume of options contracts executed in a single day.

IV Rank gauges the standing of the current implied volatility within the highest and lowest values observed over the past year, serving as a relative measure.

IV Percentile denotes the proportion of days during the past year when the implied volatility was lower than the present rate, providing a statistical norm.

IV Yearly High marks the apex of an option's implied volatility recorded within the preceding year, signaling its peak uncertainty or risk