Market Overview

At the close of trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average(DJI.US) fell by 0.61% to 41,603.07 points. The NASDAQ(IXIC.US) dropped 1.0%, ending at 18,737.21 points, while the S&P 500 index(SPX.US) declined 0.67% to 5,802.82 points.

Notably, the trading volume for S&P 500 put options reached 1.9417 million contracts, compared to 1.4059 million call options. This results in a put/call ratio of approximately 1.38, indicating a strong bearish sentiment among investors for the index. Among these, the SPX call option SPXW 310725 C 6500 saw a trading volume of 20,000 contracts, with a VOL/OI ratio of 53.12. This contract, with a strike price of $6,500.00, fell by 15.04%.

Top 10 Options Trading Volume:

NVIDIA Corporation(NVDA.US): Overnight, shares fell by 1.16%. The daily options trading volume reached 3.09 million contracts, an increase of 877,900 from the previous day, representing a 0.4-fold increase. Open interest stands at 22.55 million contracts. 

Reports indicate that Oracle Corporation(ORCL.US) plans to invest approximately $40 billion to purchase NVIDIA’s high-performance computing chips to support OpenAI's new data center in the U.S.

Tesla Motors, Inc.(TSLA.US): Shares dropped 0.5% overnight, with options trading volume reaching 2.79 million contracts, an increase of 658,100 contracts from the previous day, a 0.31-fold increase. Open interest is at 8.93 million contracts. 

According to insiders, Tesla CEO Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team is pushing to deploy the AI chatbot Grok, developed by Musk's xAI company, for data analysis in the U.S. federal government. This move could potentially violate conflict-of-interest laws and risk exposing sensitive information of millions of U.S. citizens.

Apple Inc.(AAPL.US): Shares fell 3.02% overnight, with options trading volume reaching 1.65 million contracts, an increase of 656,800 contracts from the previous day, a 0.66-fold increase. Open interest is at 5.23 million contracts. 

U.S. President Trump announced on Friday that a 25% tariff will be imposed on mobile phone manufacturers not producing in the U.S.

Alphabet Inc. Class A(GOOGL.US): Shares fell 1.4% overnight, with options trading volume reaching 520,000 contracts, a decrease of 560,900 contracts from the previous day, a 0.52-fold decrease. Open interest stands at 3.67 million contracts. 

Google plans to introduce ads in its AI search model, further integrating commercialization with AI experiences. The AI model allows users to ask questions and receive AI-generated answers, with the option to explore related content through follow-up questions and links.

Oklo Inc. Ordinary Shares - Class A(OKLO.US): Shares surged 23.04% overnight, with options trading volume reaching 440,000 contracts, an increase of 376,000 contracts from the previous day, a 6.02-fold increase. Open interest is at 350,000 contracts. 

U.S. Energy Secretary Wright announced that Trump will sign an executive order on Friday aimed at promoting nuclear power development.

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

Options Activity Tracking:

Oklo Inc. Ordinary Shares - Class A(OKLO.US): Shares surged 23.04% overnight. The call option OKLO 230525 C 51, with a strike price of $51.0 and expiring on May 23, 2025, saw a trading volume of 17,800 contracts.

GameStop Corp. Class A(GME.US): Shares rose 7.03% overnight. The call option GME 300525 C 39, with a strike price of $39.0 and expiring on May 30, 2025, had a trading volume of 48,000 contracts, increasing by 61.29%.

NuScale Power Corp(SMR.US): Shares increased 19.43% overnight. The call option SMR 230525 C 30, with a strike price of $30.0 and expiring on May 23, 2025, saw a trading volume of 17,300 contracts, rising by 1150.0%.

President Trump plans to initiate the construction of 10 large nuclear power plants by 2030 and quadruple U.S. nuclear power capacity by 2050 through four executive orders. Over the past two decades, the U.S. has completed only two large reactors, with construction costs exceeding $30 billion, double the initial budget.

MicroStrategy Incorporated Class A(MSTR.US): Shares fell 7.5% overnight. The call option MSTR 230525 C 385, with a strike price of $385.0 and expiring on May 23, 2025, saw a trading volume of 22,000 contracts, decreasing by 99.94%.

Sunrun Inc.(RUN.US): Shares rose 2.53% overnight. The call option RUN 200625 C 8.5, with a strike price of $8.5 and expiring on June 20, 2025, had a trading volume of 7,100 contracts, increasing by 79.17%.

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.

Option IV Unusual Movements:

Oklo Inc. Ordinary Shares - Class A(OKLO.US) experienced a significant increase of 23%, with total options trading volume reaching 438,500 contracts. Among these, 23.9% were put options and 76.1% were call options. The implied volatility stands at 170%.

High IV stocks:

Data source: Barchart, as of May 23, 2025, Eastern Time.

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

Note: Implied volatility estimates 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, time value, and directional movement embody 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