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GoPro Inc (GPRO) hasn't had the best few months on the charts
During the past three months, GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) has underperformed the S&P 500 Index (SPX) by roughly 36 percentage points. That downtrend is continuing today, with the shares 5.8% lower to trade at $40.91. In GPRO's options pits, put volume is accelerated, with heavy focus on the weekly in-the-money 4/2 41.50-strike put. It appears traders are buying to open the contracts, as they look to profit on a bigger dip in the shares by the time the options expire at tomorrow's close.
Strangely, even as GPRO has continued to slide on the charts, short-term speculators have become more call-skewed. This becomes apparent when looking at the equity's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR), which currently sits at 0.78 -- near all-time lows. Looking at the chart below, it's clear traders have grown much more call-skewed than normal, at least toward options expiring in three months or less.
On the other hand, short interest on GPRO is high, with bearish traders shorting 34.3% of the equity's float. There is a chance that the recent rush for calls is due to short sellers looking to hedge their bets against any upside move in GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO).