FB put volume hit a record high on Tuesday
The Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) saga continues this morning, as an investor lawsuit and privacy petition surfaced amid the fury of the Cambridge Analytica fallout. FB stock is already pacing for its worst week since March 2014, gapping lower again yesterday on fears of a Federal Trade Communications (FTC) investigation and probes in the U.K.
Facebook stock is pacing for a second straight close beneath its 200-day moving average -- which hasn't happened since January 2017 -- and a third straight down day. At last check, FB stock was down 2.5% at $163.91. Already this week, shares of the social media concern have plummeted more than 9%.
In the options pits, traders have been leaning towards the bears' camp. In fact, put volume hit a record high yesterday, peaking at just under 586,000 contracts traded. Total options volume also hit a record, with more than 1.3 million contracts exchanged, per Trade-Alert.
Echoing that, data from the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) shows FB with a 10-day put/call volume ratio of 0.60, ranking in the 85th percentile of it annual range. While this indicates that FB calls bought to open still outnumber puts on an absolute basis, it suggests that bearish bets have been initiated over bullish at a faster-than-usual clip during the past two weeks.