AMBA is swooning in sympathy with GPRO, bringing option bears out of the woodwork
Ambarella Inc (NASDAQ:AMBA) is taking it on the chin today, as GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) -- to which it supplies chips -- extends its journey into record-low territory. At last check, AMBA was 9.2% lower at $56.13, and relegated to the short-sale restricted (SSR) list. However, while bears can't short the shares, they can bet on more near-term downside by purchasing AMBA puts.
AMBA puts are trading at 1.6 times the average intraday rate, with most of the action transpiring at the October 57 put. It looks like speculators are buying the puts to open at a volume-weighted average price (VWAP) of $2.90, meaning the traders will profit if AMBA breaches $54.10 (strike minus VWAP) by the close on Friday, Oct. 16, when front-month options expire. The stock hit an intraday low of $55.01 today.
Since yesterday, when AMBA was sitting north of $61, delta on the put has jumped from negative 0.23 to negative 0.52. In other words, the odds of the option expiring in the money are now greater than a coin flip.
This affinity for short-term puts marks a change of pace for Ambarella Inc (NASDAQ:AMBA), though. The stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.85 sits in the 24th percentile of its annual range, suggesting near-term speculators are more call-heavy than usual right now. However, considering short interest accounts for a massive 38.5% of the stock's float, it's possible that some of those calls -- particularly at out-of-the-money strikes -- were
bought as hedges.