It's been quite a week for e-commerce giant
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), with the shares up 2.5% from last Thursday's close to trade at $597.32. In fact, AMZN eked out a daily close north of its 80-day moving average on Tuesday -- its first since Jan. 28. The stock is extending this positive price action today, after the company said
orders for its Amazon Home Services marketplace have soared 20% per month since it launched last year, and option traders are likely cheering.
In fact,
long calls have been the options of choice on AMZN of late, according to data from the major options exchanges. Echoing this call-skewed backdrop is the stock's gamma-weighted Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.58, which indicates that near-the-money
call open interest comfortably outweighs
put open interest among options expiring in three months or less.
On Tuesday, calls were once again in high demand, with 62,000 contracts crossing the tape -- 1.4 times the expected daily pace -- versus 45,000 puts. AMZN's
weekly options were front-and-center, with contracts expiring at either this Friday's close or next accounting for nine of AMZN's 10 most active strikes.
AMZN's weekly 4/8 620-strike call saw the most action, and it looks as if there was a mix of buy- and sell-to-open activity here. For those
purchasing new positions, the goal is for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) to rally north of the strike by next Friday's close, when the weekly series expires. Conversely, those
selling to open the calls are betting on $620 to serve as a short-term ceiling.
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