Bank stocks are getting a boost today on optimism over a potential COVID-19 vaccine
Below is a list of 20 stocks that have attracted the highest weekly options volume in the last 10 trading days, courtesy of Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White, with highlighted names new to the list. One name new to the list is Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC). While it's unclear why traders flocked to the stock during the past two weeks, some of these bulls are likely celebrating today's news, since Wells Fargo and the rest of the bank sector is surging on optimism over Pfizer's (PFE) latest vaccine announcement.
A closer look at this option activity reveals 363,662 calls and 262,350 puts exchanged during the last two weeks. The November 24.50 call was the most popular during this time period, with 83,657contracts across the board.
Today's trading also skews bullish, with 228,000 calls across the tape so far, double the intraday average, compared to 48,000 puts. The November 24.50 put remains the most popular, while the January, 2021 25-strike call is also seeing plenty of action today.
This preference for long calls is unusual, per the equity's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 4.94 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), which stands higher than all but 1% of readings from the past year. The equity's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) echoes this sentiment, with a reading of 0.52, which sits in the low 13th percentile of its 12-month range.
Wells Fargo stock is up 12.4% at $24.63 today, set to clear its 80-day moving average, which has acted as pressure on the charts since mid-June. The security is still down 55% for the year, however, after just bottoming out on Oct. 29. at an 11-year low of $20.76.
