The electric vehicle name saw a 50% year-over-year increase in deliveries in December
Nio Inc (NYSE:NIO) is up 4.3% at $33.01 this afternoon after the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) company announced 10,489 vehicle deliveries in December, as well as 50% growth from December 2020. The announcement has attracted the attention of options traders, which were already targeting the equity with some exuberance.
In fact, the NIO just popped up on Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White's list of names that have attracted the highest weekly options volume over the last two weeks, where 2,733,470 weekly calls and 1,062,264 weekly puts have crossed the tape. The most popular contract during that two-week period was the weekly 12/31 33-strike call with 30-strike call in the same weekly series in close second.
Options traders have been picking up calls at a quicker-than-usual clip, too. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), NIO sports a 50-day call/put volume ratio of 3.00, which stands higher than 82% of readings from the past year.
This bullishness is pervasive in today's trading. So far, 239,000 calls have exchanged hands, which is double the intraday average, compared to 46,000 puts. The most popular contract is the weekly 1/7 35-strike call, followed by the 33-strike call in the same weekly contract, with positions being bought to open at both. This suggests these traders are expecting more upside for the security by the week's end when these positions expire.
NIO has staged an aggressive bounce off its Dec. 19 low of $27.52, and just broke through pressure at the $32 level following a 16.2% pop last week. The security is still facing potential pressure at its 30-day moving average, however, and it just logged a 35% drop for 2021.
