Apple puts have been incredibly popular over the last two weeks
The shares of Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) are 2.5% higher today, last seen trading at $132.90, following news that the company's iPhone exports from India doubled to a record $2.5 billion.
Ahead of this positive price action, options bears were targeting the Big Tech staple. In fact, AAPL landed Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White's list of stocks that have attracted the highest weekly options volume within the last two weeks. According to White, Apple stock took third place, after 8,606,251 puts and 6,693,152 calls were exchanged over this 10-day period. The most popular position was the weekly 1/6 125-strike put, followed by the weekly 1/6 130-strike call.
Apple stock still sports a 22.7% year-over-year deficit at $145.45. The equity's mid-August rally was cut short just above the $176 level, and the subsequent pullback was contained by a floor at the $124 mark. Today's gains have pushed AAPL above its year-to-date breakeven level.
This preference for puts has results in a 10-day put/call volume ratio of 1.31, which stands higher than 96% of annual readings, per data at At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). A longer-term look shows AAPL sports a 50-day put/call volume ratio of 1.09 that stands above 85% of readings from the past 12 months.