MARA has seen an unusual amount of options activity over the last two weeks
While Bitcoin's (BTC) latest rally saw the cryptocurrency surge to 19-month highs, its now retreating back to the $42,000 level. Amid this pullback, Marathon Digital Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:MARA) was last seen down 11.7% to trade at $14.82. This comes after the crypto-adjacent stock turned in its eight-straight weekly win, with the week ending Dec. 8 being its best weekly performance since June. With a little more than half of December left, MARA is up 333% year to date.
Amid BTC's pop, options traders took an interest in MARA. The stock found a spot on Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White's list of stocks that have attracted the highest weekly options volume within the past two weeks. According to White's data, 2,078,881 calls and 853,957 puts were exchanged over this two-week period, with the most popular contract during this time period being the weekly 12/8 16-strike call.
Those looking to join these buyers can do so at a steal right now. Marathon Digital stock's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 108% sits higher than just 12% of readings from the past 12 months, suggesting options players are pricing in low volatility expectations for the stock at the moment. What's more, MARA tends to outperform volatility expectations, per its Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) tally of 77 out of 100.