One of the worst stocks on Wall Street that hardly anybody talked about yesterday was Wolfspeed Inc (NYSE:WOLF), which dropped 18.2% to close at $26.16. The chipmaker reported worse-than-expected fiscal first-quarter revenue, and also issued a dismal fiscal second-quarter revenue outlook. This marked the company's first quarterly report since it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 30, but options traders weren't buying it.
WOLF made an unusual appearance on Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White's list of equities that attracted the highest options volume over the past two weeks. In the last 10 days, 7,963,705 puts and a meager 18,103 calls exchanged hands. On Oct. 24, a block of 120,000 weekly 10/25 2.50-strike puts were sold to open, followed not far behind by the 1.50-strike in the same weekly series.
The stock obviously traded above the sold strikes. After reopening on Sept. 30 at $18, the shares charged as high as $36.53 by Oct. 9, though they have drifted lower since.
Puts have been popular for some time. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), WOLF sports a 50-day put/call volume ratio of 4.97.
