Nvidia Stock Options Stay Hot Ahead of Earnings Event

With tech valuation concerns running rampant, it's no surprise that Nvidia Corp's (NASDAQ:NVDA) third-quarter earnings report is one of the most highly-anticipated events of the week. The AI bellwether's results are due out after the close on Wednesday, November 19, with analysts polled by Zacks Research expecting earnings of $1.24 per on revenue of $54.62 billion -- a year-over-year increase of 55.7%.

NVDA has a split history of positive and negative post-earnings reactions over the past two years, averaging a next-day swing of 6%, regardless of direction. This time around, the options pits are pricing in a 10.8% move. 

Nvidia stock is moving lower today, last seen down 1.3% at $187.63, amid news that tech billionaire Peter Thiel's hedge fund sold off its entire $94 million stake in the third quarter. This comes less than a week after reports that SoftBank sold all of its NVDA stake as well. Though the equity has pulled back from its Oct. 29 record high of $212.19, there is support at the 100-day moving average as well as the $180 level. 

Looking over at trader sentiment, NVDA made its usual appearance on Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White's list of stocks that attracted the highest options volume over the past two weeks. In the last 10 days, the stock saw 24,659,607 calls and 13,643,118 puts exchanged, putting it at the top of the list. The most popular contract over this time was the weekly 11/14 195-strike call, followed by the 190-strike call in the same series.

Widening the scope, calls have been popular over the past 50 days as well. This is per NVDA's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 2.35 over at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), which ranks higher than 83% of readings from the past year.