Apple Stock Options Stay Hot After Product Launch

Shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) were last seen 2.6% higher at $323.44, following the company’s annual product launch event, where it unveiled the new iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and its first-ever foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo. In the wake of the event, BofA Global Research lowered its price target on AAPL to $370 from $380. The shares remain down 42.9% year over year.

Per Schaeffer's Quantitative Analyst Rocky White's list of stocks sporting the most active options over the past two weeks, AAPL saw more than 8.3 million calls and 3.5 million puts exchanged during this time frame. The most activity was found at the weekly 9/11 325-strike call.

Today, AAPL has seen 1.86 million calls cross the tape already -- double the intraday average call volume. The weekly 9/11 325-strike call is the most active contract, with new positions being opened there. 

Though calls are winning out on an absolute basis, puts have been more popular than usual during the last 10 weeks. AAPL's 50-day put/call volume ratio of 0.55 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) ranks in the 80th percentile of its annual range.

AAPL's Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) sits at a relatively high 82 out of 100, indicating Apple's stock has tended to exceed option traders' volatility expectations during the past year.