Massive call-buying activity in Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) stock going out to 2025 has caught the attention of Ritholtz Wealth Management's Josh Brown — and for good reason: someone's betting that Nvidia could approach $190 within six months.
What Happened: Thursday on CNBC's "Fast Money Halftime Report," Brown flagged unusual bullish options activity in Nvidia going out to March 2025, showing some traders are betting that the AI chipmaker will continue to make new highs over the coming quarters.
"Here you have the second largest market cap company in the world, basically trading at an all-time record high, and you see monster, monster call buying at the March strikes from like $150 all the way up to $189," Brown said.
"We're talking about thousands and thousands of contracts. This is not retail money."
The trade is particularly unusual because it's so far out of the money, or away from the strike price, and has several months of time value built into the options premiums. According to Unusual Whales, Nvidia on Thursday saw its biggest net premium surge in call options over the last two weeks.
Nvidia, $NVDA, has the highest net premium surge today on the call side, compared to the last 14 days.
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) October 10, 2024
Did you catch the move up? pic.twitter.com/4pwJTIUbLq
With Nvidia shares trading just below $135 at the time of writing, the stock would need to gain more than 40% to reach the $189 level. Nvidia shares are already up 170% since the start of the year, and the stock more than tripled in 2023.
"I think it becomes emblematic of what this stock has been able to do despite lackluster performance from the other gigantic tech mega caps," Brown said.
Brown emphasized that there's no way this trade is a hedge against another position. The only reason someone would ever put on a trade like this is to bet that the stock is going significantly higher, he said.
"It's just so tough to bet against this thing. Every time you think it's over, it's like it's just getting warmed up," Brown said.
CNBC reported that Nvidia call volumes were twice as high as put volumes on Thursday.
Price Action: Nvidia shares were up 1.31% at $134.38 at the time of publication, according to Benzinga Pro.
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Photo: Shutterstock.
