{"id":64302,"date":"2025-05-23T02:00:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T07:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/?p=64302"},"modified":"2025-05-23T07:26:52","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T12:26:52","slug":"super-micro-options-downtrend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/2025\/05\/23\/super-micro-options-downtrend\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Micro Options: Do Traders See a Downtrend?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Super Micro Computer was an early leader in the AI boom, and options traders are active as it trends lower.<\/p>\n<p>This large transaction was detected yesterday in the maker of machine-learning servers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>20,000 23-May 56 calls traded for $0.01.<\/li>\n<li>20,000 23-May 49 calls traded for $0.01.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Volume was below open interest in both strikes, which suggests existing positions were <em>closed<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>At the same second, these blocks hit:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>20,000 30-May 45 calls traded for $0.98.<\/li>\n<li>20,000 30-May 49.50 calls traded for $0.36.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Volume exceeded open interest in both strikes, which indicates new positions were <em>opened<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>That combination of activity suggests the trader previously sold a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/2024\/07\/07\/options-trading-key-points-credit-spreads\/\">credit spread<\/a> expiring today. He or she apparently made money on it and rolled it forward one week into the future.<\/p>\n<h2>Selling Calls<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/2024\/05\/12\/the-basics-of-options\/\">Calls<\/a> fix the price where a security can be purchased. They can appreciate when shares rise, so they are associated with bullish trends. However, investors can also sell calls in credit spreads, looking to profit from a stock not climbing to a certain level.<\/p>\n<p>In the case of Thursday&#8217;s transaction, the trader may have sold the 23-May 49 calls in recent sessions. They also purchased the 23-May 56s to hedge against a potential rally above $49.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_64308\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-64308\" class=\"size-large wp-image-64308\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.tradestation.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/SMCI_20250522-1-1024x490.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"490\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.tradestation.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/SMCI_20250522-1-1024x490.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.tradestation.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/SMCI_20250522-1-300x143.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.tradestation.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/SMCI_20250522-1-768x367.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.tradestation.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/SMCI_20250522-1-1536x734.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.tradestation.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/SMCI_20250522-1-1080x516.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/cdn.tradestation.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/SMCI_20250522-1.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-64308\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Super Micro Computer (SMCI), daily chart. Notice the falling 200-day moving average, which highlights a potential downtrend.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p>That could make sense because the stock jumped last week after announcing new business with a Saudi tech company. SMCI stalled below $48, maintaining a pattern of successively lower highs. In other words, the trader &#8220;faded&#8221; bullish news in a stock with a potentially bearish trend.<\/p>\n<p>That strategy was apparently successful, so they closed it to lock in profits. The new position looks for prices to stay below $45. They collected $0.62 and can lose a maximum $3.88 if the shares rally to $49.50 or higher.<\/p>\n<p>SMCI ended yesterday&#8217;s session at $41.32, down 0.8 percent.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also noteworthy that the trader is using short-dated contracts. That lets him or her capture the quicker pace of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/2024\/05\/12\/memory-tricks-options-greeks-delta-gamma-theta-vega\/\">time decay<\/a> that expires in the final 1-2 weeks of an option&#8217;s life.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n<p><em>Options trading is not suitable for all investors. Your TradeStation Securities\u2019 account application to trade options will be considered and approved or disapproved based on all relevant factors, including your trading experience. See\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theocc.com\/Company-Information\/Documents-and-Archives\/Options-Disclosure-Document\">www.TradeStation.com\/DisclosureOptions<\/a>. Visit\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/Pricing\">www.TradeStation.com\/Pricing<\/a>\u00a0for full details on the costs and fees associated with options.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Margin trading involves risks, and it is important that you fully understand those risks before trading on margin. The Margin Disclosure Statement outlines many of those risks, including that you can lose more funds than you deposit in your margin account; your brokerage firm can force the sale of securities in your account; your brokerage firm can sell your securities without contacting you; and you are not entitled to an extension of time on a margin call. Review the\u00a0Margin Disclosure Statement at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/uploads.tradestation.com\/uploads\/margin-disclosure-statement.pdf\">www.TradeStation.com\/DisclosureMargin.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Super Micro Computer was an early leader in the AI boom, and options traders are active as it trends lower. This large transaction was detected yesterday in the maker of machine-learning servers: 20,000 23-May 56 calls traded for $0.01. 20,000 23-May 49 calls traded for $0.01. Volume was below open interest in both strikes, which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":64306,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,30],"tags":[1308],"class_list":["post-64302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-options","category-technology","tag-smci","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Super Micro Options: Do Traders See a Downtrend? | Market Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/2025\/05\/23\/super-micro-options-downtrend\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Super Micro Options: Do Traders See a Downtrend? | Market Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Super Micro Computer was an early leader in the AI boom, and options traders are active as it trends lower. This large transaction was detected yesterday in the maker of machine-learning servers: 20,000 23-May 56 calls traded for $0.01. 20,000 23-May 49 calls traded for $0.01. Volume was below open interest in both strikes, which [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/2025\/05\/23\/super-micro-options-downtrend\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Market Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TradeStation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-23T07:00:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-23T12:26:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.tradestation.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/datacenter-TS-BBT-1416648426.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Russell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@TradeStation\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@TradeStation\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Russell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/2025\/05\/23\/super-micro-options-downtrend\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/2025\/05\/23\/super-micro-options-downtrend\/\",\"name\":\"Super Micro Options: Do Traders See a Downtrend? | Market Insights\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/2025\/05\/23\/super-micro-options-downtrend\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/2025\/05\/23\/super-micro-options-downtrend\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.tradestation.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/datacenter-TS-BBT-1416648426.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-23T07:00:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-23T12:26:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/d2279ba57f90e3b47887f2503ce142d4\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/2025\/05\/23\/super-micro-options-downtrend\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/2025\/05\/23\/super-micro-options-downtrend\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/2025\/05\/23\/super-micro-options-downtrend\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cdn.tradestation.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/datacenter-TS-BBT-1416648426.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.tradestation.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/datacenter-TS-BBT-1416648426.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/2025\/05\/23\/super-micro-options-downtrend\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Super Micro Options: Do Traders See a Downtrend?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/\",\"name\":\"Market Insights\",\"description\":\"Fresh market commentary and actionable trade ideas.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/d2279ba57f90e3b47887f2503ce142d4\",\"name\":\"David Russell\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradestation.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/443bdca82f0006231c5179581e4310ed?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/443bdca82f0006231c5179581e4310ed?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"David Russell\"},\"description\":\"David Russell is Global Head of Market Strategy at TradeStation. 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