As major tech earnings reports from Alphabet and Tesla disappointed investors last week, options traders appear to be placing their bets on Apple to deliver a market-steadying performance when the company reports results Thursday after the close.
The options activity around Apple has been notably bullish heading into the quarterly release, with traders positioning for price movements well above historical norms. According to Cboe LiveVol data, options prices currently imply nearly a 4% move for Apple following earnings — a substantially larger swing than the 1% average the stock has posted over the past year.
Apple enters its earnings report from a position of relative strength. The stock has climbed 20% since its late-June low and sits less than two dollars below an all-time high reached just over a week ago. That performance stands out in a market environment where the broader indices have struggled for two months and bond yields have pushed to new highs.
Calls Dominate Trading Activity
On Friday alone, roughly $590 million in Apple options premium changed hands, with $442 million of that total tied to call options, according to SpotGamma. The directional bias was clear in the volume data as well: traders purchased nearly 560,000 calls compared to just 332,000 puts, based on ThinkOrSwim figures.
The most significant single trade on Friday involved a new position in $2.6 million worth of 280-strike calls expiring in mid-August. With a delta near one, this position effectively functions as a stock replacement strategy, offering full exposure to Apple’s upside with defined risk.
Among contracts expiring this Friday, the 320 strike shows the heaviest concentration of open interest, with 13,000 calls and 5,000 puts outstanding. That positioning suggests confidence that recent support levels will hold even if the earnings report fails to spark an immediate rally.
Betting on New Highs
Friday’s most actively traded contract by volume was the 300-strike put expiring this week, with 7,500 contracts traded for $374,000 in total premium — relatively modest dollar amounts that may reflect protective positioning or spread strategies. More telling was the second-most popular contract: the 340-strike call, which saw 5,000 contracts trade for $2.3 million in premium.
At Friday’s closing price of $4.25 per contract, buyers of that 340 call need Apple to rally 3.4% this week and push beyond its all-time high of $335 to profit from the position. That level of conviction in a post-earnings surge is unusual given Apple’s recent track record of relatively muted reactions to quarterly results.
A Defensive Play in Turbulent Times
Nigam Arora, founder and author of The Arora Report newsletter, suggested that Apple’s appeal extends beyond its recent price momentum. According to Arora, the probability is fairly high that Apple could help stabilize the market this week, noting that investors are viewing the company as a defensive stock because it isn’t spending hundreds of billions on AI capital expenditures like several of its peers.
That characteristic may be drawing investors seeking quality exposure without the uncertainty surrounding massive AI infrastructure buildouts that have weighed on sentiment toward other mega-cap technology names. Apple stands as the only stock among the ten largest S&P 500 constituents trading near an all-time high, a distinction that has likely contributed to the concentration of bullish options positioning ahead of Thursday’s report.
Source: www.cnbc.com — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/27/apple-options-are-doing-something-unusual-into-earnings.html
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Do your own research and consult a licensed professional before making financial decisions.
