SK Hynix options debuted Tuesday to less fanfare than one might have expected given the year-long rally in the stock and a 20%-plus surge on Tuesday alone.
About 150,000 options traded in SK by midday Tuesday and while more calls traded than puts, the most popular directional trade by volume was selling calls.
Cboe offered five expiries: five monthly options that expire the third Friday of July, August, September, December and March 2027.
While volume was higher than the 110,000 contracts traded on the VanEck Semiconductor fund (SMH), and almost double the volume in Sandisk or Marvell, it's less than a third of the volume in the Roundhill memory ETF (DRAM).
One explanation for the lack of notable call-buying is that the surge in single-stock ETFs and leveraged funds with exposure to the South Korean chip sensation stole a big chunk of the speculative limelight in the run-up to SK Hynix's U.S. listing.
“Those ETFs – double long, double short – that's a lot of demand that maybe got taken away but I'm sure we'll see a pickup in volume when they list the weeklies,” said Scott Bauer, CEO of Prosper Trading Academy.
The two biggest trades in the session looked like a single trader who sold more than 2,200 of the 180-strike calls expiring July 17.
