I'm LongbridgeAI, I can summarize articles.Moderna options traded 643,300 contracts, 4.82 times the 20-day average. The put/call ratio stood at 1.43, above its 20-day average of 0.84 and outside the range's 1.20 upper bound. Five trades cleared the screen; four were calls.
$Moderna(MRNA.US)$ options traded 643,300 contracts in regular U.S. trading hours on Thursday, Oct. 22, 4.82 times the 20-day average of 133,500 and above the 426,600 upper bound of that range. Total open interest was 871,600 contracts, 1.04 times its average and still inside the 20-day range.
Calls traded 264,400 contracts and puts 378,900, a put/call ratio of 1.43 against a 20-day average of 0.84 and an upper bound of 1.20. Call volume was 3.50 times its average, put volume 6.54 times, so the put side deviated further. Open interest put/call was 1.48, above the 1.34 average and the 1.44 upper bound, though by a narrower margin than volume.
The large trades
The screen requires at least 500 contracts traded on the session, $100,000 in premium and a volume-to-open-interest ratio of 2.0 or higher, within 7 to 90 days to expiration and an absolute delta of 0.15 to 0.80. Among 120 contracts across 4 expiries, with strikes roughly 8.7% to 9.9% from the close, 5 trades qualified: 4 calls worth $10.13 million in premium and 1 put worth $1.35 million. Calls took about 88% of qualifying premium.
The busiest contract in the screened universe was the Oct. 30 $200 put, at 5,440 contracts and $9.73 million in premium. Its volume-to-open-interest ratio of 0.84 fell short of the 2.0 trigger. The qualifying trades were not one-sided, but the call side carried more of the dollar weight, the opposite of the put-heavy reading in total session volume. The two measures are not counting the same thing.
Trades worth flagging
| Contract | Full-session volume | Largest print | Open interest | Vol/OI | Premium | Side |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct. 30 $200 call | 4,644 | 49 | 939 | 4.95 | $4.86M | at the ask |
| Oct. 30 $210 call | 3,289 | 649 | 159 | 20.69 | $2.88M | at the ask |
| Oct. 30 $220 call | 2,316 | 249 | 917 | 2.53 | $1.69M | at the ask |
All three expire Oct. 30, 8 days out. The $200 call traded 4.95 times its open interest, pointing to newly opened exposure rather than a rotation of existing positions; the next session's open interest will confirm. Its tape sample covers the final 1,000 prints from 2:22 p.m. to 3:59 p.m. ET, 75% of the session, and 64% of those prints went off at the ask. The largest single print was 49 contracts at $8.02, so none reached 50.
The $210 call's volume-to-open-interest ratio of 20.69 rests on an open interest base of 159 contracts. Its sample covers 396 prints from 9:32 a.m. to 3:59 p.m. ET, 11 of them at 50 contracts or more, the largest 649 at $7.69 at 2:21 p.m., at the ask. Inside that sample the split was nearly even, 48% at the ask to 52% at the bid, and 43% of the session's volume fell between 3:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.
The $220 call sample covers 597 prints from 9:30 a.m. to 3:59 p.m. ET, 7 at 50 contracts or more, the largest 249 at 3:41 p.m., at the ask. Within the sample 61% went off at the ask, and 57% of the session's volume clustered between 3:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. Those counts and side shares apply only to the sample windows and fall short of confirming institutional direction.
Open interest and volatility
In the screened universe the heaviest open interest on both sides sits at $200, with 8,929 calls and 8,058 puts. The next heaviest is $220 on the call side at 4,106 contracts and $185 on the put side at 5,533. Both sides overlap at $200, the range the options market is pricing around. Open interest is a snapshot, usually reflecting positioning as of the prior close, and crowded strikes are not support or resistance.
30-day at-the-money implied volatility (IV) was 107.1%, the average of the Nov. 20 $202.5 call and put, against a historical volatility reading of 85.6%. Options pricing therefore sits about 21 percentage points above that. Using the 85% straddle convention, straddle pricing on the Nov. 20 expiry implies a move of roughly ±20.5%, a band of $161 to $244.
How to read this, and how not to
A large call trade is not, by itself, evidence that institutions are bullish. The same fill can come from a covered-call writer, one leg of a spread, or a hedge against a long stock position. Direction needs at least three confirmations: whether the trade went off at the bid or the ask, whether open interest rises the following session, and whether the opposing strike saw size at the same time. This article reports publicly available trade data and the screen used to select it. It is not investment advice.
Source: publicly reported U.S. options trades. Coverage window: regular U.S. trading hours, Oct. 22, 2026. Universe: 4 expiries from 7 to 90 days out, strikes roughly 8.7% to 9.9% from the close, 120 contracts. Screen: full-session volume of at least 500 contracts, premium of at least $100,000, a volume-to-open-interest ratio of at least 2.0, 7 to 90 days to expiration and an absolute delta between 0.15 and 0.80.