Last Friday, AI computing power stocks rallied across the board, with $NVIDIA(NVDA.US) up +4% to a new high, and $Meta Platforms(META.US) up +10% over two days. However, the pre-market sentiment shifted abruptly today, with $SK Hynix - WI(SKHYV.US) down eight points pre-market, and $Micron Tech(MU.US) down nearly 4% pre-market. Even among these leading large-cap stocks, institutional sentiment in the options market shows a clear divergence—some are betting long-term, while others are flipping to buy Puts.

$NVIDIA(NVDA.US)
Direction: Bearish / Top hedging
Structure: Four-step ladder of near out-of-the-money Buy Puts
Strike: $200 / $202.5 / $205 / $210
Premium size: ~$8.16M (largest short cluster in the market)
Expiry: 2026-07-22 to 07-31 (DTE 12–21)
Volume: ~20,000 contracts total
Insight: Stacking near out-of-the-money Puts right after hitting a new high, with Monday's pre-market -1.6% being the first confirmation. This looks more like profitable longs buying insurance at the top + testing the waters on the short side, not a clean bearish reversal. To truly follow the short side, one must wait for a decisive break below the $200 psychological level. Otherwise, these Puts are just pullback insurance, and chasing shorts could easily backfire.

$Tesla(TSLA.US)
Direction: Bullish (mainly long-term)
Structure: Near-month Buy Call + 2027 ultra-long-term LEAPS
Strike: $427.5 (near-month) / $600 (2027-12)
Premium size: ~$11.72M (with the $600 LEAPS alone accounting for $10.67M)
Expiry: 2026-07-24 (DTE 14) / 2027-12-17 (DTE 525)
Volume: 1,136 near-month contracts / 1,905 LEAPS contracts
Insight: Don't be fooled by the total $11.72M premium; the bulk is the 2027 LEAPS—that's a portfolio allocation, not a short-term directional signal. The real short-term expression is only that $427.5 near-month Call. The finalization of the AI5 chip and Samsung's foundry deal provide a long-term story, but the only short-term level to watch is whether $427.5 holds.

$Micron Tech(MU.US)
Direction: Straddle with a bearish tilt
Structure: Approximate straddle (Buy Calls above + dense Buy Puts below)
Strike: Call $1010 / $1060; Put $895–$920 (3-day expiry)
Premium size: Net outflow on the Put side ~$5.8M, significantly outweighing the Call side
Expiry: Mostly near-month 2026-07-13 (DTE 3)
Volume: Put cluster ~12,000 contracts total
Insight: An earnings-level volatility straddle, but the number of contracts and premium on the Puts outweigh the Calls. With SK Hynix crashing 10% and MU down 5.4% pre-market on Monday, the short leg of the straddle has already been realized first. The short-term bias is on the short side unless it can reclaim $980, otherwise the aftershocks in the memory chain aren't over.

The next focus: Whether the memory chain can stop the bleeding this week after SK Hynix's Monday crash, and whether NVIDIA's stock price can hold the $200 psychological level—these two factors will determine which of the above three unusual trades gets disproven first.