NVIDIA(NVDA) jumps 4% to a fresh high, as options big bets are placed on the stock rising ahead of its earnings report

Nvidia’s stock price jumped 4% yesterday, closing at $216.61 and setting a new all-time high again. In the options market, there were large orders buying Nvidia call option trades that expire before the company’s earnings announcement. In sharp contrast to the market’s enthusiastic bullish sentiment, well-known investor Michael Burry has recently made large purchases of semiconductor ETF (SOXX) put options and Nvidia put options, effectively executing a reverse short position. He believes the current rally in the semiconductor sector is driven mostly by technical factors, lacks long-term fundamental support, and carries the risk of being overvalued.

Nvidia hits a new high, with options placing big bets on the stock price rising before earnings

With respect to Nvidia’s new high, according to CNBC, one large trader spent $2.2 million to buy 2,168 Nvidia call options (, also known as call options ). The strike price is $210, and the expiration date is May 15.

In Nvidia’s options trading, the trading volume of call options (call) is more than twice that of put options (put). Call-option premiums account for more than 80% of the total transaction value. With about one month left before Nvidia’s 5/20 earnings release, the stock’s volatility is still slightly lower than the semiconductor ETF SMH.

As for this buyer, the strike price is set at $210, not far from the current market price, yet they are still willing to pay a premium to buy the options—indicating that they are betting that after Nvidia breaks to a new all-time high, there will be another round of upside. In fact, after Nvidia’s stock price set a peak last October, it entered a half-year period of consolidation, and only now has it finally set another new high.

The big short seller Burry’s put option setup: betting on a technical correction

In stark contrast to Nvidia’s near-term bullish positioning, 《The Big Short》’s protagonist Michael Burry has recently bought put options on the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), expiring in January 2027 and with a strike price of $330, as well as put options on Nvidia. Put options give the buyer the right to sell the underlying at a predetermined price in the future. When the underlying asset declines, they can profit. If we compare this with SOXX’s recent market price, Burry’s move suggests that he expects the semiconductor sector to face a deep technical correction of 30% in the future. He also points out objectively that current narratives—such as data center expansion and the chip shortage—have overly amplified near-term demand. This rally, driven mainly by technical factors, will in the future be tested by capacity coming online and end-market demand normalizing.

(The big short Burry is bearish on semiconductors, betting on a 30% drop, and instead buys beaten-down software stocks)

A combined assessment of sector rotation and the macro economy

From these two extreme options strategies, it is evident that market capital is at a point where strategies are diverging. Nvidia’s call options show that hardware demand for high-performance computing still has near-term appeal, but Burry’s move to short semiconductors and simultaneously add positions in undervalued software stocks suggests that institutional investors are making “sector-rotation” hedging allocations.

This article (NVDA) jumps 4% to set a new high, with options placing heavy bets on the stock price rising before earnings first appeared on Lian News ABMedia.