MSTY

$Strategy(MSTR.US)$ options traded 981,800 contracts on Friday, Oct. 30, with 611,600 calls against 370,200 puts for a put/call ratio of 0.61. The 20-day average is 424,600 contracts inside a range of 163,200 to 1,015,300, so the session ran at 2.31 times normal and stayed within that band.

Call volume at 2.28 times its own average also sat inside its range. Puts were the only sub-item to break out, at 370,200 contracts and 2.36 times the average, above the range ceiling of 309,600. The put/call ratio of 0.61 came in below the 0.65 average. Open interest (OI) did not follow the volume — 2,542,700 contracts in total, 0.99 times its average, and a put/call open interest ratio of 0.79. Both sit below average and inside their ranges.

The large trades

The screen required full-session volume of at least 500 contracts, premium of at least $100,000, a volume-to-open-interest ratio of 2.0 or higher, 7 to 90 days to expiration and absolute delta between 0.15 and 0.80. It covered the 5 expiries inside that window and took the strike nearest the close on each, for 120 contracts in all. Twenty trades qualified, worth $45.08 million in premium. Fifteen were calls worth $40.04 million, 5 were puts worth $5.04 million, and calls took 88.8% of the total. Only five puts cleared the screen, the largest a Nov. 6 $129 put at $1.64 million. The qualifying calls sat in Nov. 6 out-of-the-money contracts from the $131 to $138 strikes, and the call side carried the greater weight.

Trades worth flagging

The three contracts carry open interest of just 81, 220 and 59 contracts. Full-session volume on each ran into the tens of thousands, giving vol/OI ratios of 301.33, 110.50 and 231.81. Those multiples are high because the position base was close to empty rather than because existing exposure changed hands, and whether the volume stays on the books will show in the next session's open interest. Direction claims apply only to the tape sample. On the $136 call, 72% of the final 352 prints between 9:30 a.m. and 3:58 p.m. ET went off at the ask, a sample equal to 100% of the session. The $138 call was 93% at the ask across its final 312 prints between 9:32 a.m. and 3:59 p.m. ET, again 100% of the session. The $135 call was 56% at the bid across 784 prints between 9:30 a.m. and 3:59 p.m. ET, also 100% of the session. Within those samples, prints of 50 contracts or more numbered 13, 22 and 13 respectively.

The intraday footprints did not line up. The busiest half hour for the $136 call ran from 10:30 to 11:00 a.m. ET and took 41% of its volume, with the peak print of 5,000 contracts at 10:42 a.m. ET. For the $135 call the window was 3:00 to 3:30 p.m. ET, at 50% of volume, and for the $138 call 12:00 to 12:30 p.m. ET, at 74%.

Open interest and volatility

Across expiries within the universe, call open interest is heaviest at the $135 strike with 42,800 contracts, then $140 with 13,100 and $130 with 2,572. Puts are heaviest at $125 with 10,200, followed by $135 with 8,738 and $130 with 7,738. The $135 strike leads both sides and overlaps the strikes that traded most heavily, which makes it the range the options market is pricing around.

30-day at-the-money implied volatility (IV), taken as the average of the Nov. 27 $130 call and put, came in at 76.0%, against 69.0% historical volatility on the same contracts. Straddle pricing on that expiry, using the 85% straddle convention, implies a move of roughly ±14.3%, a band of $112 to $149.

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. 30, 2026. Universe: 5 expiries from 7 to 90 days out (Nov. 6 to Dec. 4), the strike nearest the close on each expiry, 120 contracts. Screen: full-session volume of at least 500 contracts, premium of at least $100,000, volume-to-open-interest ratio of 2.0 or higher, 7 to 90 days to expiration, absolute delta between 0.15 and 0.80.