The Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, US, on Monday, June 15, 2026.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Tech bulls may not have to wait much longer for fresh highs, if the single-biggest trade in the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF on Thursday is any indication.
The trader spent $24 million on a three-part call spread that needs the Nasdaq-100 index to make an all-time high by the end of this month, a high-conviction directional bet and the third-biggest trade among all options exchanged on Thursday.
Despite recent volatility, the Nasdaq 100 has been effectively flat since May 14. The index last made a high on June 3, with most options volume centering around the $710 level, according to data from ThinkOrSwim. At the same time, the S&P 500 has been trading in a roughly 200-point range since early May.
The main piece of the bullish position, executed about 90 minutes after the opening bell, was a $30 million purchase of 28,000 736-strike calls expiring July 31. At the same time, the person sold $6 million worth of the 730/740-strike call spread expiring the same date, lowering the cost of the trade, but pushing the breakeven up to about $750 – less than $2 above the QQQ high from early June.
Invesco QQQ Trust, YTD
“If he doesn’t have another position against this, he needs Qs to explode higher,” Scott Bauer, CEO of Chicago-based Prosper Trading Academy, said by phone. “The spread reduces his cost but pushes up the level for the breakeven. If the index just grinds he’s going to get killed.”
Open interest in the 736-strike calls was equal to the volume of the trade at the time of execution, suggesting the trader might have been buying back calls that they sold, arguably a lower-conviction trade but still one that reflects a neutral to positive view on the index.
Of the $1.6 billion in QQQ options traded Thursday, $944 million was tied to calls, according to SpotGamma data, though about as many calls were sold as bought, ThinkOrSwim data suggest. Almost exactly the same number of contracts were sold as bought for both puts and calls.
While the $24 million trade stands out for its apparent directional bias, one of the two trades bigger on the day was also bullish, in the S&P 500 ETF SPY.
In that fund, someone bought 2,000 of deep in-the-money 500-strike calls expiring July 24 for $50 million.
The second-biggest single trade of the day was in nuclear business Oklo, where someone bought $46 million worth of 200-strike calls expiring in January 2028, as well as $21 million of 90-strike calls expiring in mid-December. The stock currently trades at $50.
