Institutional flow, decoded.
Every unusual print on the public options tape, scored against real option prices, with the multi-leg structure reconstructed and the open/close lifecycle tracked daily. The pipeline is in active research — read the deep-dives below for what we’ve built and how the strategy detection works.
Read the deep dives
Three long-form essays on how this works, what the data shows, and where the limits are.
How we decode what the whales are actually doing
22 implicit Bull/Bear Call/Put Spreads reconstructed from per-leg prints, plus 6-leg whale blocks (SPY $396M, QQQ $250M / +$145M, AVGO $249M / +$167M). Why reading the tape leg-by-leg gets it wrong.
Read the articleWhales knew first: three trades that moved before the news
ARM 170C $42→$95 in four days. NFLX 100/120 bull spread opened six weeks before the breakout. INTC 40C $57M whale buy before the stock doubled. With honest caveats on when this fails.
Read the articleHow we score every unusual options trade — honestly
Five anti-patterns in typical options track records. Line-by-line scoring rules — entry mid, premium-derived contracts, four-tier exit cascade, multi-leg grouping — with every exclusion bucket disclosed.
Read the articleUOA flashbacks — picks that paid off
Per-ticker case studies of institutional whale prints we surfaced before the move. All numbers verified against settled exchange tape.
$57M call buy six weeks before the stock doubled
March 16, 2026 — 50,000 contracts of INTC 40C 6/18 paid at $11.30. Stock $47.53 → $94.95 (peak). Option $11.30 → $45.00 (+298%).
Read the article170-strike call that tripled in four days
April 20, 2026 — $12M ARM 170C 2027-03-19 long. Stock $172 → $237.68 (peak). Option $42 → $97.02 (+131% peak return).
Read the articleTwo long-call buys that tripled before NVDA cleared $215
Feb 27 + March 11, 2026 — $33M and $10M long-call entries. NVDA $182 → $216.82 (peak). 200C +233%, 205C +108%.
Read the articleInstitutions bought the bottom in February — before the WBD non-bid news
Feb 25–27, 2026 — $166M of NFLX call buying with stock at $76–82, weeks before WBD bid was confirmed off. Stock $82 → $108.94 (+33%). 100C 5/15 hit +523%.
Read the article$13M year-end call buy on the gap-up day — three sessions before earnings
Apr 24, 2026 — QCOM gapped 11% on 3x volume; institution paid $13M for 200C 12/18. Stock $134 → $156 (+16%) into tonight's earnings. Already +43% on the option.
Read the article$13M ATM call at the bottom — before AWS Q1 re-rated the stock
Mar 16, 2026 — $13M AMZN 210C 5/15 with stock at $208.96. Stock $208 → $265.91 (+27%). Option $13.55 → $55.40 (+309%).
Read the article$11M LEAPS bet at $211 — before AMD cracked $350
Feb 25, 2026 — $11M AMD 260C 11/20. Stock $211 → $352.99 (+64%). Option $27.14 → $120 (+342%).
Read the article$249M of short calls sold at the top — premium sellers cleaned up
Dec 8, 2025 — two desks sold AVGO 310C 12/19 for $249M credit. AVGO $402 → $340 (-15%). Calls expired at $30.05 (vs $92.06 entry). +$167M combined P&L.
Read the article$250M put ladder that captured the March pullback in 4 days
Mar 16, 2026 — 6-leg QQQ put ladder with $135M concentrated on 630P 3/20. QQQ $600 → $578 (-3.6%). Ladder netted +$145M.
Read the article$188M of short calls into the gold parabolic top
Feb 26, 2026 — two desks sold GLD 440C and 495C 3/20 for $188M credit. GLD $474 → $413 (-13%). Both calls expired at a penny — 100% capture.
Read the article$7M speculative call that 8x'd into the April AI rally
Mar 24, 2026 — $7.1M QQQ 655C 6/18 deep-OTM convexity bet. QQQ $584 → $664.51 (+14%). Option $2.97 → $28.10 (+846% peak — biggest % pop in our dataset).
Read the article$197M of puts sold two days before expiration — premium sellers kept $77M
Dec 17, 2025 — twin desks sold ORCL 220P + 210P 12/19 after the post-earnings drop. ORCL $178 → ~$181. Both puts expired with reduced intrinsic. Combined +$77.3M kept.
Read the article$69M of February calls bought 9 weeks before Q4 earnings
Nov 21, 2025 — $69M TSLA 440C 2/20 long. Stock $391 → $498.83 peak (+27.6%). Option $28.83 → $78.55 peak (+172%). Closed via matched print at +$13.6M realized.
Read the article$119M of January-2028 LEAPS bought the day Macquarie closed the loan
Dec 18, 2025 — $119M APLD 8C 2028-01-21 deep-ITM LEAPS. Stock $24 → $42.27 peak (+76.9%). Option $18.20 → $35.25 peak (+94%). Still open at +$75.5M unrealized.
Read the article$8.8M long-dated call bought 4 days before NVDA earnings — now +$17.7M
Mar 13, 2026 — $8.8M SOXX 350C 1/15/27. ETF $331 → $463.87 peak (+40%). Option $44.15 → $141 peak (+219%). Still open with 8+ months to expiration.
Read the article$23M of July calls stacked at two strikes — riding the HBM supercycle
Jan 20, 2026 — $13M MU 430C + $10M MU 470C, both 7/17. Stock $365 → $531.36 peak (+45.6%). 430C +165%, 470C +175%. +$26.6M unrealized combined.
Read the articleSame desk, theta then delta — a 14-day rotation from short calls to bull spread
Nov 10 + Nov 24, 2025 — $42M short call (kept 100%) → $19M net bull call spread (matched-close win). +$57.2M combined across the two trades.
Read the article$41M of January calls sold the morning of Q3 earnings — 100% capture
Nov 4, 2025 — $41M SHOP 160C 1/16 sold ATM into post-earnings vol. Stock $161 → $174.13 peak then back below strike. Call $20.61 → ~$0.03 expiry. +$40.9M kept.
Read the articleTwo bull spreads in three weeks captured a 100% stock move — $42.8M combined
Nov 18 + Dec 11, 2025 — 175/190 spread + 200/250 bull call spread funded by 140P sale. VRT $165 → $330.30 peak (+100%). Combined +$42.8M on ~$6.4M net staked.
Read the article$7.2M of April 110-strike calls bought 8 weeks before Q4 earnings — +540% peak
Dec 8, 2025 — 110/120 bull call spread, $6M net debit. MRK $99 → $125.14 peak (+26.5%). 110C $2.39 → $15.30 peak (+540%). Expired ITM at +$18.7M.
Read the articleMultiple desks loaded $33M+ of uranium-ETF calls in one morning — up 79% by expiration
Dec 17, 2025 — three desks bought URNM 35C / 40C 1/16 on the AI-nuclear thematic. ETF $53 → $84.95 peak (+59.7%). 40C +79% at expiry. +$20.7M lead-desk P&L.
Read the articleOr jump straight to the data
Two places the daily UOA pipeline shows up in the product.
Every print as it lands on the tape, with strategy class, premium tier, and open-only filter. The tab on /idea where you actually trade off this data.
Open the flow tabOne newsletter every market morning at 7am ET summarizing the prior session's notable institutional positioning. Free login required for the full content.
Read today's digestWhat “unusual option trades” actually means
Unusual options activity (or UOA) is a print on the public options tape that’s outsized vs the contract’s typical activity — usually because an institutional desk just put on a meaningful position. Our scanner flags prints that meet three thresholds: dollar-premium size, volume relative to existing open interest, and the presence of a recognizable strategic structure (single-leg directional, multi-leg vertical, strangle, condor, etc.).
Each print carries enough metadata that you can tell what the institution is trying to do. Our pipeline extracts five fields you can filter on: strategy class, position action (opening / closing / ambiguous), execution group (legs of one block trade), match type (how the close was attributed), and open-interest delta (when the post-session OI dropped, confirming a closure).
If you’re new to this: what counts as unusual options activity · what is a block trade · open interest · bull call spread.
What we publish — honestly
See tomorrow’s unusual options flow before market open
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Past performance is not indicative of future results. AInvest Options Pilot is a research and data product, not a registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, or financial planner; nothing on this page is investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Options involve substantial risk of loss and are not suitable for all investors. Trade outcomes shown reflect mid-market option marks and exclude commissions, slippage, and taxes. Read the OCC's Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options before trading.